Taking Control of Nutrition

Simple Nutritional Improvements and Ideas

First step: reducing inflammation

Your cells are made of the materials you consume. Certain materials oxidize more rapidly than others. Some people’s cells oxidize more rapidly therefore. These people have health problems. Your cells are made of fats. Your organs, especially the brain, are therefore made of fats. 

You consume a lot of fat daily but probably never considered it like you would meat or sugar intake. Regardless, your body is using whatever fats you consume and in very key processes.

The absolute worst fat is the one people consume the most of if they eat processed foods, restaurant foods, and fried foods - canola oil (sometimes called “rapeseed oil”). These bad fats can be generally described as polyunsaturated, or PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids). PUFAs (bad) generally contain more double bonds than saturated fats. This makes them structurally weaker and break down easier, or oxidize, when exposed to oxygen (whether in open air on the counter, from being heated, or from your blood cells delivering oxygen to your cells).

PUFAs (bad) are usually liquid at room temperature - canola oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, “seed oils”, and vegetable oils. Soybean oil is a vegetable oil that is very bad but will be discussed uniquely due to its estrogenic properties. Olive oil is a vegetable oil that isn’t necessarily bad but will be discussed uniquely due to its manipulation. Omega-3 fish oils and DHA are simply PUFA.

Saturated fats (good) are solid at room temperature and noticeably do not spoil - butter, tallow, lard, coconut oil. These are very necessary to a healthy diet, are very protective, and are very misrepresented in common health and nutrition narratives. 

History is a great filter, and one convincing way to parse these things is to consider historical diets. Humans have been consuming milk and dairy products for centuries - there is a reason these products exist until today and didn’t fade away as some trend. There are observable tribes in Africa that subsist almost entirely off of raw goats’ milk, for example. Whereas, vegetable oils are an industrial revolution and wartime byproduct. Their genesis and proliferation (due to their profitability) directly coincides with the rise of heart disease, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s (brain made of fat), and weight gain. There is plenty of easily searchable information on these links, as well as some easy logic, such as these words by Dr. Shanahan: 

So, as lipid scientists have long argued, I submit that natural fats and cholesterol have been a part of the human diet for millennia and are not the problem. The historically recent rise in arteriosclerosis and heart disease is the result of an historically recent invention of the food industry—rened, bleached, and deodorized vegetable oils.

Natural fat consumption: down. Processed fat consumption: up. Heart disease: up— way up. Forget for a moment what the “experts” are saying, and ask yourself what these trends suggest to your inner statistician. The next time you go to the grocery store, see how many foods you can find that don’t contain vegetable oil as an ingredient.

PUFAs generate inflammation. Inflammation is a general medical word, and the way I would describe it is a disruption of the communication of cells and thus the disruption of their basic functions. Due to the structural fragility of PUFAs, cells made up of PUFAs break down easier, which creates toxins and free radicals, and all of these compound. This communication disruption has enormous consequences on the basic processes of your body, most noticeably your ability to burn fat, but also your brain’s ability to create new and maintain old connections, your thyroid’s ability to regulate hormones, and your gut’s ability to digest food. Trying any improvements in health when your cells cannot first communicate properly is a losing battle.

Personal anecdote on fat loss: I am a young man who has been in out of serious gym-going phases multiple times in my life, yet I never saw results in muscle building or, especially, fat burning. There is a component of going to the gym that is referenced when reading resources on it, which is eating right. This always seemed like the hardest part, especially under the very common narrative (I would call it a pseudo-science, now) of calories in, calories out. So long as a I meet caloric goals I should slim up. This never worked for me. I even did real, meticulous calorie counting utilizing apps and food tracking and saw no benefits. After reading Dr. Cate Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition, I focused on nutrition first and realized it is multiples more important than the gym, and I would now argue that generally, supplemental exercise is an unnecessary luxury that could be easily met through physical labor or simply taking daily walks. I also learned nutrition is much easier and more immediately rewarding - you already eat everyday, so you aren’t adding anything new to your life. Cutting PUFAs and gluten saw me losing weight very efficiently - I lost my very stubborn 15 pounds in about a month and a half. Only after that did I add the gym, mainly just to burn energy. The fact of the matter is reducing inflammation and letting my body work the way it is supposed to meant I wasn’t fighting a losing battle. Unfortunately I see very overweight people at the gym and I feel they will never make any real progress because whatever got them to the weight implies a crucial missing step that they most likely are not taking. Forming your health around nutrition is irreplaceable. 

PUFA proliferation and understanding processed foods

Fats are used in industrial processes everywhere and are very cheap to make. Consider how vegetable oil can be used as engine lubricant. These fats are definitely consumable and provide ample calories, and that seems to be the only standard required by our FDA to approve them for usage in food production. They are a tool used in processing food, especially to prevent sticking in packaged goods. The thing that set me off was looking at a pack of raisins and seeing the ingredients: raisins, canola oil. They are also used as fillers in most salad dressings and sauces - mayonnaise being the worst one. The substitutes of milk and dairy (which in their God-given form are made of healthy saturated fats) are largely cut with various vegetable oils (notably: Oatly oat milk). Fries and fried foods are almost unequivocally fried in canola or peanut oil. Cooking foods in ghee, butter, coconut oil, and tallow is much safer, because those fats can withstand the heat of cooking without breaking down and becoming rancid (oxidized). Rancid oils have a particular smell - generally the smell of old or refrigerated fried food.

Staleness is essentially rancidity - think about which foods go stale and which do not. Fried foods. Junk food chips are full of vegetable oils. Popcorn the same - I learned from working in a movie theater that theater popcorn is flavored with huge bags of salted canola oil.  

Some other surprising sources of soybean oil and canola oil are granola bars, energy bars and coffee creamers (compare the ingredients of Hill Country Fare creamers and Chobani’s creamer). Most mayonnaise is basically a vat of soybean oil.

The first step in taking control of your nutrition is avoiding PUFAs. As you educate yourself on things that contain PUFAs and begin to cut them out, you subsequently start cutting out all the guilty foods you know you should be avoiding anyway, but now with a particular fervor because you finally have a sound plan (motivation). Cravings start vanishing too, due to a combination of your healing digestion and your newfound consumption of more nutritious and satiating foods. Eliminating PUFAs is a first step because when inflammation is reduced, other health and wellness implements will come easier. A good example of a prerequisite process is that reducing gut inflammation will improve your nutrient absorption. Increased nutrient absorption is life-changing and fun. 

My philosophical thoughts on food being your master: There are plenty of arguments for various diets. Paleo, Keto, Vegetarian, Veganism, cultural-traditional, etc. The reality is they are all an improvement on the consumer diet (convenience based on craving) because they provide a regiment for one to make decisions and build habits. Vegetarians cut out fried meats and thus reduce their PUFA intake. Ketogenic dieters know that carbs are ubiquitous, so they persistently read labels and prepare their own food. Both know they cannot meet their standards unless they are in control of what they are eating, so both primarily prepare their meals, cutting out the middleman. That is why these diets get results and often show improvement, even if, in my opinion, they are misguided. For example vegetarians will still consume plenty of PUFAs and soy products. Likewise, PUFAs are ketogenic. Regardless, it is wrong to look at these dieters as weird health people or livers of alternate lifestyles. They are obsessive, but can you look at your daily actions, or bank statements, and say that you are not obsessed with food too? In fact, through nutritional deficiencies and cravings you are most likely even more obsessed with food than health nuts. Or, you are not obsessed with food, but you may be obsessed with how you look, not even realizing how much your body can change if you just simply ate daily coconut oil. Regulating your food so that you can trust it and not worry about it frees you up to focus on more important things. That is why, in life, proper restriction is liberation. 

Coconut Oil

Consuming coconut oil daily is very protective against PUFAs and thus protects your brain and skin. Your body seems to select high quality fats over lower ones. Coconut oil is very heat resistant and doesn’t spoil, so cooking with it is a good way to consume it. I just eat, and I also put the same stuff I eat on my skin. It lubricates your body and digestive system and thus reduces inflammation and leads to more efficient fat burning. It is very effective in raising your metabolism. You want to buy the least processed versions possible. Usually this means labels that read “extra virgin, cold-pressed”. Make sure you look at the ingredients and see there is only coconut oil. Cold-pressed means the oil was never heated during processing. Refined is often easier to tolerate than unrefined, and this can be tested through seeing if refined irritates your skin. Sometimes the labels say how much MCTs the product has, which are medium-chain triglycerides. These are a common supplement, but they generally come from coconuts due to coconuts’ uniquely high MCT content. These MCTs are burned much more efficiently than other kinds of fats, leading to efficient weight loss. 

Butter

Butter is a traditional staple that, despite modern opinions, which come from studies, which usually come from interests, is very good for you. The best butter, and therefore one of the best foods you can consume, is raw, grass-fed butter. “Raw” in dairy products means unpasteurized (again, unheated) and thus a preservation of basically all the things that make it good - its fatty acids, certain heat-labile vitamins, enzymes, and other nutrients. Unfortunately, raw dairy is very hard to attain in many states in the U.S. for reasons I’ll let you decide. Thus, the next best choice is unsalted grass-fed butter (notably: Kerrygold). “Grass-fed” means the cow ate grass instead of whatever industrial foods corporate farms might feed their cattle. It is enforced by the FDA however, so brand consideration is still important, and Kerrygold has a good reputation. Biological entities are made of what they consume, so a free-range cow eating grass is going to get way more nutrients than one eating corn or soy feed. This same principle can be applied to beef - I only buy grass-fed beef. Likewise, I only buy “pasture-raised” chicken eggs - anything else in the context of eggs, like “free-range” has been subverted, like the now almost pointless word “organic”. 

Fish oil controversy

Fish oil supplementation is often one of the first things people interested in health discover due to its alleged protective benefits and huge marketable research backing. However, Omega-3s and Omega-6 are the essence of PUFA, so you get the same “effects” from eating french fries. But even if they were good, let’s talk about supplement quality in general. Omega-3s, and generally any fat supplement, are very sensitive to heat, light and oxygen. The very bottle must be opaque, the oil itself must be incredibly properly handled (how did they extract it?) and you personally have to be careful about your handling of them. Also, how would you know if it’s rancid?

Furthermore, this does not mean getting Omega-3’s from fish is necessarily good either. In fact, fatty, cold-water fish, like salmon, cod, and trout, have a lot of PUFAs. Even though salmon is seen as a major health food, the concept of oil rancidity applies to them. These fish exist in very cold streams, and thus their oils oxidize when unnaturally transported to areas where the room temperature, or in cooking, is much higher than what they are naturally built for. An extension of this proof is that it is well-documented that bears’ fat before hibernation is largely made of PUFAs from the salmon they eat. The evolutionary benefit of this is something a human definitely does not want - PUFAs slows down the bears metabolisms in order to maintain fat storage through the winter. The same can be said for squirrels consuming high-PUFA nuts.

Thus, I avoid at all costs. It seems to me that what most people think they are doing by supplementing fish oil or Omega-3s is actually the opposite, and they could accomplish their goals through eating coconut oil, dairy, and/or supplementing Vitamin E.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is very effective at protecting you from PUFAs and oxidation (thus aging). It is also crucial to detoxing existing PUFAs in your body. Coconut oil and Vitamin E seem to have the same protective benefits, but a usage of them together should be very effective in all antagonistic metrics of the PUFA. When buying Vitamin E, search for mixed tocopherols, or alpha tocopherol. The most common form, isolated dl-alpha-tocopherol, is about half as effective as the others.

Vitamin E supplementation is seldom as effective as the absence of the toxic oils. - Dr. Raymond Peat

Olive Oil

Olive oil is easily the best plant oil. However, as an oil, it is very susceptible to spoiling and rancidity. Thus you want to buy cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil, and it is unwise to buy olive oil that is not in an opaque or sheathed bottle, and it must be kept out of light and away from heat. Also, there are rumors that a product in the U.S can be considered olive oil if it is only a certain percentage of olive oil (cut with PUFA oils). Perhaps if you meticulously sourced olive oil from somewhere you can get a pure product. I do not use it that much, but it is protective. The oil I buy comes in an aluminum can. 

Soybean Oil - very prolific in processed foods, horrible

Avoid like the plague. On top of mainly being an industry byproduct (consider the vast soybean production the U.S. government subsidizes) and this being the only reason it is a food product, it is loaded with phytoestrogens. Soy products are generally high in these estrogens, which function similar to estrogen once they are in the human body. These xenoestrogens are absolutely horrible, for male and female bodies, and the study of them is what got me into protective health. When xenoestrogens enter the body and bind to estrogen receptors, your body continues to produce the estrogen it was already making, resulting in estrogen dominance. For example, it can be assumed that Asian men are virtually hairless due to the amount of estrogen they consume from the soy in their diets. Finally, soy, like corn, has almost no nutritional value. Soybean oil is found in many things - generally mayonnaise is mostly just soybean oil. As of 2022 if you asked me why there is an epidemic of low testosterone in Western males, I would cite these estrogens that antagonize testosterone, as well as their immense damaging our livers.

Easy starting implementation for mitigating damage from PUFA: consume coconut oil everyday and/or take Vitamin E. It really doesn't matter how much coconut oil you consume. For example, farmers once tried feeding their animals coconut oil because it was a cheap food source. It actually caused their animals’ appetite to increase and the animals to lose weight. The opposite happened when they switched to vegetable oils. I consume it in a carrot salad, which will be discussed later, but you can put it in things like coffee. It’s a versatile cooking oil due to its high smoke point. Any high quality saturated fat consumption will help protect you against your PUFA consumption. Vitamin E and coconut oil help to detox existing PUFA in your body. High quality or accurate Vitamin E is typically not available in supplement aisles of grocery stores. Look for “mixed tocopherol” Vitamin E. 

Personal Anecdote on PUFA and Coconut oil: sun tan efficiency: It is now very hard for me to get sunburned and very easy for me to rapidly tan. Why don't sun-dwelling people with natural diets sunburn? Oxidation makes fat molecules combine into plastic. The more unstable a fat is, the easier it is to oxidize, and the easier it is to polymerize. Rapeseed (canola) oil has actually been used historically to paint boats, because its contact with air turns it into a thin layer of plastic that protects the wood from water. PUFA directly breaks down into acrolein in our bodies, which is one of the precursors for acrylic. I am not going to pretend to know the full process of what a sunburn is, but it certainly has to do with UV rays and heat oxidizing the bad fats in your skin and your skin becoming inflamed, and then detoxing those fats. Searching “PUFA sunburn” is a good way to get more testimonies, some say they also no longer get chapped lips. When I went on a trip to Miami with some friends, they noticed that I spent more time in the sun than all of them, with no sunscreen, and I tanned quickly and nicely. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Cate Shanahan’s Deep Nutrition that gives an example of just how close PUFAs are to literal plastic:

To make the liquid cottonseed oil more like butter, they needed to thicken it into a solid paste. Chemistry offered two options: either tangling bunches of oil molecules together or making the individual molecules less flexible and more stackable. The first option creates a primordial form of plastic, too inedible to pass off as food. So they chose the second option. They engineered a transformation of the fatty acids in the oil, ironing them almost at with heat, pressure, hydrogen gas, and a nickel catalyst. The key to making the product appear edible was the catalyst, which prevented the molecules from tangling up into plastic. When the oils get squashed in this process, their double bonds change from the natural bent and flexible configuration to something tastier. And thus, trans fat was born. 

Second Step: Gut health and Gluten

Gut health is one of the most complex and confusing topics of health, but maybe the most important thing to focus on maintaining, as many of your body’s processes start in and rely on your gut. In simple terms, your gut has a lining that protects you from the things you eat going straight into your body and bloodstream. The permeability of this wall is what needs to be fixed. This “leaky gut” is the cause of all sorts of problems, notably allergies and hormone imbalances. Hard to digest foods, improperly chewed foods, PUFAs, and toxins and endotoxins (bacterial debris) all inflame the gut and leak into your system with compounding effects. Eliminating PUFAs is step one to fixing your gut. The next step, which is chiefly responsible for my rapid weight loss, is eliminating processed gluten. Gluten is highly inflammatory and along with PUFA stores as hard to lose fat because most people’s guts are not strong enough (or too inflamed) to process it. It also has horrible effects on most people’s liver function. Many people have a gluten sensitivity that they do not even realize - largely from mass vaccination - which causes them to not metabolize gluten and instead store it as fat. Also, a disabled liver means less testosterone production, another necessary fat-burning hormone. Modern and processed gluten is also laden with PUFAs, especially mass-produced gluten alternatives like almond flour. Homemade gluten products are probably generally fine. 

It is not to say everyone has a gluten sensitivity, but most people do. Gluten is often lumped with dairy as inflammatory, but in my understanding as well as personal experience, this is most likely not accurate. Maybe low quality dairy is inflammatory, but high quality dairy, like raw milk, good cheese, grass-fed butter and milk, for example, burns much more efficiently, and it is stored as higher quality, easier to burn fat. It is also more filling and loaded with vitamins, making it great to add to your diet. The demonization of dairy to me seems much more in tune with industrial narratives to promote PUFA byproducts like almond or soy milk in the face of real milk, as well as “climate control”.

I also generally removed starch. I am far from anti-carb, but starch consumption (which goes hand in hand with gluten) simply creates fat - especially visceral fat. Here is a way to think about carbs.

Monosaccharides - fructose, glucose. Disaccharides - lactose (milk sugar), sucrose (glucose+fructose, cane sugar). Polysaccharides - complex carbs like starches, i.e. bread, potatoes, rice. 

Most people think that things like sweets, candy, and dessert are things they absolutely need to eliminate from their diet. These things, in their best form, for example high quality (synonymous with “minimal ingredients”) ice cream or chocolate, are actually very easily digestible (because they contain mono or disaccharides) and usually are utilized before they can be turned into fat. Complex carbs, or polysaccharides, such as bread, however, are not nearly as easily digested yet are high in energy, so they do end up being stored as fat. For me, simply eliminating morning toast and replacing it with Greek yogurt and unheated honey seems to have contributed to my weight loss. I also get cloudy thoughts on complex carbs, which reminds me of one of the benefits of ketogenic diets - a temporarily clear mind. But I notice these benefits too while consuming simple sugars. 

You probably have heard of sugar contributing to inflammation and aging. Maybe some types of sugars do this, like starchy high-fructose corn syrup, but to say easily digested sugars like lactose and fructose cause aging seems illogical to me, and there is no obvious biological mechanism to point to that would cause this inflammation. Finally, none of these things can be nearly as inflammatory and aging as PUFAs. It is key to remember that glucose is the main source of fuel for cells in your body, especially your brain.

Ice cream is demonized. But in its definitional form, it is just frozen cream and sugar - the same things you put in your coffee. I consume quite a bit of ice cream.

Implementation: avoid processed gluten, be wary of starches and complex carbs. Replace with truly satiating foods like dairy and salty meat and get your glucose from fruit. Your brain uses glucose as its main fuel source, so cutting out carbs altogether does not make sense to me. Your liver makes glucose from protein to fuel your body, especially your brain. This is why true ketogenicists are able to continue living, albeit in a very stressed state as this conversion process is physiologically and psychologically stressful. Thus, I consume large swaths of fruit and whole fruit juice daily. I also do not shy away from dessert, and I consume lots of chocolate - mostly high quality, sometimes even candy can be therapeutic. Milk also provides a good amount of lactose. The first thing I do in the morning is consume a glass of orange juice, then a glass of milk. Unheated honey is also an excellent source of fructose. If one must consume starches, like potatoes and rice, it is important to make sure they are cooked thoroughly - preferably boiled - and they should be consumed with a saturated fat (think butter on a potato) to protect your gut from presorption. Theoretically perfect diet could simply consist of high quality meat (not just protein, as meat has necessary fats) and fruit or honey. Or, high quality protein (organ meat, gelatin, broth), high quality fat, and the same simple carbs.

Step 3: Cleaning up gut

It is well established that your gut is connected to a lot of other processes in your body, namely your immune system. It is also called your “second brain” because it has major implications on your hormones which influence your mood and choices. Through inflammation, PUFA, improper chewing, and neglect, there is a good chance your gut microbiome has overgrowth - including bad bacteria, fungus, and toxins. This is the silent killer of someone’s mood, energy, clear-mindedness - all symptoms of proper hormonal balance. 

There is research suggesting a gut microbiome isn’t something that is automatically a part of us, i.e. it may be unnecessary, despite popular theories that humans are some sort of “super organism”. Babies are born with sterile guts. There is also research on species of ants - a carnivorous species was observed to have no bacteria in its gut, an herbivore species did. This, as well as herbivorous mammals like cows having complex gut biomes, suggests something that aligns with the idea of simple sugars being very easily digested, while complex carbs and plant materials need “help”. But starches feed your microbiome and contribute to its overgrowth, because your body cannot process complex carbs fast enough. Instead of burning it, it is consumed by bacteria. In my opinion, it is foolish to suggest that this collection of foreign bacteria self-regulates - how would that make any evolutionary sense? 

We probably do need a gut biome to properly metabolize starches, but if we do not consume starches, the microbiome seems to have much less use. Seeing as an overgrown biome is bad, and we already know starches are also suboptimal, it is best to clean up this process, and regulate our microbiome ourselves. 

A rundown of gut health and hormones - serotonin bad

Serotonin is usually called the “happy hormone” and therefore is often the subject of prescriptions to “fix” peoples’ depression. I have no experience in that world, but I will say that is not the case for me, and based on what I have experienced I would call the SSRI industry predatory. 

Overgrowth in the gut leads to the creation of too much serotonin, a hormone that >90% of which is made in the gut. Because hormones sometimes compete with one another, an imbalance can be called dominance. Serotonin-dominance is a symptom of a bad gut, and is a serious contributor to an unhappy life. Serotonin is a dopamine antagonist and a hibernation promoter. Serotonin makes one irritable, forward-thinking, anxious of new experiences, obsessive, enact regressive tendencies, and lethargic. Think about these things in the context of serotonin being a hibernation hormone, and then add to the fact that the precursor of serotonin is the amino acid tryptophan. Serotonin is a stress hormone, as stress leads to its production. It also promotes stress, creating a loop. So a toxic gut environment stresses your body and leads to excess serotonin. Pair that with our relatively newfound overconsumption of muscle meat - a huge source of tryptophan - and starches, and life simply becomes much harder.

Think about your ability to focus and work through problems. This is what dopamine promotes - a sort of “live-in-the-moment” hormone, or the true “happy hormone” if you ask me. This is why they say dark chocolate can help you focus - because cacao stimulates dopamine production! Usually when you have a work or school task to complete, you get stressed and that generates serotonin. This forward thinking (the stress of the task’s result or due date) makes it very hard to focus on the actual assignment. Your body starts looking for sources of dopamine because you’ve become so serotonergic. This where regressive tendencies come from: where can you get immediate pleasure to distract from the stress? Probably your phone, or snacking. If it’s general life, probably drinking. Alcohol is a temporary serotonin suppressant, but obviously does more harm than good. This is all further proven by drugs like adderall or vyvanse - they flood your body with dopamine to overshadow the underlying problems. 

How do you lower gut toxicity and serotonin? 

IMPLEMENTATION: The Raw Carrot Salad and more varied protein

Dr. Raymond Peat came up with a way to clean up your gut - a daily raw carrot. An uncooked carrot is actually indigestible by the human body. Carrots, as root vegetables, have natural antibiotics to protect against funguses and bacteria while they are in the ground. Consumption of a raw carrot will move the carrot fibers through your digestive system and eliminate overgrowth while also absorbing other toxins and carrying them out of you. It also spares good bacteria. The carrot salad is an optimization of this process. 

• Peel a large carrot lengthwise into a bowl using a vegetable peeler

• Melt some coconut oil on a low temperature, pour over carrots. Olive oil can be added to taste.

• Splash some vinegar and sea salt to taste, mix up, consume

• Do this 1 or two times a day, optimally on an empty stomach and or 30 minutes before a meal, and optimally before noon

The carrots will absorb the oil and vinegar, which also have strong antibacterial properties, and transport them throughout the gut to the lower intestine. You’ve basically created a literal, natural mop to go through your digestive tract. This should clean up your gut biome and therefore drastically decrease the serotonin (and estrogen) production in your gut. You should have a much easier time with clear thinking, being stress free, relaxing, and having more energy. If you see carrot in the toilet, that is a good sign.

There is another thing to consider about serotonin. There is a concept in nutrition science called “eat the whole animal” in which it is observed that nonindustrial societies make every possible use of the animal. We, however, basically only consume muscle meat, which, though typically nutritious, may be the least nutritious consumable part of an animal, and has negative effects. The main negative effect to me of muscle meat is its tryptophan content. In order to minimize tryptophan and thus serotonin (which I absolutely strive to do now that I understand how it affects me) but still meet protein goals, I eat a pretty diverse set of proteins. Essentially, I “eat the whole animal” but in a way that is conducive to my life. Gelatin may be the highest quality protein due to its amino acid ratio containing minimal tryptophan. You can put it in any warm drink as it has no taste. I currently use Vital Proteins collagen powder, which one can see on the amino acid profile has 0 mg of tryptophan. I also eat a lot of head cheese - meat loaf made of gelatin - which you can get quite a bit from a butcher for cheap. Organ meats are a great source of protein too, the main one I eat is chicken or beef liver - an incredibly healthy midday lunch full of protein with unparalleled vitamin content. Finally, milk and cheese are packed with protein too, though milk has a decent tryptophan content. Frankly, I am personally a little reluctant to eat muscle meat except on occasion. One can mitigate the effects of tryptophan by consuming other amino acids because amino acids compete in your body, so if you consumed some gelatin or collagen with meat, you’d minimize your uptake of tryptophan. This is exactly what head cheese is. 

Personal anecdote on serotonin

Simply put, I had no idea how hard I was living life until I cleared up this issue. Things that disrupted my routine, especially new social ventures, were generally frightening. I had to will myself very hard to focus, and my anxiety and stress on things was so bad that I was always anticipating how certain social things would go, as opposed to just letting them happen. I used to really care what people think. Maybe all this sounds like normal living, but I now know it doesn't have to be. In fact, think about the things I just said in reference to forms of autism like aspergers. There is actually testimony and research into “curing” those on the autism spectrum by focusing on reducing their serotonin. 

Some things that I have noticed:

• I no longer have any cravings or food binges.

• My memory drastically improved.

• I am no longer addicted to my phone, and do not regress to other bad habits

• I used to get very anxious about communication with people I don’t normally talk to, like when an old friend or family member texts, but that has gone totally out of the window, and I talk to family regularly. Basically everyone gets an immediate reply now. 

• I am much more “let’s do it”. My friend has been trying to get me for years to play pickup basketball with him, and I had always had anxiety about it. One day he texted me and I showed up. I didn’t even think about it until he pointed out that I actually came. 

• I speak more concisely and less rambly

All of these things are just signs of reduced stress and greater mood and energy, or simply, more testosterone - things a hibernation state actively tries to dissolve. 

Due to both increased nutrient absorption (again, a cleaner gut lining) and less antagonism to my dopamine, I am able to experiment with certain foods much more responsively, especially to increase my mood. Often, when my blood sugar is optimized or I’ve eaten some chocolate, for example, I simply feel amazing - care free, energetic, more observant, better listening, and things like music or images impact me more vividly. I never truly experienced the effects of things like zinc or caffeine until I implemented carrot salad. Due to toxin reduction, I am less estrogenic, a state that antagonizes testosterone production, and I have noticeably more testosterone. When I have a good day of eating the things I’ve mentioned, stress feels almost like an impossibility and if its there, I know it can be overcome.

That is the basics of nutritional improvement to me, and with that in mind, I conclude with this quote by Dr. Peat:

The attempt to steer a person can make it hard for them to move, because it inactivates their own guidance system.

Supplemental reading:

Kate Deering: How to Heal Your Metabolism - a book that neatly summarizes metabolic improvements largely based on the work of Dr. Ray Peat. If you liked this article, she does an even better job in similar, comprehensible language, though I disagree with her view on sugar.

Dr. Raymond Peat’s articles at raypeat.com

Testimony I received from a family member:

Hi Ian, Your mom emailed me the article you wrote on nutrition improvements. I want to let you know what I did. I had some digestive issues and just feeling kinda tired. So your article made sense to me and since I don’t eat much anyway it wouldn’t be difficult to get the food necessary. I decided to test it. The day after I read your article, I went to Whole Foods carefully read labels and came home and started a whole new way of eating. Literally the 2nd and 3rd day I was feeling better but chalked it up to “well your just having a good day”. But the good days have continued.

It has been almost 2 weeks since I started my new way of eating. I have eliminated gluten and soy, am using raw cheese ( very little cheese)using only coconut oil, grass fed beef, and the carrot salad in the morning. I won’t go in to all changes but I had to tell you how thankful I am for the information. I am glad ice cream (healthy ice cream) and good chocolate are still ok 😊

I am 100% sure the eating habits have had a positive effect. The thing I notice the most and am grateful for is the feeling of overall well-being. I get up in the morning and am ready for the day whereas before I was tired as if I had not slept well. Sorry, you probably didn’t need to hear all of that….I mainly just wanted to let you know I loved the information and still use it for reference.

Love you ….