Ok, I have been doing this Ray Peat diet for 10 months now, and I think it's time to take stock. This will be a long post. I hope others that have been doing the diet for over six months will do the same. It would be interesting to compare notes. I think it's important to do such a self-assessment. I have done different diets over the years, and it's so easy to engage in self-deception. People get on these groups and hear other people talking about how "great" they are doing and feel pressured to join in the "everything's great" chorus. Of course, maybe such people were doing "great" on the diet, but just as many people were not doing "great" but were saying so either to "fit in" or because they were indulging in "mind fuck" in an attempt to talk themselves into feeling great. I plead guilty to having done this in the past. For example, in the initial stages of Paleo, I might have told you that I was doing "great". What I really meant was that I got my body weight down to 10 percent (Paleo is good for that) and that I enjoyed posting to Paleohacks
Of course, I did not (at first anyway) mention that Paleo had made me tired, irritable, constipated and diminished my libido.
My report will be mostly "subjective" accompanied by some so-called "objective" lab results. If your lab results are good but you feel like shit, well, something still is not right. If I had to give the Ray Peat diet a school grade, I would give it a "B-" (Paleo, by the way, would get a "F", WAPF would get a "C").
Now to be fair, I will admit that I have not been 100 percent peatarian, 100 percent of the time, but I have been close enough. I have cut out most PUFAs, but being in a family, I still do use olive oil (a MUFA) for cooking some times. Otherwise it's butter and coconut oil. Never canola oil or something like that, unless on the rare occasions that I go to restaurants. I drink between a quart and half gallon of milk a day, and usually a quart of OJ. I eat meat once a day. About once a week, I will have chicken or duck. Once a week, I have some liver (as pate'). I eat oysters or clams about 5 times a week. My evening meal usually has some kind of vegetable, usually greens, zucchinis or bell pepper. I will sometimes have potato or white rice. About once a week, I will eat a little wheat in the form of Chinese dumplings (jiaozi).
My lab results that I did in March look great, by the way. Despite all the talk, I was actually a little worried about what my Fasting glucose levels might be. It came back an 86 (66-99 scale). On Paleo or the WAPF diet I could never get it below 99 or 100. That's interesting, and jives with Peat, that a high sugar diet would actually have this effect.
My ferritin level was 129 (30-400). Not perfect, but previous to Peat, it had been above 200. Interestingly, I hadn't done anything to bring it down besides reducing red meat consumption and drinking coffee. I didn't donate blood drawn during this period, as is recommended for men.
My testosterone level was 792 which is quite good for a man of my age (52). Moving on, my prolactin was 8.4 (4.0-15.2). My TSH was 1.2. Although not perfect (Peat says should be below 1) it was certainly better than what it had been all times previously (above 3).
I won't bore you for now with the other test results, although they were all very good.
What area of my life has improved from eating this way? My weightlifting numbers!!!!! I do Olympic Style weightlifting, and I can unequivocally announce that I have dramatically improved the weight I can push. I can only attribute this to the diet, since there have been no other changes in technique or training. I suspect that this has to do with the dramatic increase in carbs. Paradoxically I improved in an area of activity that Peat would probably disapprove of (exercise)!
Despite that I have not seen much in the way of manifest improvements, to be honest. My sleep has always been my achilles heel, and it's probably the main reason I have pursued these various crazy-ass diets over the years. My intellectual life has always been of paramount importance to me, and the sleep problem severely interferes with it. When I was younger, I had hoped to return to university to get my PhD, but the fogginess due to the insomnia discouraged me from pursuing such a rigorous course of study. That makes me sad. As a result, I must admit that any diet (or therapeutic model) will be ultimately judged by whether it improves my sleep or not. Paleo definitely hurt my sleep. The Peat diet seems to have no effect on it at all, good or bad (although the addition of bromocriptine definitely hurt my sleep while I was experimenting with it). Peat indicated in one of his interviews that reducing parathyroid hormone should improve sleep. Calcium, according to him, should reduce the PTH. I was especially hopeful when I added back in a lot of calcium, as I had for many years not eaten very much dairy. Well, my test results showed a much improved PTH level 35 (15-65). That's not perfect, but it's good enough that my sleep should have improved. It did not.
For that reason, I am relatively disappointed in the diet. I don't intend to throw the baby out with the bathwater though. I am considering being less restrictive. I am convinced that low PUFA is good. I am convinced that moderately high-carb is good. I am not convinced that the restricted range of fruits is good. Increased dairy is good, too, though I have become a little over-weight (by about 10 pounds), even though I am drinking 1 or 2 percent milk. I am also not convinced that restricting vegetables is necessary. I am not sure about most of the supplements (niacinamide, aspirin, Vitamin E, pregnenolone). They may be effective, but it's not abundantly evident. As should be clear from previous posts, I have had bad experiences with the T3 and bromocriptine. I realize that the bad reactions I had with such is particular to me. I am not making a generalized statement about them, except to warn people to be vigilant.
Anyway, I would like to hear what others think and, more importantly, I would like to read how you assess your results so far.