The Ray Peat Diet: The Food List From His Own Articles

Short answer: Ray Peat never published a formal diet. But his articles repeat the same foods: milk, cheese, fruit and orange juice, eggs, gelatin, shellfish, some liver, coconut oil, salt and coffee, with as little polyunsaturated fat, grain, bean and fermentable fiber as possible.

What Ray Peat wrote about food

His clearest statement is in an article on diabetes. He describes a basic anti-aging diet: high in protein, low in unsaturated fat, low in iron, with moderate or low starch. In practice, he says, that means milk, cheese, eggs, shellfish, fruits and coconut oil, with vitamin E and salt as the safest supplements. Source: Diabetes, scleroderma, oils and hormones

For fatigue he gives a second list: fruit juice, milk, some eggs or liver, and gelatin, with enough calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium. Source: Fatigue, aging, and recuperation

On quantities he mentions two quarts of milk and a quart of orange juice a day as enough sugar for general resistance to stress. Source: Sugar issues

Sugar over starch. Fruit, milk and honey are his preferred carbohydrates, and he advises avoiding cereals and beans. Source: Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context, Glucose and sucrose for diabetes

Gelatin with meat. Muscle meat alone delivers too much tryptophan and cysteine, so he pairs it with gelatin or broth. Source: Gelatin, stress, longevity

Fats: coconut oil, butter, olive oil and lamb fat. No corn, soy, safflower, flax, canola, peanut or sesame oil, and no cod liver oil. Source: Unsaturated Vegetable Oils: Toxic

A raw carrot daily, for the bowel. Source: Natural Estrogens, Serotonin: Effects in disease, aging and inflammation

Coffee with meals, liver about once a week, lean fish or shellfish once or twice a week. Source: Iron's Dangers, Glucose and sucrose for diabetes, Unsaturated Vegetable Oils: Toxic

The food list

• Eat: milk, cheese, fruit and fruit juice, honey, eggs, gelatin and broth, shellfish, lean fish, liver weekly, coconut oil, butter, salt, coffee, a daily raw carrot.
• Moderate: starch, with potatoes treated better than grains. Muscle meat, balanced with gelatin.
• Avoid: seed oils and fish oil, soy, cereals and beans, fermentable fiber, carrageenan, iron-fortified foods.
• Leaves: kale, turnip greens and beet greens have a good calcium to phosphate ratio, but he notes that leaves also carry defensive chemicals.

Where he wrote about it

This topic comes up in 85 of the articles on his site. These are the most relevant ones:

• Diabetes, scleroderma, oils and hormones · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Fatigue, aging, and recuperation · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Sugar issues · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Glucose and sucrose for diabetes · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Gelatin, stress, longevity · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Unsaturated Vegetable Oils: Toxic · original on raypeat.com ↗
• Milk in context: allergies, ecology, and some myths · original on raypeat.com ↗

My take

My own version: 400 to 600 g of carbs a day, mostly simple sugars. Warm milk with gelatin and sugar morning and night. Eggs with cooked carrots and mushrooms, salted heavily. Meat with potatoes. Coconut oil and butter. Coke, juice, honey and fruit between meals.

Quick answers

What is the Ray Peat diet?

Not a formal plan. Across his articles he favors milk, cheese, fruit, eggs, gelatin, shellfish, coconut oil, salt and coffee, with low polyunsaturated fat, low iron and moderate or low starch.

What foods did Ray Peat say to avoid?

Polyunsaturated seed oils and fish oil, soy, cereals and beans, fermentable fibers, carrageenan and iron-fortified foods.

What did Ray Peat eat for breakfast?

His articles do not describe his own breakfast. They do describe breakfast as the point where food takes over from stress hormones in holding the blood sugar up.

What fruits did Ray Peat recommend?

His articles mention fruit and orange juice in general terms as a major part of the diet. They do not rank individual fruits.