Ray Peat explained (and more or less what to eat)

For people to whom the words generative energy means nothing

I wrote a long story about Ray Peat for a magazine two years ago that went through numerous revisions and did not end up published. In one way or another this experience led me to start this newsletter. Below is a completely different version of this story that uses of the reporting/research from that piece.

More energy… more life

In the air

Whenever Ray Peat comes up there is action. I wrote about Peat years ago, for GQ, in an interview with Bear Grylls about his diet… and since starting Super Health many of the questions I’ve received from folks when out and about have been about Dr. Ray Peat. Questions from, “do you know Ray Peat/what is Ray Peat” to “do you eat the carrot salad” to “do you take Progest-E?” to “I’m not so sure about the sugar.” Sounds Greek if the name doesn’t ring a bell, or if it just kind of does. Since there are… sort of no answers. Peat is an intellectual who defies definition, and a complete question mark, and, more clearly, a researcher with (meritocratically) counterintuitive conclusions about foods. These conclusions aren’t PRECISELY spelled out or hidebound. And so while the info is out there it is only really accessible by following dark nutrition social media in real time 24/7. Up to you if that’s what you want to do.

For an outsider, the Peat diet is half French (trad) but without refined grains, and not as fatty. (Someone who follows the diet would rightly disagree with this definition; more on this later.) Contextually this way of eating can be a graduation for people who did “carnivore,” tracked macros or clean eating or animal based…—it departs from these bodybuilding, protein-based diets because it is more malleable and ambient than them.

Who was Ray Peat

Fascinating guy. Sticking to his nutrition (and not his painting career, theories about art, the mind, etc.) in this newsletter

Peat (1936-2022) was an Oregon-based chemistry PhD who worked outside the academy researching the cell and building out, from first principles, theories/ideas/questions about nutrition, and… foods. He read everything tested out foods, for days or weeks, on himself (as in all-milk diets, a jar of coconut oil at a time), and publishing those findings in ways (emails, interviews, self-published articles) that were accessible and allowed for discussion… not double-blind.

The through-line in the foods is that they may/prob. do boost metabolism, regulate hormones, promote thyroid production… all claims that would each require a book. More acutely this means: eat the food, get good energy throughout the day, good superficial biomarkers (hair, skin) and keep body fat somewhat… constant or low.

What the diet is

Tricky since the diet is not narratively contained: it’s probably not a diet… no grocery list from Peat, ever, no must-eats, few hard yeses or no’s regarding foods. Instead, foods are presented contextually and in specific situations. The most important foods are sometimes just mentioned in passing in his articles, Q&As, interviews and emails and correspondences. Such a “diet” is less prone to misinterpretation*, though it is more difficult to start and adhere to, at first. That said: there are books and resources by protegés out there, offline, that spell things out concretely.

*Very simply: in our food system/market any nuanced directive (or food mention) evolves into worthless simplicity. E.g., flexible macros become pop tarts, chicken breast and protein chips; Mark Bittman’s plant directive is the basis for demonic industrial vegetable oil-induced veganism… All nutrition advice, without context, seems to get ruined or gamed. And so Peat NOT creating rules or a grocery list requires adherents to define their diet or reckon, actively, with what they are eating was quite different, quite present.

The context

To me… Peat’s work was more driven by service than money. He said once he researched affordable foods that would give ultimate nutrition to working people—milk, potatoes… so they could better their stations. I found this other quote from him the other day:

Crazy ass last line respect. Can’t find the source

That’s rare among nutritionists (or anyone). But he bought himself lots, too, with this freedom. Peat being outside the academy in the 70s and 80s allowed him to ruminate and experiment in a freer way than all but the most freewheeling tenured academics. And so he was probably the first guy to sound the alarm about vegetable oils (in the 70s?), which, until recently was a position with no money in it/was corrected, constantly, by other academics. (To be sure, I don’t have the expertise to look at whether the studies he’s quoting are competently administered—but that’s certainly not the only criteria we evaluate foods by.) He was bullish on other things that are big in nutrition now—coconut oil, fruits/sugar and honey, organ meats (in small/normal quantities), collagen and gelatin, and so on—way, way earlier than most*. All the while not making a grocery list or guru book to buy and subscribe to. It is something.

Other initially counterintuitive ideas of his include not a ton of protein, since some amino acids can suppress metabolism; carbs and sugars are good, since the body runs on glucose (oversimplified); root vegetables (esp. carrots, potatoes) are legit great; gelatin, dairy, stone fruits… also powerhouses.

Why it works

The Chad argument is Peat “works” because

• most of the foods referenced are eternal and people who eat similarly (French, Balkans) are healthy/vigorous/good hair. That simple

Other arguments:

• it is not narratively restrictive: it’s not based on a nutritionist or lifter’s theory of what everyone needs… but instead is a rough list of foods that studies have borne out as… helpful and which get modified through experimentation

• It’s “min max,” the least restrictive restricted way of eating out there*.

• It shreds the food palatability reward hypothesis theory of weight gain (tasty foods —> weight gain), as it includes many palatable foods.

• No nutrient coupling issues—i.e. too much copper supplementation leads to not enough zinc, addressed here—since it’s all just food and moderation.

• Doesn’t spike cortisol/create long periods of caloric-reductive stress. (It doesn’t yo-yo.) Effectively similar to the lifting concept of a controlled diet break.

So: restrictive on certain things (SIBO foods, veg. oils), lax for others. “Caloric balance” is kind of ignored, and the foods it excises are replaced with similar ones (muscle meat for broth, carrots for bamboo shoots). Instead of metabolism going up through increased muscle mass, cells are juiced with food that’s “good for them.”

Ultimately the diet differs from others because it is broader in its superficial results—hair, skin, normal fat loss—and has “deeper goals”—better mood, purpose, feeling normal… having energy…—which are not things… scientifically thought of as having a cause-effect from food. The first-order principle is feeling fine. The second is maybe… losing five pounds. While every other “diet” is kind of about just losing belly fat at the expense of everything else.

*“Diets” “work” on their restrictions, but can only be followed/stuck to long term if they are… reasonable. Restrictive but not too restrictive, I wrote about this concept here.

What the diet is

Ultimately it shakes out as a tweaked Euro-American way of “normal” eating from let’s say before 1980: some protein, no vegetable oils, mostly one-ingredient foods, energy-based snacks (like cheese and fruit), no carob health food store sugar-free person caloric restriction. Some folks, if they do Peat without much direction, gain weight, though, since it’s… tricky. Different. There’s not much info out there on daily specifics/diets, and there’s also the case of them having possibly been in diet stress for so long, and not being used to like, palatable/fun foods.

Dialing it in

But for the diet to lead to aesthetic success (losing weight and the French hair stuff) it structured at least a bit. For strict Peaters this comes from experimentation: a week doing this, a week on that. That also takes time. I myself have been Peated more or less for a few years… helped my hair and energy levels and nails and skin and so on go way up, body comp/muscle is normal/good as well.

Peating is definitely not the only way to get these results. Instead it’s a background way of eating that can be hyper-tailored to a person—by this person—and that regulates itself and which can get results. For all the discussion about it, and mystery, it remains a diet based around single-ingredient, nutrient-rich, palatable (and digestible) foods. Shouldn a diet lead to energy and French person hair (thick) and good skin and “more life” and less belly fat? Obviously. Food shouldn’t be impossible. There’s no fork in the road between feeling normal and like, having good nails. You just have to get your mind around it. Peat spent his whole life doing that. Below, research I found writing the spiked story, the deeper stuff I found following the diet for the past several years, specific do’s and don’t’s, an actual Peat diet (list of approved foods, it’s out there), a modified higher-protein version for active/lifting people, accounts to follow, explanations, Pods and so on.