The Ray Peat Lifestyle

This is work in progress, as a summary of "Peating" is not an easy task. And of course I do not consider myself "an expert" in Ray Peat's work, I am just someone who has been and still is trying to get him right. If you came here for expertise, turn elsewhere now -- this is a journey of discovery and recovery or lack thereof. The only thing you can count on getting here is my unadulterated truth. If you want expertise, I wouldn't know where to point you except to the man himself (using the "Contact" form on his page).

To start you off, it might be easy to define the Peat Diet in the context of other diets out there:

A. The Peat Diet vs. Other Diets

On a carb continuum, things look like this to me:

Fruitarianism ---- SAD ----- Peat Diet -- PHD ---- Primal - Paleo Variants ---- Low Carb ---- Nutritional Ketosis -- Zero Carb

1. The Peat Diet vs. Fruitarianism

They share a love of fresh tropical fruit juices -- Peat recommends especially OJ. But he also wants lots of dairy and protein.  So the Peat Diet is an ideal combination of choice animal protein and fat and plant derived buoyant energy.

2. The Peat Diet vs. SAD

Say what? The Peat Diet is so close to the Standard American Diet? Noooo!

Well, it depends. From a carb source perspective, it is pretty close. But it differs greatly in quality, since no above ground veggies, cereals and vegetable oils are allowed, as those are considered to be the pests of modern nutrition and the elements responsible for making the SAD eating people truly sad and sick in the long run.

Otherwise, yes, it is a pretty jolly diet and sugar is not an enemy. You can have your Coke and drink it too, coffee is your good friend (and a treasured nutrient!), so is meat, so is cheese, so is ice cream, so are many things you used to consider delicious but unhealthy. However, don't kid yourselves, finding the good protein and clean food sources remains hard work, as is avoiding vegetable oils and cereals -- especially if you do it gluten-free. So, sadly, you can't restaurant hop a whole lot -- or else, it's going to cost you an arm, a leg, and especially a lot of conversations with waiters and chefs you would better trust are telling you the truth about the source and making of their dishes.

The Peat diet is a lot like what the nutritionists' of the 50's recommended to stars like Marilyn Monroe.

3. The Peat Diet vs. PHD

In a nutshell, Peating is in many, many important ways quite similar to the PHD (the "Perfect Health Diet", link on the right), but it precedes it. Raymond Peat, PhD has been around the nutritional block for a lot longer than the PhDs behind PHD and his PhD is a lot more related to nutrition than the PhD's of the PHD.

I even hacked the PHD famous apple graphic, replacing their "safe starches" with Peat's OJ and it fits perfectly, with just a few tweaks. So PHD is a compromise between a Paleo and a Peat diet, adding carbs in the less scandalous manner of glucose/safe starches. (I will not post that hacked graphic here for fear I might upset them and because it's their copyright, but really, it's pretty amazing.)

Distaste for vegetable oils, love for broth/gelatin, dairy, animal fats, etc.

Differences occur in other recommendations, having to do less with diet and more with supplementation.

4. The Peat Diet vs. Paleo Variants

The Peat diet adepts express the same distaste for vegetable oils as some Paleo gurus. There is shared love for grassfed meat -- balanced with broth or gelatin in the Peat style diet. And offal is at a high price, too.

But many Paleoistas feed themselves vegetables and nuts and believe in the need for Omega 3, which is a hoax for Peat.

5. The Peat Diet vs. Nutritional Ketosis

Nothing in common. Ketosis is bad for you, it turns down your thyroid and eats up your muscle. Don't try this at home!

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Until I do my own report of what a Peat diet is, I leave you with what are widely considered to be the best free guidelines out there:

1. "Ray Peat Eating Guidelines" by livesimply on the Active Low Carbers' Forum
2. "What Peat Eats" -- described by Lillea on The AV Skeptics Forum -- bear in mind that Dr. Peat's own metabolism has apparently been very high in his youth and then has been tuned by him to stay at a very high rate, so don't go out drinking gallons of milk and quarts of OJ just because he can! :)

TO BE CONTINUED