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Thoughts on the potato diet

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Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#341

Post by harpersealtako »

moses-palmer wrote: post #19

My favourite part of the article, hailing from a part of the world _sans raton laveur_, was the explanation of "Raccoon trouble" for purchasing a lot of potatoes. What's with raccoons and potatoes?

I think the (humorous) implication is that you would use them as bait for traps. I don't think potatoes would be that effective as raccoon bait (maybe?), but I do know that bear trappers use all sorts of weird stuff, usually food waste of some kind, and it wouldn't surprise me if potatoes would work. I've heard of people using everything from rotten corn to frosted donuts, usually in ridiculous quantities (like an entire 10-gallon drum full). Put it in the middle of the woods, wait for the smell to permeate the entire forest, and then watch the bears come in. Of course the goal is to get the bear to come back the next week, where you'll be waiting in a treestand with a bow or a rifle.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#342

Post by Swannie »

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.…

https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24332470-900-does-a-...

Responses are by readers, so take with a pinch of salt

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#343

Post by s1artibartfast »

hahajk wrote: post #107
corrral wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fish is high on my personal satiety index, because I didn't eat much of it growing up so never developed a taste. Result is that when served fish I eat a little to be nice but don't enjoy it at all. That'd certainly help me eat less. Oddly, I love calamari and sushi.

Of course, eating food you don't like so you end up eating less doesn't sound like the way to go through life!

It's fine if you substitute it with something that is equally or more pleasurable. There's no rule that you have to get part of your life satisfaction from food

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#344

Post by hombre_fatal »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #181
zhynn wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

potatoes have like 3g of protein per potato. And to stay full you eat _a lot_ of potato. I tried it! It was easy, then not easy, then totally shitty, then fine, and then I was done (28 days). I ate a few sweet potatoes along the way for B vitamins.

iirc vitamin b12 is essentially non-existent in vegan diets. So it's important to either eat meats/seafood, eat a vegan food fortified in it, or take a supplement (the later two are equivalent, just different delivery mechanism)

It's trivial to supplement. Just add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast to anything. It tastes cheesy.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#345

Post by tharkun__ »

mrguyorama wrote: post #225
com2kid wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That list is ... suspect? > Lowfat yogurt I've never been satiated eating lowfat yogurt. I actually recently started buying high fat yogurt (10g+ of fat) and it is super satiating. Given I can eat 3x the amount of lowfat yogurt and still not be full, I'm not buying it. > Watermelon Maybe due to bloating from water? > Bean sprouts I challenge anyone to get full eating just bean sprouts. Again, they are more akin to dr…

>Has anyone in the history of humanity ever been satiated eating popcorn? To be fair I know a few people who go to the movies and eat only a small bit, but most people I know can easily down an entire large bag and it'll have no impact on their appetite soon after. I'll take this one. I actually 100% agree that list is useless, but an entire bag of microwave popcorn is extremely satiating to me. It's the perfect midn…

That's not what satiated is really about though. Its like the other suggestions like watermelon. You feel full from all the water you just ate. And very soon after you will be hungry again and crave more sugar. Same with the popcorn. Soon after, maybe less soon than watermelon, sure, you will be hungry again. Meaning you definitely can go eat that burger and fries after the film. Not good ;) Eating that microwave bag slowly hopefully means you'll just go to bed before you're hungry but you definitely will be hungry again for breakfast. If instead you just had a huge steak in front of the TV (nothing else, just steak. If it's a good one, then no salt or pepper needed even, never mind a sauce) you will probably not want to eat again until lunch the next day. Unless your body is just always in sugar and carb craving mode of course. You'll have to get it out of that and get your system working properly again.

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#346

Post by monktastic1 »

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…

> eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time.

I don't understand the motivation to make such a guarantee. It's as though you assume there are many people on HN who have never tried eating two eggs in the same meal. Do you maybe live in a place where eggs are rare (or not commonly eaten)?

(For what it's worth, my personal experience matches that of others here: two eggs would be a comically small breakfast.)

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#347

Post by [deleted] »

seadan83 wrote: post #164
sph wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obesity is not a disease of over-eating, it is a disease of managing hunger. Indeed it is, and the solution to managing hunger (i.e. returning your whole insulin and leptin system to a more optimal baseline) is NOT going for a 90% carbohydrate diet. That's exactly why we have a bloody obesity epidemic. It's a fun thought experiment, but reading the comments in here people actually think this is genius and sustainab…

My unsupported personal belief is that the human body processes different carbohydrates in very different ways. Carbs that come from starch are not equivalent to carbs from cane sugar, and yet again not equivalent to honey, and again not equivalent to high fructose corn sryup, and again different from breads & pasta. Ratio of fiber to carbohydrate and how that carbohydrate is processed by the body is also important a…

[deleted]

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#348

Post by [deleted] »

autoexec wrote: post #255
seadan83 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My unsupported personal belief is that the human body processes different carbohydrates in very different ways. Carbs that come from starch are not equivalent to carbs from cane sugar, and yet again not equivalent to honey, and again not equivalent to high fructose corn sryup, and again different from breads & pasta. Ratio of fiber to carbohydrate and how that carbohydrate is processed by the body is also important a…

> Unrelated, and unsolicited 2 cents, IMO it's all about eating as many fibrous and leafy greens as possible. At that point, a moderate side of lean meat, potato, carb, practially whatever - does not matter so long as the fibrous and leafy greens are the majority source of calories. If you eat a meal with a small steak and a baked potato, how many pounds of salad would you need to consume to get the majority of your…

[deleted]

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#349

Post by monktastic1 »

tpoacher wrote: post #226
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 find protein and fat way more satiating than, well, anything else. For example, eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time. That's not what satiety means (at least in this context), right? I'm reading OP's definition as "you'll eat less [calories] per sitting because you'll feel satiated more quickly", rather than your "your feeling of non-h…

One is "given the same calories, you'll be full longer." The other is "given fewer calories, you'll be full for as long." Surely those aren't orthogonal?

Re: Thoughts on the potato diet

#350

Post by chihuahua »

monktastic1 wrote: post #346
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…

> eat 2 eggs for breakfast and I guarantee you won't even think a out food again until lunch time, if not dinner time. I don't understand the motivation to make such a guarantee. It's as though you assume there are many people on HN who have never tried eating two eggs in the same meal. Do you maybe live in a place where eggs are rare (or not commonly eaten)? (For what it's worth, my personal experience matches that…

If "2 eggs for breakfast and you won't think about food again until hours later" were true, it would be the world's easiest and most effective diet: eat 2 eggs (2x75 calories), the next time you feel hungry (afternoon), eat another 2 eggs, then have a MASSIVE 1200 calorie dinner. Total = 1500 calories for the day - substantial weight loss would be guaranteed. In practice, this doesn't work because eggs are not hugely satiating.
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