What I like best about the potato diet is that it makes people realize that "carbs" aren't the problem. Additionally, these new diabetes drugs (eg. Wegovy) used as designer weight loss drugs are GLP-1 agonists, GLP-1 is a satiety hormone, eating tons of potatoes causes a massive release of GLP-1. As I've said for years, potatoes are nature's weight loss pill.
Fascinating. I believe that what I've learned today is here to stay. I'm having baked potatoes for supper and will continue my own experiment.
Also, "[...]that its real effect is to make published papers appear trustworthy and credible" feels like a slap on the face. The sudden realization that not only (pretty much) everything is about appearing trustworthy, credible, etc. but also a simple peer review.
Nice article. I must point out, though, that the so-called zombie salmon in the video was alive. That beat-up, rotten look is typical for Alaska salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Once they spawn and die, they look even worse.
I have a lot of chronic health issues, metabolic syndrome runs in my family (although I have always had closer to an underweight BMI), and supplementing potassium has helped a lot of them. I tried to get feedback about a possible potassium wasting disorder as I've been in the ER with hypokalemia but the nephrologist shut me down.
It's my theory many people have "mild" potassium wasting conditions such as Bartter and Gitelman syndrome that will never be diagnosed because as my nephrologist put it "you'd have to be taking 100meq if you really had this" DESPITE the wikipedia pages stating they can be "asymptomatic".
The other interesting relationship with potassium is PMDD - the birth control pill that was approved to treat it has a progesterone that is a potassium sparing diuretic, and someone ran a study giving 600mg of supplemental potassium to women with PMDD which led to a remission in symptoms.
Potassium wasting disorders need to be looked at more seriously for a number of conditions.
Also, anyone who wants to try the potato diet, please be wary of the oxalate content especially in baked potato, at 20 a day you'd be getting around 2000mg oxalates which isn't good for your kidney or body.
“For those of you who are just joining us, the potato diet is a diet where you try to get most of your calories (>95%) from potatoes. You can have drinks like coffee and tea. You can season the potatoes with salt, spices, and whatever hot sauce you want. You can even cook with oil. The only thing we asked people to entirely avoid was dairy (see original post for details). “
Thank you for this article. I want the potato diet to work. I have struggled with my weight all my life and it would be hilarious if the potato, that I hated since childhood, would be my salvation. I’m going to read the Potato Hack next. I’ve just finished my first plate of breakfast potatoes. Thanks again.
This is fascinating. If this becomes a book, I'd love to hear about what, if anything, is known about upper safety levels of potassium/oxalate intake (in people without kidney disease), how other monofood diets stack up in potassium content (fruititarian would be high, too, for example - I get the lion's share of my potassium with some apricots in the morning). I feel like the general principle here is pretty much the Pollan formula: "eat food, not too much,* mostly plants." (In spite of some of the "riffs" SMTM reported last year.) Then again, I sincerely enjoy potatoes and other veg without a lot of added fat, so I may be calorically underestimating how people interpreted allowable preparation.
Part of what I wonder about with the potato diet as evangelized is the emphasis on the part of some of the evangelists on its "low palatability," which skirts dangerously close to classic diet culture asceticism. It seems like the major personalities promoting this are men, so they may not have some of the messaging fatigue women have around being expected to forgo all pleasures.
Another issue that troubled me reading some evangelists for this system was the recommendation to limit exercise. I saw this in the 90s when comp sci guys discovered low-carb dieting and crowed that they could eat like obligate carnivores and lose weight without dieting. Exercise has so many positive regulatory effects in the human body that no or low exercise seems like a poor addition (subtraction?) not least because people who exercise regularly often find appetite to be regulated rather than increased - if they are consistent enough with the exercise. Once someone is deconditioned, exercising to restore conditioning may well increase appetite, leading to feelings of failure on the food pattern.
The most interesting SMTM riff for my money was "potatoes + gummi worms." I'm impressed that anyone lost weight on this diet, because I can never, ever be full enough to keep from eating whatever pure sugar option is right in front of me. I would toss that candy back with no off-switch. Again, the individual was a man, so it makes me wonder about gendered messaging and other phenomena. The only way that could work for me would be if I had a candy dispenser that gave me no more than a serving or two per day and that I was convinced could not be hacked, because otherwise I'd be like a socially isolated rat in a bare cage frantically investigating that cocaine lever all day long.
What I like best about the potato diet is that it makes people realize that "carbs" aren't the problem. Additionally, these new diabetes drugs (eg. Wegovy) used as designer weight loss drugs are GLP-1 agonists, GLP-1 is a satiety hormone, eating tons of potatoes causes a massive release of GLP-1. As I've said for years, potatoes are nature's weight loss pill.
Fascinating. I believe that what I've learned today is here to stay. I'm having baked potatoes for supper and will continue my own experiment.
Also, "[...]that its real effect is to make published papers appear trustworthy and credible" feels like a slap on the face. The sudden realization that not only (pretty much) everything is about appearing trustworthy, credible, etc. but also a simple peer review.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention Tim Steele and all the work he did on the potato hack. https://potatohack.com
Just couldn't fit it in! Maybe if this all becomes a book...
It already is a book The Potato Hack: Weight Loss Simplifiedhttps://amzn.eu/d/az6Urtv
Also good stuff at https://criticalmas.org/best-of/potato-hack-diet/
Nice article. I must point out, though, that the so-called zombie salmon in the video was alive. That beat-up, rotten look is typical for Alaska salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Once they spawn and die, they look even worse.
The more you know!
Hey, I'd like to add that there have been studies showing the relationship between potassium consumption and BMI/metabolic syndrome
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31159504/
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2689
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0021915013003912
I have a lot of chronic health issues, metabolic syndrome runs in my family (although I have always had closer to an underweight BMI), and supplementing potassium has helped a lot of them. I tried to get feedback about a possible potassium wasting disorder as I've been in the ER with hypokalemia but the nephrologist shut me down.
It's my theory many people have "mild" potassium wasting conditions such as Bartter and Gitelman syndrome that will never be diagnosed because as my nephrologist put it "you'd have to be taking 100meq if you really had this" DESPITE the wikipedia pages stating they can be "asymptomatic".
The other interesting relationship with potassium is PMDD - the birth control pill that was approved to treat it has a progesterone that is a potassium sparing diuretic, and someone ran a study giving 600mg of supplemental potassium to women with PMDD which led to a remission in symptoms.
Potassium wasting disorders need to be looked at more seriously for a number of conditions.
Also, anyone who wants to try the potato diet, please be wary of the oxalate content especially in baked potato, at 20 a day you'd be getting around 2000mg oxalates which isn't good for your kidney or body.
I am wondering if they were plain potatoes? Or were they embellished? For example w cheese or beans or salsa or butter?
SAME, Karen. SAME!
Checked their website!
Here we go:
“For those of you who are just joining us, the potato diet is a diet where you try to get most of your calories (>95%) from potatoes. You can have drinks like coffee and tea. You can season the potatoes with salt, spices, and whatever hot sauce you want. You can even cook with oil. The only thing we asked people to entirely avoid was dairy (see original post for details). “
Thank you for this article. I want the potato diet to work. I have struggled with my weight all my life and it would be hilarious if the potato, that I hated since childhood, would be my salvation. I’m going to read the Potato Hack next. I’ve just finished my first plate of breakfast potatoes. Thanks again.
This is fascinating. If this becomes a book, I'd love to hear about what, if anything, is known about upper safety levels of potassium/oxalate intake (in people without kidney disease), how other monofood diets stack up in potassium content (fruititarian would be high, too, for example - I get the lion's share of my potassium with some apricots in the morning). I feel like the general principle here is pretty much the Pollan formula: "eat food, not too much,* mostly plants." (In spite of some of the "riffs" SMTM reported last year.) Then again, I sincerely enjoy potatoes and other veg without a lot of added fat, so I may be calorically underestimating how people interpreted allowable preparation.
Part of what I wonder about with the potato diet as evangelized is the emphasis on the part of some of the evangelists on its "low palatability," which skirts dangerously close to classic diet culture asceticism. It seems like the major personalities promoting this are men, so they may not have some of the messaging fatigue women have around being expected to forgo all pleasures.
Another issue that troubled me reading some evangelists for this system was the recommendation to limit exercise. I saw this in the 90s when comp sci guys discovered low-carb dieting and crowed that they could eat like obligate carnivores and lose weight without dieting. Exercise has so many positive regulatory effects in the human body that no or low exercise seems like a poor addition (subtraction?) not least because people who exercise regularly often find appetite to be regulated rather than increased - if they are consistent enough with the exercise. Once someone is deconditioned, exercising to restore conditioning may well increase appetite, leading to feelings of failure on the food pattern.
The most interesting SMTM riff for my money was "potatoes + gummi worms." I'm impressed that anyone lost weight on this diet, because I can never, ever be full enough to keep from eating whatever pure sugar option is right in front of me. I would toss that candy back with no off-switch. Again, the individual was a man, so it makes me wonder about gendered messaging and other phenomena. The only way that could work for me would be if I had a candy dispenser that gave me no more than a serving or two per day and that I was convinced could not be hacked, because otherwise I'd be like a socially isolated rat in a bare cage frantically investigating that cocaine lever all day long.
Anyway, interesting stuff!
* where much = calorically