Peating For Kids

4peatssake

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Hi all,

Does anyone here have their kids eating - dare I say it - a Peat diet?

My 14-year-old is Peat eating with me and I want to make sure she is not missing anything important for her.

It is one thing to experiment with one's own body but I don't want to run any risks with her - not that her diet was great previously. She had been eating typical teenage fare - pizza, burgers and fries etc. and has cut all that out. Since cutting out a lot of crap she had gone down to a size 7 from busting out of size 9. She looks and feels so much better and is much more active again. The improvement for her has been swift - much quicker than mom!

Right now, she eats milk, OJ, chocolate (syrup made from cocoa and sugar), eggs, potatoes, steak, scallops (one a week or so) ice cream (haagen daz), apple sauce, grapes on occasion, white rice on occasion, coffee once in a while and tortilla chips with cheese on occasion. We don't eat much cheese because I've not been able to locate a good source. She also gets coconut oil, salt and butter. No supplements.

Also, I stopped giving her gelatin when I read a quote from Peat about not giving it to children, however, I'm going to start making home made gummy bears because I'm thinking it would be good for her to have this in her diet - especially when eating muscle meat. We both love a rare steak. I've not yet begun making bone broth but will get there eventually.

Also, she won't go for the raw carrot or carrot salad, as much as I've pushed that one. I need to pick my battles. ;)

Your feedback is most welcomed, and especially from those who also have children/family members eating a Peat inspired way.

Thanks in advance.
 

charlie

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4peatssake said:
Hi all,

Does anyone here have their kids eating - dare I say it - a Peat diet?

My 14-year-old is Peat eating with me and I want to make sure she is not missing anything important for her.

It is one thing to experiment with one's own body but I don't want to run any risks with her - not that her diet was great previously. She had been eating typical teenage fare - pizza, burgers and fries etc. and has cut all that out. Since cutting out a lot of crap she had gone down to a size 7 from busting out of size 9. She looks and feels so much better and is much more active again. The improvement for her has been swift - much quicker than mom!

Well there is your answer if you are doing the right thing or not. :D


Right now, she eats milk, OJ, chocolate (syrup made from cocoa and sugar), eggs, potatoes, steak, scallops (one a week or so) ice cream (haagen daz), apple sauce, grapes on occasion, white rice on occasion, coffee once in a while and tortilla chips with cheese on occasion. We don't eat much cheese because I've not been able to locate a good source. She also gets coconut oil, salt and butter. No supplements.

You could make your own cheese, its pretty simple to do.

Also, I stopped giving her gelatin when I read a quote from Peat about not giving it to children, however, I'm going to start making home made gummy bears because I'm thinking it would be good for her to have this in her diet - especially when eating muscle meat. We both love a rare steak. I've not yet begun making bone broth but will get there eventually.

Ray Peat said that you do not want the bulk of their protein to be gelatin because kids do need tryptophan as they are still growing. You are probably covering that well enough with the milk and steak she eats. However, if it were my kid I would make sure she gets some gelatin with any muscle meat. And gummy bears for snacks are awesome! :mrgreen:

Also, she won't go for the raw carrot or carrot salad, as much as I've pushed that one. I need to pick my battles. ;)

I honestly wouldn't stress this since you already made so many wonderful changes. As you can see, she is going to rebound much faster then most of use because she is still young.
 

charlie

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Oh and don't forget about light!
 

Jenn

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My nutritionist said at 14, they can be fed as an adult. I needed 4 to 5 TBS per day of gelatin for healing, my son just needed 1. We started when my son was 11 and already hitting puberty, hard (voice changing, facial hair, defiant attitude....the works.) At 14, if there are no other issues, you can have her on a "maintenance" diet. Have gelatin with meat, for example, but she won't need "extra". Young children may still need gelatin for repair of inherited damage, but not as the bulk of their protein.

Children will recover much faster than us adults, I have to keep myself from being jealous. We still do burgers from time to time, we just make them ourselves and eat with some homemade jello or a cup of coffee and make our own fries. Don't forget the pickle to aid digestion! Pizza has coconut oil added to it.
 

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Ingenol

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Jenn said:
A lot of the benefits of liver are lost with age (hormones, glycogen etc), so unless it's FRESH, it's really just another muscle meat.

Did I just mark myself as a heretic?
What? The reason you eat liver is because it's an incredible source of micronutrients, particularly vitamin A.

It's absolutely not "just another muscle meat."
 

Jenn

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But it is also high in iron, especially from commercial herds fed commercial minerals. Depending on the individual, the benefits of the vitamin A may not outweigh the toxicity of the iron, even with coffee.
 
R

ratcheer

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My daughter (13) has been not-quite Peat Eating this year and a half or so. She is a VERY picky eater, so liver, oysters etc are all 'out'. But she'll eat the occasional carrot after school. I make up a drink with mostly cocoa, sugar, milk and gelatin along w/ some vitamins/minerals in small amounts. In the AM she'll have a scrambled egg that is like 75% yolk. Lots and lots of hot dogs (Applegate). Ice cream and/or fruit after dinner. Often has those yogurts with fruit on the bottom in her lunch, etc. Too many times she'll just eat the banana and leave everything else :-(

I'll consider the excess gelatin thing - it's hard to get protein into her and gelatin is one easy way, but it's a good point. Thanks for raising it.

The interesting things are, her hair is growing VERY FAST. Nails too. This is very different from before where it took 12 years to grow her hair to the middle of her back with only the rare trim (it actually started to fall out when she was two). She cut it to shoulder length last Summer, and in this single past year it's almost ALL grown back. And her violin teacher gets mad at her because her nails are always long - haha!

But the best thing is that she's actually growing taller, faster. Her doctor noticed this and showed me the growth chart - she was on the standard track for years, slowing down around now - but then 'suddenly' there's a big uptick and he thinks she might reach 6'. I didn't mention "Peat" but I'm sure that's why. She's also skinny as a rail - even though I try to crowbar good fats into her as much as possible - lots of butter in pasta/rice, or half-and-half in her drinks. It's all going into height!

What I appreciate about these changes, is that I bet her body was *trying* to grow like this before, but held back by lack of real nutrition. By upping all her macronutrients in both quantity and quality it's as if the brakes are off and she can go faster now.
 

charlie

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Ratcheer, thats really awesome. Thanks for sharing!
 
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j.

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4peatssake said:
Also, she won't go for the raw carrot or carrot salad, as much as I've pushed that one. I need to pick my battles. ;)

Maybe it's even an unnecessary battle to pick. I don't know, but maybe kids' livers can inactivate estrogen more efficiently than older people, which would make the carrot a lot less beneficial.
 
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4peatssake

4peatssake

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Charlie said:
4peatssake said:
Hi all,

Does anyone here have their kids eating - dare I say it - a Peat diet?

My 14-year-old is Peat eating with me and I want to make sure she is not missing anything important for her.

It is one thing to experiment with one's own body but I don't want to run any risks with her - not that her diet was great previously. She had been eating typical teenage fare - pizza, burgers and fries etc. and has cut all that out. Since cutting out a lot of crap she had gone down to a size 7 from busting out of size 9. She looks and feels so much better and is much more active again. The improvement for her has been swift - much quicker than mom!

Well there is your answer if you are doing the right thing or not. :D


Right now, she eats milk, OJ, chocolate (syrup made from cocoa and sugar), eggs, potatoes, steak, scallops (one a week or so) ice cream (haagen daz), apple sauce, grapes on occasion, white rice on occasion, coffee once in a while and tortilla chips with cheese on occasion. We don't eat much cheese because I've not been able to locate a good source. She also gets coconut oil, salt and butter. No supplements.

You could make your own cheese, its pretty simple to do.

Also, I stopped giving her gelatin when I read a quote from Peat about not giving it to children, however, I'm going to start making home made gummy bears because I'm thinking it would be good for her to have this in her diet - especially when eating muscle meat. We both love a rare steak. I've not yet begun making bone broth but will get there eventually.

Ray Peat said that you do not want the bulk of their protein to be gelatin because kids do need tryptophan as they are still growing. You are probably covering that well enough with the milk and steak she eats. However, if it were my kid I would make sure she gets some gelatin with any muscle meat. And gummy bears for snacks are awesome! :mrgreen:

Also, she won't go for the raw carrot or carrot salad, as much as I've pushed that one. I need to pick my battles. ;)

I honestly wouldn't stress this since you already made so many wonderful changes. As you can see, she is going to rebound much faster then most of use because she is still young.

Thanks Charlie, especially for pointing out her obvious improvements.

And I think if I remember correctly you have posted somewhere how to make your own cheese - ricotta, I think. I'll see if I can find that. I've added a few new things to my repertoire - I always have chocolate syrup made (cliff's recipe) and oj, milk, eggs, gelatin, coconut oil, and butter on hand. I like the ease this way of eating provides.

I won't stress over the carrot thing with her - it's more important for me at this point and she really has done incredibly well.

Funny, I remember eating a ton of jello when I was a kid - I avoided making it for my kids when they were little, thinking it was a horrid thing to feed a child. Who knew? I think the gummy bears will be a great snack too.

Here's a question - how do people normally include gelatin when having muscle meat - adding it to coffee??

Thanks!
 
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4peatssake

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Ingenol said:

She'll eat liver! Not a favorite but will do on occasion if I marinate it for a couple of hours in milk and fry in copious amounts of butter and onions. ;)
 
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4peatssake

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Jenn said:
My nutritionist said at 14, they can be fed as an adult. I needed 4 to 5 TBS per day of gelatin for healing, my son just needed 1. We started when my son was 11 and already hitting puberty, hard (voice changing, facial hair, defiant attitude....the works.) At 14, if there are no other issues, you can have her on a "maintenance" diet. Have gelatin with meat, for example, but she won't need "extra". Young children may still need gelatin for repair of inherited damage, but not as the bulk of their protein.

Children will recover much faster than us adults, I have to keep myself from being jealous. We still do burgers from time to time, we just make them ourselves and eat with some homemade jello or a cup of coffee and make our own fries. Don't forget the pickle to aid digestion! Pizza has coconut oil added to it.

Thanks Jenn, I appreciate both your experience and advice. I think I understand about the gelatin now and can add back small amounts - certainly for when eating muscle meats. Your ratio of 1 TBS for your son vs 4 to 5 TBS for you for healing sounds about where I am currently.

I'm excited for her at this point. She had been putting on weight and it's a lousy age for that. She's elated with how her body is looking now and her birthday was last week and so having some new clothes - sized small - has been a thrill for her as well.

The excess weight just fell off as she adopted this way of eating. Yes, much faster healing in children.

I make homemade burgers as well - forgot to mention that - usually with mashed potatoes rather than fries. Homemade jello sounds good for adding in gelatin. I can do that when having steak as well - or the coffee with gelatin. Good ideas, thanks.
 
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4peatssake

4peatssake

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ratcheer said:
My daughter (13) has been not-quite Peat Eating this year and a half or so. She is a VERY picky eater, so liver, oysters etc are all 'out'. But she'll eat the occasional carrot after school. I make up a drink with mostly cocoa, sugar, milk and gelatin along w/ some vitamins/minerals in small amounts. In the AM she'll have a scrambled egg that is like 75% yolk. Lots and lots of hot dogs (Applegate). Ice cream and/or fruit after dinner. Often has those yogurts with fruit on the bottom in her lunch, etc. Too many times she'll just eat the banana and leave everything else :-(

I'll consider the excess gelatin thing - it's hard to get protein into her and gelatin is one easy way, but it's a good point. Thanks for raising it.

The interesting things are, her hair is growing VERY FAST. Nails too. This is very different from before where it took 12 years to grow her hair to the middle of her back with only the rare trim (it actually started to fall out when she was two). She cut it to shoulder length last Summer, and in this single past year it's almost ALL grown back. And her violin teacher gets mad at her because her nails are always long - haha!

But the best thing is that she's actually growing taller, faster. Her doctor noticed this and showed me the growth chart - she was on the standard track for years, slowing down around now - but then 'suddenly' there's a big uptick and he thinks she might reach 6'. I didn't mention "Peat" but I'm sure that's why. She's also skinny as a rail - even though I try to crowbar good fats into her as much as possible - lots of butter in pasta/rice, or half-and-half in her drinks. It's all going into height!

What I appreciate about these changes, is that I bet her body was *trying* to grow like this before, but held back by lack of real nutrition. By upping all her macronutrients in both quantity and quality it's as if the brakes are off and she can go faster now.

This is great news and I understand about it being like the brakes are off as the body adjusts to proper nutrition.
Thank you for sharing. 6' tall - wow!

For my daughter, the excess weight she had been putting on sloughed right off. I'm amazed at how well she has been doing. Her hair and nails have always been healthy but she literally sparkles now! Her eyes are bright and her hair shinier.

I don't know that I can source a decent hog dog (I live in Canada) but since she'll eat steak, homemade burgers, eggs and lots of milk, I am probably OK protein wise. I backed off the gelatin but will add some back into her diet. I agree that it's a great way to get protein in. She eats one egg a day but usually at lunch and always with OJ.

I feel much better to have checked in with others. Thank you.
 
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4peatssake

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j. said:
4peatssake said:
Also, she won't go for the raw carrot or carrot salad, as much as I've pushed that one. I need to pick my battles. ;)

Maybe it's even an unnecessary battle to pick. I don't know, but maybe kids' livers can inactivate estrogen more efficiently than older people, which would make the carrot a lot less beneficial.

Thanks j and I agree. Not a battle worth picking.
 

jaketthomas

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This is a good thread. I have began feeding my son Peat-style meals, and his response has been fantastic. These kind of meals taste great for a kid. In fact, just yesterday I gave him grass-fed hot dogs (with no bun), with a few big pieces of cheese and a glass of grape juice. He loves it.

Also made him homemade Jello, and put organic marshmallows in it (additional gelatin, why not!?).

A 6-year old obviously won't eat a carrot salad with coconut oil, but he does eat raw baby carrots, dipped in melted cheese.
 

Rayser

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Charlie said:
Ray Peat said that you do not want the bulk of their protein to be gelatin because kids do need tryptophan as they are still growing.

Charlie, this is fascinating! I hadn't heard that and always wondered about it. Do you know if he said the same thing about pregnant women? The fetus would need tryptophan, too I imagine.

I know that he doesn't recommend avoiding iron for kids younger than 12 since they still need large amounts. Again not sure about pregnant women.
 

charlie

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Ray Peat said:
A daily intake of 100 grams of gelatin wouldn't seem unreasonable, and some people find that quantities in that range help to decrease fatigue. For a growing child, though, such a large amount of refined gelatin would tend to displace other important foods. The National Academy of Sciences recently reviewed the requirements for working adults (male and female soldiers, in particular), and suggested that 100 grams of balanced protein was needed for efficient work. For adults, a large part of that could be in the form of gelatin.

Source

Ok, maybe I am a tad bit off about the tryptophan. This is the quote I am thinking of, but I could have sworn it had to do with needing more tryptophan as a child then an adult. :confused
 

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