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Thoughts on the potato diet

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Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#231

Post by jaggederest »

rubicon33 wrote: post #220
jaggederest wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have reactive hypoglycemia and I tried the potato diet out and had zero crashes the entire time. It's just not possible (for me) to eat enough calories, quickly enough, to cause a crash. I was only on it for a few days (~5), precisely for the logistic issues that the article and the original diet post discuss - I couldn't cook and eat enough calories to not be absolutely starving after the first couple days. B…

Is a food coma / crash always the result of a blood sugar spike? I've never seen any literature supporting that the feeling of tiredness and fatigue after a meal is the direct result of blood sugar levels. Mostly what I've seen is just conjecture online, and correlational anecdotes about eating high glycemic index foods and feeling tired. Not discounting people's experiences, but trying to suss out the science here.…

Well, for me, I've been monitoring my blood sugar intensively for a while. I started when I worked for a nutrition and glucose monitoring company (as a test!), found out I had really anomalous blood sugar dips, and confirmed it with finger stick and another blood sugar monitor. So for me, the answer is, yes, the "sugar crash" postprandial is actually a dip in blood sugar - not to a hazardous level (e.g. passing out or seizure) but to a very uncomfortable level, with epinephrine and the shakes. (mine has gone down to 45mg/dl at worst)

For many people, it may not be, I can only speak for myself. There's another thing, called 'idiopathic postprandial syndrome' which is essentially the symptoms above, but without actual low blood sugar (Talking with endocrinologist, they say that the insulin sensitivity for most people is much higher in the AM and daytime than at night, so it makes sense that you might have more problems in the afternoon, but you should probably talk to a doctor rather than taking my word for it!

It's often difficult (in the US at least) to get primary care and endocrinologists to take you seriously if you are not actually dying of diabetes or passing out from low blood sugar - this is where dipping into the realm of concierge medicine can be helpful, or at least, it has been for me. They are often much more willing to investigate thoroughly.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#232

Post by TrisMcC »

dmix wrote: post #216
fknorangesite wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but this isn't keto.

So it's basically going to spike insulin and do much for weight loss... besides not eating the other bad stuff they planned to eat. So it doesnt really matter they are eating potatoes. Unless they want to do it cheap then it makes sense. Which is good but there's so much more variety in the keto approach then boring potatoes.

Yes, there's not a lot of variety in just eating potatoes. Maybe some people don't need variety.

People lose a lot of weight this way. Insulin sensitivity increases. Insulin-lowering medicines can be reduced or stopped. Bad cholesterol drops to the floor.

If you go beyond monomeals of potatoes and add in tasty vegetables (like you do in keto) and limit the fat you add to the meal, you will have all the benefits of the potato diet without the mind-numbing boredom.

Variety in the keto approach? There are only so many ways to dress up chicken/beef/pork and cheese.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#233

Post by adamdusty »

ribosometronome wrote: post #55
duffyjp wrote: post #18

Penn Jillette somewhat famously did this and lost 100+ pounds.

Quickly googling it shows articles of him claiming to lose 75 pounds over 3 months, without exercising. Even starting at 300 lbs, running a daily 2822 calorie deficit for 3 months seems insane.

There has to be some embellishing of the numbers. It's highly improbable that at 322 pounds someone could eat 1000 calories per day (his claim) and be at a 2800 calorie deficit with zero exercise.

I'm not saying it's not true, but I'm skeptical of the numbers.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#234

Post by fauigerzigerk »

csours wrote: post #200
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger. If that is so, why is obesity so much worse in some countries than in others? Are Italians really so much better at managing hunger than Americans? It seems far more plausible to me that the differences in obesity between countries are caused by simple cultural habits than by some complex psychological task called managing hunger, which see…

> It seems far more plausible to me that the differences in obesity between countries are caused by simple cultural habits than by some complex psychological task called managing hunger, which seems less likely to be cultural. I don't see a clear point here. Culture has a HUGE impact on psychology. Also, managing hunger is Psychological AND Physiological.

>Culture has a HUGE impact on psychology.

I would agree with that in general, but hunger seems like such an incredibly old issue to deal with from evolutionary perspective. Managing hunger is something "we" have been doing for millions of years and it has always been at the very center of our survival as a species.

The idea that a cultural group could lose its ability to deal with such a key psychological and biological necessity in a short period of time just seems far less likely to me than a change in habits brought about by far more recent industrial and socioeconomic circumstances.

Take that from yet another pseudonymous internet autodidact ;-)

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#235

Post by leksak »

GordonS wrote: post #125
safety1st wrote: post #30

There's actually some science behind this diet. Potatoes are the highest scoring food on the satiety index. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/15-incredibly-filling-f... Basically they're the most filling food per calorie. So if you subscribe to the idea that losing weight is mainly about how many calories you consume, a potato heavy diet should be effective. And an all potato diet, while monomaniacal, even more ef…

This seems highly unlikely to me. I have reactive hypoglycemia, and can say that potatoes spike my blood glucose levels more than table sugar - they have a really high glycemic index, and anyone with blood sugar issues should totally avoid them IMO. And the thing about foods with a high glycemic index is that they cause you to feel hungry when your blood sugar rapidly drops back to baseline. I find protein and fat wa…

I eat six eggs for breakfast, with vegetables and maybe a bowl of kefir with some mango and I'm hungry around 10 — breakfast being at 7-8.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#236

Post by siliconc0w »

A huge part of the potato diet which isn't mentioned in the article is resistant starch. Each time you cool and cook potatoes you increase the amount of starch your body cannot digest (basically turning into fiber). This makes them even more fulfilling and less caloric (studies show this around 17% each time but I'm sure this approaches a limit).

Also it's ridiculously cheap and way easier to cook potatoes in bulk than practically any other food. At least with the Yukon golds I just rinse them, stab them with a knife and drop them into an instant pot with about a cup of water and a trivet. When done I transfer them into a big bowl in the fridge to cool and when I want to reheat them I reheat the whole bowl to accumulate resistant starch.

It's not a silver bullet but it's a really useful tool if you haven't been successful with other diets.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#237

Post by dubswithus »

pcorsaro wrote: post #186
dubswithus wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I feel that your comment is trying to connect a "big glucose spike" with the cause of diabetes. They are not connected. Millions of people are eating apples, grapes, plantains, strawberries, raspberries, etc every year without issue. To tell people to avoid these healthy foods is not backed by the science. And so what if it raises your levels temporarily? Running raises my heart rate and b…

That's not what this person is saying. "Big glucose spike(s)" actually are the cause of diabetes. The more regular spikes a person has, the more resistant to insulin they become, which is where type 2 diabetes starts. The point of the comments I believe was just to say that certain foods cause different responses in different people. If plantains cause a large spike in a person, I would say that person should probabl…

> "Big glucose spike(s)" actually are the cause of diabetes. The more regular spikes a person has, the more resistant to insulin they become, which is where type 2 diabetes starts.

People who don't have diabetes or pre-diabetes spike. But I hardly see a body of work that suggests that everyone is at risk of diabetes.

> If plantains cause a large spike in a person, I would say that person should probably not eat them every day all the time.

People from South America eat them every day and they aren't linked to diabetes as far as I know.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#238

Post by csours »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #234
csours wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems far more plausible to me that the differences in obesity between countries are caused by simple cultural habits than by some complex psychological task called managing hunger, which seems less likely to be cultural. I don't see a clear point here. Culture has a HUGE impact on psychology. Also, managing hunger is Psychological AND Physiological.

>Culture has a HUGE impact on psychology. I would agree with that in general, but hunger seems like such an incredibly old issue to deal with from evolutionary perspective. Managing hunger is something "we" have been doing for millions of years and it has always been at the very center of our survival as a species. The idea that a cultural group could lose its ability to deal with such a key psychological and biologi…

> The idea that a cultural group could lose its ability to deal with such a key psychological and biological necessity in a short period of time just seems far less likely to me than a change in habits brought about by industrial and socio-economic circumstances.

But those industrial and socio-economic circumstances also had a huge impact on culture! It's super complicated!

I am not strongly anti-capitalist, but consider the impact of capitalism on food:

Take low cost ingredients. Put them together in an appealing way. Sell the product at a relatively low price (higher than the ingredients, but not much). Advertise the product widely in such a way to condition people to desire your product.

I am describing junk food of course. Walk into a convenience store or look at the checkout lines of a grocery store. Look at all the food you are conditioned to desire.

edit: I am not blaming capitalism as the single cause of obesity. There is much more to it than that.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#239

Post by mixmastamyk »

com2kid wrote: post #191
mixmastamyk wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See a doctor.

Plenty of other foods fill me up just fine. A 4oz steak and some broccoli. Bacon and eggs. Meat + a veg does me fine. > See a doctor. Doctors know next to nothing about gut biome stuff. "I don't get full eating an entire jar of peanut butter" is going to result in the doctor telling me to not eat a jar of peanut butter. Heck plenty of people don't get full eating entire tubs of ice cream. The answer is to avoid downi…

You just listed a bunch of things that don't make sense? See a specialist rather than quibbling over the definition of doctor.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#240

Post by GordonS »

leksak wrote: post #235
GordonS wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems highly unlikely to me. I have reactive hypoglycemia, and can say that potatoes spike my blood glucose levels more than table sugar - they have a really high glycemic index, and anyone with blood sugar issues should totally avoid them IMO. And the thing about foods with a high glycemic index is that they cause you to feel hungry when your blood sugar rapidly drops back to baseline. I find protein and fat wa…

I eat six eggs for breakfast, with vegetables and maybe a bowl of kefir with some mango and I'm hungry around 10 — breakfast being at 7-8.

I guess you're an outlier (or have a tapeworm :)

I physically can't eat any more than 3 eggs because I'd feel completely full.

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