Potato Diet Thread

[tara]

@ecstatichamster Maybe your symptoms were the caused by presorption of the starches?

I have not seen anything indicating that the gelatinised starch in well-cooked spuds is a persorption risk. Have you?
(Raw potato starch might well be).

 

[Lin]

Good point, Tara. I somehow deduced that from your comments here.
Ray Peat Potato Protein Soup (RPPPS)

And I remember comments about how cooking should add moisture to the potatoes, which to me, meant not to bake, microwave, or cook by any dry heat.

Then there is this, from a Ray Peat interview, KMUD 5/15/15:
"Yeah any starchy food, and if the starch is very very well cooked, like boiling it for forty to sixty minutes and then eating it with fat, the fat slows down the absorption and allows the digestive enzymes to soften it up, so that it doesn't get through the barrier of the intestine without being further broken down."

But maybe that is just my own interpretation.

OK, here is a link to the KMUD interview: Dietitians Are Taught to Promote a Certain Amount of Starch in the Diet

 

[Travis]

Dieticians are corporate whores. Seriously. Most of their conferences and journals are funded my processed-food conglomerates.

 

[Lin]

@Travis, the title of the link does not really reflect the content I was referring to. If you read the article, you will see Peat'so comments on cooking starches.

 

[Rafael]

Hello, this is my 2nd day on the potato diet. I remember seeing the magician Penn Jillette talk about losing 100 pounds on it. Friends tell me that this diet will raise my blood sugar and is unhealthy. However, I really have tried every other option available to me (that I know of). When I weighed myself yesterday I was 262, and it does not feel good to be at this weight. I just baked and boiled the potatoes, and chopped them up into many pieces. I added some salt and garlic to them. I do understand why this diet causes you to lose weight. Its almost impossible to eat these potatoes quickly for me. Its difficult eating them. However, when I felt a craving I just took a bite of potato, and that craving went away. Its boring, and that's a good thing.
I'm a teacher, so typically I was overeating as soon as I got home. I can say absolutely that I haven't been overeating on these potatoes. I recall Penn saying he added vegetables after 2 weeks. I see very little written on the Internet on how to exactly do it. I see people praising it, such as a man from Australia who has done it for six months and he has lost 94 pounds (I think). I also see people, like my friend, condemn it. I'm going to weigh myself again in a week to see if there's progress. I will look on this like a science experiment, and I am the laboratory.
When I see people talk about an overeating addition I definitely feel that way. I was waking up in the middle of the night going to the refrigerator to eat something, even though mentally I didn't want to. Its this overwhelming urge that overpowers any rational thought to stop it. So far two days in and the Potato Diet has stopped those cravings. I really don't want to wake up in the middle of the night to eat potatoes. Okay let's continue later...

 

[Rafael]

its the 4th day of my potato diet. I am adding salt, garlic and sometimes a little butter to the potatoes. I am getting accustomed to it. I do feel light headed.

 

[Luann]

Potatoes are high in folate, which doesn't seem to be reduced by cooking, coffee is kinda high in choline, does it feel like a methylation issue @ecstatichamster?

 

[moss]

Make sure you are CHEWING to digest the starches in the mouth. If you look at weight loss as a form of calorie restriction, then potatoes aren't it. If you look at weight loss as a form of healing the body, then potatoes are the ultimate in quality protein, high potassium and minerals (salt especially), add some fat and have a complete meal food. We ate a hand sized portion per meal and when I chewed enough, I would get full before I ate the full amount.

Keep in mind, you need to realize that your body makes enzymes according to what you give it. If you normally eat a high fat diet, your body is used to making lipase and less protease and carb digesting enzymes (the proper name is escaping me right now.) Switching suddenly to a low fat, high starch diet is going to cause a lack of proper break down of the "new" foods.

I agree Jen chewing is really important and the other enzyme I believe is Alpha-amylase.

Poor eating habits and not chewing adequately I think is often overlooked and can contribute to weight gain, bloating, farting and bypassing many of the valuable digestive enzymes to help break food down in the first place. Chewing with your mouth open allows excess air into the intestines.
It may not always be the food you eat, nor necessarily digestive disorders that you suffer from, and more about how you eat.
A friend came over for dinner the other night, I love her dearly yet she wolfed down the main meal like there was no tomorrow and I was still a third of a way into mine. Incidently, she is overweight, suffers from bloating and is always in a hurry and eats on the run. When eating dessert she slowed way down and she got the signal when her body had enough food and could notice that just slowing down (and enjoying the food rather than a chore) made such a difference.

I reckon potatoes are sensational and so versatile.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I'm finding potatoes not helpful. I am trying low starch and finding it may be helping no me more. But I haven't really given the potato diet a good try after some initial failure I posted about here.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Potatoes are high in folate, which doesn't seem to be reduced by cooking, coffee is kinda high in choline, does it feel like a methylation issue @ecstatichamster?

What does a methylation issue look like?

 

[damngoodcoffee]

I'm doing pretty much potatoes and skim milk at the moment. I'm trying really low fat and i don't want to supplement anything, so i throw some cooked carrots and maybe some other below-ground veggies in there too for the "vit-A" and vit-K. Oh, and raw cane sugar in my coffee. I've been eating 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil a day lately but now i'm going to stop doing even that much fat.
I want to try really low fat and i want(and need) to eat on a budget.
I've been doing this for a few days now, and so far i feel pretty darn good! We'll see how it goes. :)

 

[Luann]

@ecstatichamster well, like you are putting too much of a methyl donor into your body.

 

[ecstatichamster]

@ecstatichamster well, like you are putting too much of a methyl donor into your body.

I know what the words mean, kind of, but I don't know what I would be doing that I shouldn't be doing, or what I am doing too much of, that I should do less. Do you have any cites or sources? Thanks!

I read a book recently on this, but it made very little sense to me.

 

[Luann]

Oh, okay sorry. So lol, Peat talks about DNA methylation as something that should be reversed, and says that if you eat less B12, methionine, betaine, folic acid, you can reverse that process. While it's not a good idea to be deficient in those things and in fact Peat gives other ideas on how to demethylate your DNA, like bag breathing and eating sugar, maybe if you eat a LOT of one of those methyl donors (B12, folate, etc.), you could be taking steps backward. Make sense?

Haidut does a good job explaining it: DNA Methylation, Aging, And Cancer

 

[Syncopated]

@ecstatichamster: very low fat gives me inflammatory/endotoxin symptoms, too. Potatoes don't affect me but a prolonged stint with very low fat does.

Did you peel your potatoes before cooking? A day of eating unpeeled boiled potatoes will cause me to have stiff joints the next morning, but I don't seem to be bothered if I peel the potatoes before boiling. Cooking them with skins on doesn't really change anything. You must peel them before cooking.

I like the potato hack. I've done several. Lost a few pounds each time. And as I think I said in another thread, doing resistant starch really *did* help the integrity of my skin, particularly on the soles of my feet. Along with probiotics for me, but I've heard anecdotes from people who didn't use probiotics.

I'm seeing more improvement in my feet after a few weeks of doing some things to clear endotoxin and biofilms (and therefore inflammation).

Good to always peal the potatoes first and check for green or blemishes.

 

[walker_in_aus]

I have many digestion issues but had three days alone and decided to just eat potatos and see how I go because I've tried so many other things, and it's certainly cheaper.

Three days I ate potato with a touch of butter, heaps of salt and a teaspoon of Parmesan cheese. I chewed until it was a soup in my mouth. I had also milk, chocolate and coffee on the side.

Three days I was really satiated, my bloating went down so much, my lower bowel ache pain significantly down, I had so much energy and I even did a workout (hardly do these) and felt no muscle soreness in the following days (despite doing 100 squats!!!! For the first time in years).

I ran out of organic yellow potatoes and went back to normal foods, but might do one again next week to see if it worked or if it was some other unknown factor. :)

 

[Repas du soir]

I found a recipe to make the most amazing oven home fries with virtually no fat. I could eat those every day of my life.

Could you share if it you remember it, please?

 

[InChristAlone]

The potato hack may work because it is a very very low A diet. But in the beginning all your A stores will come out and make you feel sick.

 

[Sharbysyd]

I'm starting to do some playing with the potato diet.

I eat some meals of only potatoes, boiled, with a bit of ketchup or perhaps hot sauce and fish sauce.

The rest of my diet consists of a bit of milk (a glass or two a day), coffee, an egg or two some days, fruit, a cup of OJ, a few Cokes, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup of gelatin (collagen), and 4 ounces or so of fish or lean meat and a bit of rice and a well cooked veggie for dinner.

I'm also going low fat, aiming at 8% or so fat calories, not ultra low fat.

I'm also planning on enjoying my food, and not just eating like this.

I'd like to lose about 20 pounds or maybe 25 pounds of fat, while increasing lean mass.

I'm reading Presto by Penn Jillette which is a wonderful read, BTW.

I read The Potato Hack: Weight Loss Simplified which is pretty good

Anyway, what are your experiences with it?

I'm wondering how this ended up turning out for you and what you ended up doing? I'm thinking of trying something like this for a little bit. Some of the reviews on Amazon seem like it really helps with weight loss.

 

[ecstatichamster]

It didn’t last very long. But I’m now doing the meals with either protein+carbs or protein+fat but not both fat+carbs.