Okinawa Longevity Diet - Sweat Potatoes High In Beta-Carotene

[Strongbad]

I've been on fat free diet for 1 month now. I used to be 160lbs before Peating, then became 195lbs after Peating for a while. Then today I'm 189lbs so I lost 6lbs within a month. Not bad.

I'm adopting hybrid Peat + Asian diet, meaning that I eat almost no fat, only 2g to 4g MAX daily. That's what traditional Asian diet is like: high carb, medium diet, very low to no fat. I really like how they turn out:

Asians age very well, stay slim even when they're old, most older Asian men keep their hair. Apply their carb-protein-fat composition with Ray Peat food and we found a winner :)

I'm going to go fat-free for at least 6 months, then start adding a little bit of saturated fat back into mix, but even then it'll be very low, like 2g-3g daily.

BTW, fat-free is not restricting calorie. I still eat until I'm full, but I'm not going to overeat. Just eat enough, like Japanese do. Not too much, not to little.

Asian Americans, though, are fatter and age faster in comparison and can't avoid baldness. Too much fat, PUFA or SFA

 

[Ulla]

post 109562
I'm adopting hybrid Peat + Asian diet, meaning that I eat almost no fat, only 2g to 4g MAX daily.

What do you eat? Only fruits and rice?

 

[Strongbad]

Lots and lots of potatoes, some orange juice, sugar and raw honey. Potatoes ballooned my belly within the first 2 weeks since it spiked my bloodsugar but eventually it deflated down to normal. I think it's because I'm disposing PUFA like crazy due to fat-free diet.

Okinawan and Yuzuriharans have long livespan, age very well and they all consume large amount of potatoes and very little fat if any:

(Thanks to Westside PUFAs for this video):
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKJ7UOi7yBw[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB_Dfs1J6Rs[/youtube]
(not a big fan of "sweet" potatoes, though. Too much beta carotene)

Starchy food is not a problem when PUFA consumption is close to none.

Very high carb + medium-low protein + very very low-no fat + ray peat food types = EPIC WIN diet for me.

 

[tobieagle]

I can't think of eating potatoes without any fat, let alone that many.
Probably a good way to get old though.
Low pufa, low iron, low tryptophan.

 

[TheHound]

post 109693 Very high carb + medium-low protein + very very low-no fat + ray peat food types = EPIC WIN diet for me.

I remember reading about your issues with hair loss. how is that working out for you now?

 

[Derek]

post 109702 I can't think of eating potatoes without any fat, let alone that many.
Probably a good way to get old though.
Low pufa, low iron, low tryptophan.

Mashed potatoes with gravy

Sweet potatoes with marshmallows

 

[Strongbad]

post 109709

post 109693 Very high carb + medium-low protein + very very low-no fat + ray peat food types = EPIC WIN diet for me.

I remember reading about your issues with hair loss. how is that working out for you now?

Not so good. Still shedding despite red light therapy. What red light therapy does is that it makes my existing hairs grow really long really fast but it doesn't regrow hairs that already fall out. I'm really hedging my bets on depleting most PUFA out of my system to rejump start my metabolism again. So far the default moderate carb, moderate fat Ray Peat diet doesn't work for me.

 

[Strongbad]

I won't worry about low fat being a bad diet. Otherwise, Okinawans and Yuzuriharans will be plagued with health problems for going very low fat by now.

About fat-soluble vitamins issue, it's already remedied by consuming Taurine (available in shrimps, greek yogurt etc.): Taurine enhances bioavailability of vitamins K, A, D, E

The problem with fruitarians is that it's difficult to get minimum caloric intake with just fruits. Not to mention they skip on protein,minerals and micronutrient from milk,yogurt,cheese,shrimps,oysters,beef liver. It's not the lack of fat that's problematic to fruitarians.

There are reasons why Asians got their traditional diet right. Even Ray Peat is going Asian (diet-wise):
One reason why Ray Peat recommends low(er) fat diet

On SFA vs PUFA, interesting study

Hence, Peat's recommendation to limit the amount of fat you consume if you want to lose weight. He is not pro-fat (saturated), he is pro-carb (especially fructose). He does say that some fat is necessary for proper absorption and you have to consume fat you better consume saturated fat to avoid the hormonal (estrogenic) effects of PUFA. Peat himself has said that he tries to limit fat consumption to no more than 10% of daily calories.

So Okinawans eat 5% or less fat daily, about 4.8 grams or less. Ray Peat is 10% or less. Not too far off, I'd say

Other great low-fat diet threads:
In Defense of Low Fat
PUFA depletion can (probably) be accomplished in 30 days! (lots of successful results and thebigpeatowski no longer needs cypro/thyroid anymore. Also great comments and insights from Waremu in regards of low fat and fruitarians etc. later in the threads)
Dietary fat intake below 15% depletes PUFA
PUFA depletion achievable in 2 weeks on fat free diet
Low-fat diet 'better' than low-carb diet for getting rid of body fat

I'm not sure about fully depleting PUFA in 2 weeks or 1 month, though. That depends on how much fat you have in you. For me, I'd go for at least 6 months.

I forgot to mention, I also take vitamin E, K2 (once every 2 days) and Taurine (daily) to reduce the damage from rapid PUFA depletion.

 

[Derek]

post 110007

post 109709

post 109693 Very high carb + medium-low protein + very very low-no fat + ray peat food types = EPIC WIN diet for me.

I remember reading about your issues with hair loss. how is that working out for you now?

Not so good. Still shedding despite red light therapy. What red light therapy does is that it makes my existing hairs grow really long really fast but it doesn't regrow hairs that already fall out. I'm really hedging my bets on depleting most PUFA out of my system to rejump start my metabolism again. So far the default moderate carb, moderate fat Ray Peat diet doesn't work for me.

Refined/simple sugars cause my hair to fall out. I can eat all the carbs I want from starch (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, oats) and my hair is thick; as soon as I add in simple sugars, it starts to fall out/shed. Don't have an explanation as to why, just an observation I've made!

If you notice from that Okinawan graph you posted; all the carbs came from rice, sweet potatoes and wheat/grains. The simple sugar content was 1%.

 

[Strongbad]

Refined/simple sugars cause my hair to fall out. I can eat all the carbs I want from starch (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, oats) and my hair is thick; as soon as I add in simple sugars, it starts to fall out/shed. Don't have an explanation as to why, just an observation I've made!

If you notice from that Okinawan graph you posted; all the carbs came from rice, sweet potatoes and wheat/grains. The simple sugar content was 1%.

Does that mean you can't consume orange juice/fruits/raw honey, too? Or does it only happen you consume sugar??

I'm willing to do almost anything to restore my hair back. At this rate, I'm going completely bald by February or March, exactly 1 year after I start Peating. Peating has been accelerating my hair thinning by 10-20 times compared to when I was still on low carb.

I'm really putting all my money on PUFA depletion (fat-free diet). Hopefully it'll help restoring my hair somehow.

 

[Derek]

post 110075

Refined/simple sugars cause my hair to fall out. I can eat all the carbs I want from starch (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, oats) and my hair is thick; as soon as I add in simple sugars, it starts to fall out/shed. Don't have an explanation as to why, just an observation I've made!

If you notice from that Okinawan graph you posted; all the carbs came from rice, sweet potatoes and wheat/grains. The simple sugar content was 1%.

Does that mean you can't consume orange juice/fruits/raw honey, too? Or does it only happen you consume sugar??

I'm willing to do almost anything to restore my hair back. At this rate, I'm going completely bald by February or March, exactly 1 year after I start Peating. Peating has been accelerating my hair thinning by 10-20 times compared to when I was still on low carb.

I'm really putting all my money on PUFA depletion (fat-free diet). Hopefully it'll help restoring my hair somehow.

I can't eat any simple sugars without my hair shedding! Honey, syrups, white/brown sugar, agave, corn syrup, fruit/fruit juice, etc... I can consume 600-800g carbs from starch and hair is fine. So it is not a matter of high/low carb. And I had originally thought it may be fructose. Since starch is almost 100% glucose and all those simple sugars contain varying amount of fructose. So I tried Karo light corn syrup, it's 100% dextrose/glucose; still my hair started shedding. Again, I don't have an explanation why I can eat 800g carbs from potatoes and wheat and hair is fine; but if I consume 100g from simple sugars, hair starts falling out!

 

[YuraCZ]

post 110075

Refined/simple sugars cause my hair to fall out. I can eat all the carbs I want from starch (wheat, rice, potatoes, corn, oats) and my hair is thick; as soon as I add in simple sugars, it starts to fall out/shed. Don't have an explanation as to why, just an observation I've made!

If you notice from that Okinawan graph you posted; all the carbs came from rice, sweet potatoes and wheat/grains. The simple sugar content was 1%.

Does that mean you can't consume orange juice/fruits/raw honey, too? Or does it only happen you consume sugar??

I'm willing to do almost anything to restore my hair back. At this rate, I'm going completely bald by February or March, exactly 1 year after I start Peating. Peating has been accelerating my hair thinning by 10-20 times compared to when I was still on low carb.

I'm really putting all my money on PUFA depletion (fat-free diet). Hopefully it'll help restoring my hair somehow.

My simple thinking. What you smell when you burn hair? What is main component of hair, nails and what is necessary for keratin and collagen production? Organic sulfur..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collagen

Your body needs raw materials for building new tissue- skin, nails, hair, strong blood vessels walls etc.. I'm right if I'm saying that you don't know much about organic sulfur and his role in human body..? I really don't know why Peat don't talk about this so important component. If you think that you have enough organic sulfur in the diet like people from Okinawa for example, then not.. I suggest to you(to everybody) learn something about MSM(organic sulfur) how important it is for our body and how we don't have enough sulfur in the diet..

 

[livrepensador]

Hey YuraCZ,
im very interested about organic sulfur, coul you explain more about?
What foods contain organic sulfur? What was your experience?


Cheers!

 

[Westside PUFAs]

In a context of little to no liver or egg yolk consumption:

"Most fruits contain some carotene, and with vitamin B12 and good thyroid function, that will be turned into vitamin A." - Ray Peat

http://okicent.org/docs/anyas_cr_diet_2 ... 4_434s.pdf

"Bioavailability of beta-carotene (betaC) from purple carrots is the same as typical orange carrots while high-betaC carrots increase betaC stores in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)."

"Liver stores of betaC or VA in the gerbils did not differ between orange and purple carrot diets when equal amounts of betaC from each of the diets were consumed (P>0.05)."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16923219

"Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of Taiwanese Purple-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) Extracts."

"Anticancer activities of these extracts were displayed through their ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines, such as MCF-7 (breast cancer), SNU-1 (gastric cancer), and WiDr (colon adenocarcinoma), in concentration- and time-dependent manner."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26509161

"Anthocyanin-containing purple-fleshed potatoes suppress colon tumorigenesis via elimination of colon cancer stem cells."

"Combined, our data suggest that PP may contribute to reduced colon CSCs number and tumor incidence in vivo via suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and elevation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26383537

"Purple sweet potato color inhibits endothelial premature senescence by blocking the NLRP3 inflammasome."

"Purple sweet potato color (PSPC), flavonoids isolated from purple sweet potato, has been well demonstrated for the pharmacological properties. In the present study, we attempt to explore whether the antisenescence was involved in PSPC-mediated protection against endothelium dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and, if involved, what are the possible mechanisms. The results showed that atherogenesis and endothelial senescence in the thoracic aorta were promoted in mice with prediabetes; meanwhile, PSPC attenuated the deterioration of vascular vessel and inhibited the endothelial senescence. Diabetes mellitus is a documented high-risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Studies show that d-galactose (d-gal) promotes endothelial cell senescence in vitro. In our study, we have determined that PSPC could suppress the d-gal-induced premature senescence and the abnormal endothelial function, discovered in the early stages of atherosclerosis induced by T2DM. We have discovered that the PSPC down-regulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and the NLRP3 inflammasome functions. Furthermore, the premature senescence induced by d-gal was inhibited after attenuation of ROS and deactivation of NLRP3 inflammasomes. However, once the NLRP3 inflammasomes are overactivated, PSPC could not restrain cell senescence. These data imply that the beneficial effects of PSPC on diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction and senescence are mediated through ROS and NLRP3 signaling pathways, suggesting a potential target for the prevention of endothelial senescence-related cardiovascular diseases."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26164602

"An analytical pipeline to compare and characterise the anthocyanin antioxidant activities of purple sweet potato cultivars."

"In this study, a combination of HPLC fingerprinting, LC–MS/MS analysis, and in vitro antioxidant experiments were employed to explore the fingerprint–efficacy relationships of anthocyanins in thirty PSP cultivars. This resulted in the prediction that seven anthocyanins represent key contributors to the antioxidant activities. This study therefore lays the groundwork to explore the use of specific bioactive components in functional foods as well as in medicinal plants. Moreover, this approach may be helpful to plant breeding to produce desired traits and develop antioxidant-rich functional foods."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26471525

 

[Derek]

My local farmers market has these purple sweet potatoes, I eat em all the time. I eat purple, orange and oriental sweet potatoes, along with white potatoes. The sweet potatoes in my opinion are far superior to fruit, more nutritious and easier to digest; at least for me. Also, I personally seem to tolerate beta carotene far better than retinol. Liver/retinol palmitate or acetate seem to make me hypothyroid; beta carotene never has that effect.

 

[Brasica]

Beta-carotene may not be optimal for some people according to this study showing decreased conversion ability:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19103647

 

[YuraCZ]

There's so many factors why Okinawans were so healthy people.. Overall very low stress(which is I think 50% of success..), good climate, low polutions, islands= high organic sulfur and other essential elements for life and of course diet low in calories, but packed with micronutriets with zero chemicals... Btw when somebody says I eat like okinawan(sweet potatoes from Walmart etc..) I must laugh so hard.. Nobody can't copy this diet..

 

[Strongbad]

Ray Peat is cautious of MSM, and there are reports that people become imsoniac after consuming MSM. I have to be cautious before considering consuming one.

A side note: I'm now 183 lbs, almost 2 months of being on fat-free diet. I was 160lbs before Peating, then became 192lbs after Peating 2 months ago.

 

[Luann]

Congrats on your weight loss :) I've done low-fat, keep protein up and it can be fun even enjoyable

 

[Amazoniac]

In a context of little to no liver or egg yolk consumption:

"Most fruits contain some carotene, and with vitamin B12 and good thyroid function, that will be turned into vitamin A." - Ray Peat

http://okicent.org/docs/anyas_cr_diet_2 ... 4_434s.pdf

"Bioavailability of beta-carotene (betaC) from purple carrots is the same as typical orange carrots while high-betaC carrots increase betaC stores in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)."

"Liver stores of betaC or VA in the gerbils did not differ between orange and purple carrot diets when equal amounts of betaC from each of the diets were consumed (P>0.05)."

Bioavailability of beta-carotene (betaC) from purple carrots is the same as typical orange carrots while high-betaC carrots increase betaC stores i... - PubMed - NCBI

"Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of Taiwanese Purple-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) Extracts."

"Anticancer activities of these extracts were displayed through their ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines, such as MCF-7 (breast cancer), SNU-1 (gastric cancer), and WiDr (colon adenocarcinoma), in concentration- and time-dependent manner."

Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Activities of Taiwanese Purple-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) Extracts. - PubMed - NCBI

"Anthocyanin-containing purple-fleshed potatoes suppress colon tumorigenesis via elimination of colon cancer stem cells."

"Combined, our data suggest that PP may contribute to reduced colon CSCs number and tumor incidence in vivo via suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling and elevation of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis."

Anthocyanin-containing purple-fleshed potatoes suppress colon tumorigenesis via elimination of colon cancer stem cells. - PubMed - NCBI

"Purple sweet potato color inhibits endothelial premature senescence by blocking the NLRP3 inflammasome."

"Purple sweet potato color (PSPC), flavonoids isolated from purple sweet potato, has been well demonstrated for the pharmacological properties. In the present study, we attempt to explore whether the antisenescence was involved in PSPC-mediated protection against endothelium dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and, if involved, what are the possible mechanisms. The results showed that atherogenesis and endothelial senescence in the thoracic aorta were promoted in mice with prediabetes; meanwhile, PSPC attenuated the deterioration of vascular vessel and inhibited the endothelial senescence. Diabetes mellitus is a documented high-risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Studies show that d-galactose (d-gal) promotes endothelial cell senescence in vitro. In our study, we have determined that PSPC could suppress the d-gal-induced premature senescence and the abnormal endothelial function, discovered in the early stages of atherosclerosis induced by T2DM. We have discovered that the PSPC down-regulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and the NLRP3 inflammasome functions. Furthermore, the premature senescence induced by d-gal was inhibited after attenuation of ROS and deactivation of NLRP3 inflammasomes. However, once the NLRP3 inflammasomes are overactivated, PSPC could not restrain cell senescence. These data imply that the beneficial effects of PSPC on diabetes-induced endothelial dysfunction and senescence are mediated through ROS and NLRP3 signaling pathways, suggesting a potential target for the prevention of endothelial senescence-related cardiovascular diseases."

Purple sweet potato color inhibits endothelial premature senescence by blocking the NLRP3 inflammasome. - PubMed - NCBI

"An analytical pipeline to compare and characterise the anthocyanin antioxidant activities of purple sweet potato cultivars."

"In this study, a combination of HPLC fingerprinting, LC–MS/MS analysis, and in vitro antioxidant experiments were employed to explore the fingerprint–efficacy relationships of anthocyanins in thirty PSP cultivars. This resulted in the prediction that seven anthocyanins represent key contributors to the antioxidant activities. This study therefore lays the groundwork to explore the use of specific bioactive components in functional foods as well as in medicinal plants. Moreover, this approach may be helpful to plant breeding to produce desired traits and develop antioxidant-rich functional foods."

An analytical pipeline to compare and characterise the anthocyanin antioxidant activities of purple sweet potato cultivars. - PubMed - NCBI

The Okinawan Diet: Health Implications of a Low-Calorie, Nutrient-Dense, Antioxidant-Rich Dietary Pattern Low in Glycemic Load