Edward said:When people start asking about PUFA I usually get the impression that people are getting bored with drinking milk and orange juice. Who would want to eat that way for the rest of their life? You have teeth. Use them. But let me remind those of you who feel that way that nowhere does Dr. Peat recommend drinking milk and orange juice for the rest of your life. They are simple tools to emphasize at certain periods and in normal periods a welcome addition to a rational diet.
“Well the only foods I would suggest eliminating would be the grains and beans, and most of the nuts, and probably reducing most meats. Gelatin happens to be the part of the meat that doesn’t have so many of the disturbing acidic pro-inflammatory effects.” ~Ray Peat, March 16, 2012. Radio interview on Ask Your Herb Doctor.
There is exponential variety within Dr. Peat’s paradigm.
The PUFA/ROS/mitochondria/thyroid discussion at the center of your post is great
and I read it with interest--thanks!
At the end you make some rather peripheral comments on a Peat diet I wanted to comment on.
You quote again Peat's radio comment about foods.
It seems to me that to return repeatly to that one quote of Peat's
may reveal a bias when considered against the totality of what Peat says about an ideal diet.
You seem to prefer to focus upon the loosest expression he makes.
Well...you could have (and I'm surprised you haven't) cited Peat's even looser quote:
"“My recommendation is to eat to increase the metabolic rate (usually temperature and heart rate), rather than any particular foods.”
Let's stick with that quote for a moment.
I have sometimes felt it is a little evasive,
when one considers that the first question out most people's mouths upon hearing it would be:
"Well...how do I increase metabolism?"
And then, in answering,
I think it would be hard for Dr. Peat to avoid his usual, general dietary recommendations
(and--yes, yes--his other recommendations about red light and exercise, etc.)
But back to what seems to be your go-to quote about a Peat diet:
“Well the only foods I would suggest eliminating would be the grains and beans, and most of the nuts, and probably reducing most meats. Gelatin happens to be the part of the meat that doesn’t have so many of the disturbing acidic pro-inflammatory effects.”
Why prefer that very scant, loose one
to some of his other dietary generalizations like these, say
(just to pick a couple close at hand)?:
"Besides fasting, or chronic protein deficiency, the common causes of hypothyroidism are excessive stress or "aerobic" (i .e., anaerobic) exercise, and diets containing beans, lentils, nuts. unsaturated fats (including carotene), and undercooked broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or mustard greens. Many health conscious people become hypothyroid with a synergistic program of undercooked vegetables, legumes instead of animal proteins, oils instead of butter, carotene instead of vitamin A, and breathless exercise instead of a stimulating life."
"The starch-based diet, emphasizing grains, beans, nuts, and vegetables, has been promoted with a variety of justifications. When people are urged to reduce their fat and sugar consumption, they are told to eat more starch. Starch stimulates the appetite, promotes fat synthesis by stimulating insulin secretion, and sometimes increases the growth of bacteria that produce toxins..... Various studies have demonstrated that starch (composed of pure glucose) raises blood glucose more quickly than sucrose (half fructose, half glucose) does.”-Ray Peat, "Diabetes, Scleroderma, Oils and Hormones"
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/diabetes.shtml
In fact, why try to sum up Peat's general dietary recommendations
in any one quotation?
We don't have to--we have a lot of general statements from Peat about diet
to add to the one you frequently cite.
Wouldn't it be more accurate to look at all of his general recommendations
and distill the general commonalities
than to pick the loosest of his statements
and attach to it some special importance?
Having preferred that very loose dietary comment from Peat,
you then proceed to make these generalizations about what a Peat diet would look like:
Edward said:When people start asking about PUFA I usually get the impression that people are getting bored with drinking milk and orange juice. Who would want to eat that way for the rest of their life? You have teeth. Use them. But let me remind those of you who feel that way that nowhere does Dr. Peat recommend drinking milk and orange juice for the rest of your life. They are simple tools to emphasize at certain periods and in normal periods a welcome addition to a rational diet
...
There is exponential variety within Dr. Peat’s paradigm.
If one's methodology is
to find the very least restrictrive of Peat's statements about diet,
assign it a special importance,
and generalize about a Peat diet based upon that,
well...yes, I guess you could say
"There is exponential variety within Dr. Peat’s paradigm."
But, if one surveys all of Peat's general statements about diet--
a very healthy diet or an optimal diet--
I think it might be a bit misleading to say
that there is "exponential variety" in such a diet.
(I guess we would have to pin down what exactly you mean by "exponential,"
but most will take that to mean something like "infinite.")
On your point about the drinking of orange juice and milk:
Yes, of course one could substitute the eating
of oranges and cheese.
I just don't think of such shifts as representing an exponential variety.
And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.--Friedrich Nietzsche