One of the most common questions I get asked is my opinion on various diets, so I’ve decided to do a little diet review series to help those interested readers get more information on diets they may be considering this year. Next up is the Ray Peat diet review…
Ray Peat Diet Angle:
The Ray Peat diet is deeply rooted in supporting cellular energy production. Dr. Ray Peat has written extensively on the connection between aging, nutrition, and hormones. If you have time to dive into his work, there is a lot of value there.
Dr. Peat describes his approach as follows: “My approach gives priority to environmental influences on development, regenerative processes, and an evolutionary perspective. When biophysics, biochemistry, and physiology are worked into a comprehensive view of the organism, it appears that the degenerative processes are caused by defects in our environment.”
What does the Ray Peat diet boil down to in practice? Well, a lot of things. Typically, the diet is based around the following foods:
- healthy fats: butter, coconut oil, and dairy products
- easy to digest carbohydrates: fresh fruits (emphasis on tropical), fresh fruit juices, root vegetables and tubers (emphasis on raw carrots and potatoes)
- balanced protein intake: getting a good amount of protein from dairy products, muscle meats (i.e. beef, lamb, pork, chicken, etc.), liver, along with collagen, and whole animal proteins such as eggs, shellfish, and other seafood
- avoidance of polyunsaturated fatty acids, namely vegetable oils, but fish oils too
- white sugar, used in moderation
- encouragement of light therapy
- strong emphasis on dairy products, specifically milk, ice cream and cheeses without additives
Ray Peat Diet Reality:
From my experience, many find Peat’s work while seeking a recovery of their health, but specifically seeking to regain thyroid health, hormone, metabolism and energy equilibrium. While the Ray Peat diet is centered on mostly whole foods and is very nourishing at its core, the devil of this diet is really in the details…
You see, there is no official “Ray Peat diet,” instead there is a birth of a Ray Peat diet based mainly on assumptions, i.e. the foods he talks about in his writings, and what Peat says he consumes in his own diet. This is where things go terribly wrong…
Peat is often quoted when referencing his daily diet. The descriptions often include things like drinking quarts of orange juice and milk, a pint of ice cream, along with Mexican coke, gelatin, shellfish, liver and other food variations. This is Dr. Peat sharing a summary of what works for him, and perhaps his body has adapted to tolerating well over decades and decades of research and observation.
This does not mean what works for Dr. Peat will work well for most people — quite the opposite from my own findings, especially those in “diet recovery.” This kind of a diet spells disaster for many, especially those coming from carbohydrate-restricted diets like paleo, keto or carnivore. The body doesn’t react well when you restrict something (like carbohydrates, sugar, and dairy) for a period of time, and then dive right into doing the very opposite with a Peat-style diet of any variation (read: large amounts of dairy, juice and sugar). It often spells dietary disaster in the form of severe blood sugar imbalance, digestive difficulties, extreme stress, cellular inflammation and weight gain. This is to be expected, but most Ray Peat dieters are often startled when it doesn’t go as planned.
Ray Peat Diet Positives:
The soul of this dietary paradigm has may upsides, namely:
- big on easy to digest foods like ripe fruits, root vegetables, squashes, and tubers
- advocates getting enough protein and “eating the whole animal.” That is balancing muscle meat consumption with broth, collagen, seafood and dairy to get a more balanced amino acid intake
- emphasis on nutrients, specifically potassium, vitamin C, dietary calcium, and vitamin A — this could also be a negative if one has vitamin A toxicity
- cautions about the additives in foods, particularly carrageenan
- promotes carbohydrates as a cornerstone to optimal health
- aims to educate on the health benefits of saturated fats and the downsides to omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids
- doesn’t demonize all form of sugar as death on a teaspoon, like so many diets today do, supporting a balanced attitude and approach to eating
Ray Peat Diet Negatives:
Here’s a few negatives of the Ray Peat diet to keep in mind, many of which I see in my Ray Peat diet clients:
- causes you to tune out your body, while tuning into diet rules that worked for someone else and may not work for you
- promotes dairy as a large component of the diet that doesn’t work for many, especially those coming from low carb, keto and other highly restricted diets
- encourages eating large amounts of fruit juice without mindful caution about blood sugar balance
- weight gain and digestive issues are very common for newcomers to this style of eating
- may increase the risk of vitamin A toxicity due to the emphasis on high vitamin A foods such as orange juice, carrots, dairy products and liver
- can encourage experimentation with supplements such as thyroid hormone, niacinamide, pregnenolone, vitamin D, aspirin, vitamin A (retinol), and vitamin E without guidance or supervision from a practitioner
- discourages eating fatty fish (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel) and fish oils containing omega-3 fatty acids, which can be disastrous for cell membrane health (read: inflammation, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, obesity, vascular disease and more)
Better Options and Things to Consider Before Going on The Ray Peat Diet:
My philosophy as a nutritional therapist is never to tell anyone what to do. Instead, I prefer to help provide information, data from testing, and an opinion based on my work with clients and what I see every day in my practice. That way, you can feel empowered to make the best decision for you.
Here’s a few suggestions of things to explore before going on the Ray Peat diet:
- Make sure you understand and address underlying reasons for thyroid health, hormone, metabolism and energy problems before taking a diet approach that mimics what works for one other person. The opposite of dieting approach and the Personal Nutrition Assessment are easy ways to get started with understanding your body from the inside out!
- Instead of drastically changing your diet overnight, learn about what foods work for and against your body. If this sounds too difficult for you, food sensitivity testing may be helpful.
- Consider testing to discover your nutrient excesses and deficiencies to see if they may be influencing your health goals. Hair Analysis and Fatty Acid testing are my favorite tools for this.
Bottom line: Dr. Ray Peat’s research is a fantastic resource and tool. Just don’t try to mimic what works for him on yourself. Find out what works for you, and use testing if you need help discovering what that is.
I hope you enjoyed this review of the Ray Peat diet. Don’t forget to check out the others in the diet review series.
Have you tried the Ray Peat diet? If so, how did it go for you? Please share in the comments!
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As a nutritional therapist, my passion is education. My goal is to help guide you to improve your nutrition through strategic eating (not dieting) and without expensive supplements! Because when you know better, you can feel better! 
Thank you for clarifying this very unusual diet. I remember how confused I was as I struggled to follow this diet and get correct info about it. You end up having to follow someone blindly because there really isn’t a structured RP diet that he himself wrote about. I had so much hope when first discovering it and then so terribly disappointed when it did, indeed, turn out to be disastrous. I love that you added this segment on analyzing the confusing world of diet and nutrition and I appreciate your balanced and unbiased approach. Thanks so much.
What are your thoughts about the Keto diet? It seems to ignore concerns people may have regarding cholesterol and/or sodium levels.
Hi Brenda,
You can read my review of the keto diet here: https://butternutrition.com/keto-diet-review/
Abundantly,
Catherine
Thank you for a very clear summary of the RP diet..
i have implemented much of it,
One think I have not seen anything mentioned about is drinking oj from the plastic bottles it comes in. An acid drink in a BPA plastic bottle. It seems it would be very toxic since so much of it is drunk on the diet.
Any thoughts on this?
Thanks, Judith
🙌🏻Love to read all your work. You explain very well. I actually love Dr Ray Peats work but have a hard time fully understanding. You have cleared a lot of the confusion! Thank you for your great research and work.
Thanks Chen for the kind words 🙂
I find the ‘Peat’ diet quite fascinating as I’ve consumed a lot of dairy, OJ, fruit, and carbs in general for most of my life and have found that works very well for me despite all claims to the contrary by many in recent years. Admittedly, this provides a positive bias of sorts for me in that it somewhat encourages foods I already love to eat.
Peat was the first person I came across in my research to really shine a light on the issues with those ‘essential’ fatty acids (PUFAs), so I’ve been experimenting with limiting those. The biggest obvious change I’ve noticed in this regard is that it makes me somewhat sunburn-proof, which is interesting.
I’m currently exploring introducing gelatin and bone broth into my diet to see how that goes and also plan to give the famed ‘daily carrot salad’ a try to see how that affects digestion, bowel movements, etc.
Some general takeaways I come away with and use myself for this diet:
– Eat more saturated fat
– Eat less (or close to none) polyunsaturated fat
– Eat that which provides lots of calcium, potassium, sodium, and magnesium
– Eat that which provides sufficient fat soluble vitamins (A, E, D, K)
– Avoid food or stimuli that promotes stress on your system via adrenaline, cortisol, and estrogen.
– Avoid grains and certain starches for the most part
– Include some simple sugars (i.e. fruit) when eating protein to avoid blood sugar dropping too low
– Include fats when eating sugars to prevent the sugar from being dumped into the blood too quickly
As you alluded to in your review, what works for one person may not work for you, so whatever works for you is really all that matters, and is important to consider for this diet or any for that matter.
It is funny how completely opposite it is to many other popular diets out there these days. It’s made me wonder if paleo / keto / carnivore is akin to a workaround of sorts for those who can no longer handle relatively big sugar inputs.
My journey has taught me that sugar doesn’t really raise my blood sugar all that much (nor cause cavities) and salt doesn’t raise my blood pressure. Sitting close to the TV hasn’t ruined my eyes either, but individual results may vary of course! Haha.
I had to chime in here. I am 80 and started following Dr. Peats ideas a few years ago and what a change it has made in my life. I was about to die from malnourishment. I now drink half a gallon of milk aday and tons of OJ. I always mix three spoons of Great Lakes Gelatin on my milk. I take 600mg of kelp each morning. Eat calf liver twice a week, 3 baked potatoes a week. I take colostrum , stinging nettle, pregnoleon, B-complex,dhea,multi-vitamin and extra selenium, hawthorn berry, extra L-Glutamine-co q 10, carott salad, 2 cups of coffee, six fried eggs in butter, 2 pancakes with lots of real butter and lots of honey. I do isometric exercises, with 40 squats everyday. You ought to see my muscles for an old guy. I eat no muscle meats, no chicken or turkey and no fish. The key is to make sure the intake of potassium is around 4000 mg. everyday. That’s kinda tough so I eat two cups of Kale and I also get K2 to direct my milk camcium to the bones. I take extra magnesium Taurate for the heart. The best thing I do is drink my morning tonic of lemon juice with Braggs Apple Cider. Peats great-take care everybody. Paul
You are wise beyond your years!!!!!
Ray does not actually advocate eating potatoes or any starches that haven’t been somehow pre-digested…lime for corn, sprouting for grains and nuts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiAAqEB1fjw)…for potatoes he recommends juicing and cooking the juice once the starch is removed, though this is so onerous, you won’t find much reference out there from people doing it. I went from paleo to Ray to ketogenic and back to Ray again, it’s that time of life for me and I’m care-taking for my mother who has dementia and I don’t wish to follow her lead, so we do a lot of experimenting in our house. One thing I can say about Ray’s work, he freely shares his rather dense articles and newsletters, consults with individuals who contact him and does a lot of interviews on alternative radio stations, which is by far the easiest way to get your head around his concepts with the help of an interperter. Canola oil bad, coconut oil good. Following him for a bit gave me the strength to order some T3 and get myself up off the couch when no health practitioner would assist me – telling me, and my mother before me, that all my health issues were in my head and I should try to not focus so much on them. ARGH! If it were not for Ray Peat, I shudder to think where I would be in the health system now. Did I gain weight? Yep…but I also got a job, a husband, and my life back. Fair trade.