Book Review of "The Ray Peat Survival Guide" by Joey Lott, 2014

Curious about Ray Peat’s work, but feeling a little overwhelmed with it (and the scientific rigor needed to read it)? This book is a quick read that attempts to boil down Ray Peat’s work with an easy-to-understand, gentle approach. The author calls out strict followers and dogmatic approaches to Peat’s recommendations as cultish, and tries to distance from this. This humorous quote on page 18 sums this up: “Peat cultists advise eating only milk, orange juice, some potatoes, gelatin, eggs, cheese, coconut oil, raw carrot, and occasional liver and oysters” and supplementing with “sugar, aspirin, progesterone and pregnenolone, all washed down with coffee and a mexican coke.” But seriously, a very basic summary of the approach is summed up on page 17: “one is to avoid excess polyunsaturated fat, estrogen, starch, inflammatory amino acids, phosphorus, lactic acid, iron, endotoxin and serotonin….one is to get enough noninflammatory protein, sugar, salt, calcium, magnesium, saturated fat, vitamin A and vitamin E.” That’s a mouthful and what does that mean in practice? The author does a nice job of breaking this approach down. Here are some points the author makes that caught my eye:

• Always eat carbs with protein. Protein alone stimulates insulin secretion, which can lower blood sugar and cause a stress response (page 24)...think release of adrenaline and cortisol, resulting in more imbalances long term.

• Fiber is estrogenic, can irritate the digestive system and can increase serotonin. However, not all fiber is created equal. The author favors raw carrot, potatoes and some fruits, yet, he points out that this is where there is some contradiction in Ray Peat’s recommendations.

• Peat eats 150 grams of protein…in case you were wondering! Quality protein comes from potatoes (I know, this was a shocker for me too!) and animals. However, not all protein is created equal either! He cautions against inflammatory amino acids in animal proteins (tryptophan, cysteine, methionine). He likes gelatin (glycine) and dairy (both low in tryptophan). He likes eggs, due to the nutrient density of the yolk, but not too many due to the polyunsaturated content!

• Really all of Peat’s recommendations are about reducing stress, according to the author, even the dietary recommendations of “eating carbohydrates, adding protein, and reducing polyunsaturated fat.” After being on keto for over a year, I had to scratch my head at the idea of carbohydrates reducing stress….could lack of carbs be playing into hormonal dysregulation?...something I’ve taken to heart since being on keto.

• He also talks about other lifestyle factors, such as light and carbon dioxide balance. He is pro-sunlight!....again more controversy in an age of sunscreen, cover up and hats! He notes that “darkness and blue light are stressful for humans, while red light is de-stressing” (page 61).

• As I am learning more about various breathing techniques, I tuned into the discussion around carbon dioxide, including how this relates to a preference for sugar over starch (not something you hear much about!) and benefits of high altitudes (not surprising, given my recent foray into Buteyko, Wim Hof and other techniques).

• The author, interestingly, noted limitations in Ray Peat’s body of work, including lack of recommendations around how much to eat and the value of intuitive eating. The author emphasized the importance of letting go of restrictive eating.

• While providing a lot of support for this philosophy, the author was careful not to conclude that this is the whole story/understanding and that no one has a monopoly on truth (page 67).

Note that reviewed books have not been fact checked against scientific literature and that I do not endorse information or recommendations given in reviewed books. The book reviews serve to provide my personal takeaways and spawn potential interest in the subject matter for future research, follow-up or reading.