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YouTubeA variant of the Potato Hack is to consume these potatoes for only breakfast and lunch; dinner is a regular meal. Another variation is the Potato Reset by Jeannine Elder — she includes non-starchy veggies and oil-free Whole Food Plant-Based dressings.
Andrew Taylor adopted the Potato Hack for 1 whole year! He then adopted Whole Food Plant-Based guidelines, and wrote books, developed a website and gave presentations to share his personal experience.
Books:
- (2018) Spud Fit: A whole food, potato-based guide to eating and living by Andrew Taylor and Mandy van Zanen (256 pages). This book has recipes and contributions from more than 90 plant-based advocates like Drs McDougall, Greger and Goldhamer.
- (2017) The DIY Spud Fit Challenge: A How-to Guide to Tackling Food Addiction With the Humble Spud by Andrew Taylor and Mandy van Zanen (66 pages).
YouTube: Spud Fit
Website: Spud Fit — Personal story — (free) Recipes.
(44 mins) Andrew Taylor lived on only potatoes for a whole year. At offset 10:04 (watch for 2 mins), Andrew gives examples of populations and individuals who have lived on primarily a diet of potatoes or sweet potatoes:
(a) Irish Diet: people from Ireland lived on mostly potatoes for a couple of centuries and went through a population boom.
(b) Okinawans (one of the 'Blue Zones' populations) traditionally got upwards of 95% of their calories from sweet potatoes (not potatoes).
(c) Papua New Guinea Highlanders ate almost only sweet potatoes. Prisoners of war who were given only potatoes to eat; they remained fit and healthy.
(d) A study in 1920s was conducted on a marathon running couple who ate potatoes only for 6 months. At the end of 6 months, they ran their personal best marathons. This study is cited in Potatoes by Dr John McDougall (citation number 7: The Value of Whole Potato in Human Nutrition by S K Kon and A Klein, Biochemical Journal, 22:258-260, 1928).
[To be precise, no population has lived on 100% potatoes-only for hundreds of years. Every culture complemented potatoes with other food sources. But eating potatoes-only for a few weeks (or a few months) could be an effective weight-loss technique, as exemplified by personal experiences and a few scientific studies on this subject.]
Andrew's Story at Today has some more information. Andrew dropped from 334 lbs to 217 lbs in an year; he lost 117 lbs. Andrew maintains SpudFit. He also wrote a book: Spud Fit: A Whole Food, Potato-Based Guide to Eating and Living (2018).
Features Andrew Taylor (the "Spud Fit" guy).
Chris Voigt is the Execute Director of the Washington State Potato Commission. In 2013, he ate just potatoes for 60 days straight!
Story at Forks Over Knives: (2013) Getting Well On Twenty Potatoes a Day by Jeff Novick narrates the personal story of Chric Voigt:
The article goes on to explain how Chris improved several health markers. In the end, Jeff Novick says:
Video: 60-Day Potato-Only Diet (5 mins, 2011)
Companion article at Dr McDougall's website: Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission.
Chris Kesser is not a Whole Food Plant-Based advocate. However, he described the Potato Diet in one of his presentations:
(6 min) Chris Kresser explains the key idea: to consume just boiled or baked potatoes the whole day. No sour cream, butter, salt, or any other toppings. Plain potatoes (but we can add lemon and herbal mixtures / spice mixtures).
Ideas in the video:
* If we cook and then cool the potatoes, resistant starch increases! If we re-heat and re-cool, resistant starch increases further!
[For technical details, see retrogradation, a process whereby a soluble starch becomes less soluble after heating and cooling. One of the big benefits of resistant starch is that it induces the microbiome to produce more butyrate, an essential metabolite for immune health of the digestive system, protecting against diseases of the colon. So the benefits extend well beyond weight loss.]
* If we eat potatoes for only two meals (breakfast and lunch), then we (overweight / obese people) lose about 1/2 lb per day. These meals should be cooked potatoes (boiled or baked) without any dressings.
* We may follow the Potato Diet for 3 days a week for 6 months and expect to lose about 36 lbs [I think this works only for overweight or obese people; people with normal weight should not experience such weight drops]
* We can cook potatoes on Sunday, then store them in a refrigerator. Over the rest of the week, we can re-heat potatoes for consumption.
* We should eat the skins too.
"The potato hack is a short-term intervention (3-5 days) where one eats nothing but potatoes." — Tim Steele. He wrote a book to explain why we should do this:
Book: The Potato Hack (276 pages, 2016) by Tim Steele.
A fast paced, information rich video by Mic the Vegan:
Book: Presto! How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette (368 pages, 2017).
Presto! chronicles Penn Jillette's unconventional weight loss journey. Topping 330 pounds and landing himself in the hospital, Jillette knew he had to make a lifestyle change. He adopted a Potato Diet for about 2 weeks, thanks to Ray Cronise. He then transitioned to a plant-based diet. Was it 100% plant-only? Not sure. Perhaps not. However, this is still an interesting read for The Potato Hack, a short-term weight loss technique.
(44 mins) Penn Jillette gave a talk at Google. At 11:44, he explains that his dietician (Ray Cronise) put him on a mono diet of potatoes only for 2 weeks. He then transitioned into a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet.
Book: The Potato Reset (100 pages, 2017) by Jeannine Elder outlines a strategy to adopt a potato-centric diet for a few days (possibly stretching out to a few weeks). Her strategy includes potatoes, non-starchy veggies and oil-free Whole Food Plant-Based dressings. See 3-Day Potato Reset (free PDF) for an overview.
Website: The Potato Reset has articles and free recipes.
YouTube: Potato Wisdom (hundreds of videos) — Potato recipe list.
Note: The Potato Hack, as practiced by Andrew Taylor and Chris Voigt, is minimalistic: it includes only potatoes, some lemon, herbs & spices. In contrast, The Potato Reset by Jeannine Elder includes a variety of non-starchy veggies and fat-free Whole Food Plant-Based sauces.
If I were doing the Potato Reset, I would also include copious amounts of leafy greens — these have very low calorie density and are nutrient rich. "Leafy Greens are the best veggies!" — Dr Greger. In addition, I would also include some berries ("Berries are the best fruit!" — Dr Greger).
If we augment The Potato Reset with leafy greens ("the best veggies" — Dr Greger) and berries ("the best fruits" — Dr Greger), we've come close to adopting the "Kand-Mool, Phal-Phool, Patti-Pani" food system from ancient India. Such a food system is super healing but if we plan to follow such a food system for prolonged periods of time (for months and years), we must be careful with food plate composition so that we get all micronutrients through our food plates. Towards this goal, it would be helpful to study raw vegan guidelines developed by Drs Rick and Karin Dina.
An overview of Jeannine Elder's "Potato Reset".
Yes. See Potatoes and Glycoalkaloids for Dr Greger's recommendation based by glycoalkaloids found in potato skins.
Can we avoid peeling potatoes? Yes! By consuming sweet potatoes and yams instead! :) Even though the word 'potato' is used in The Potato Diet, it allows for sweet potatoes & yams too! The diet is actually a "Starch Rich Tubers Diet". If I were following the Potato Diet, I would consume sweet potatoes and yams instead of potatoes.
This is not a Whole Food Plant-Based book. However, it has an idea for weight loss: to eat only potatoes for a few days! This idea has been adopted to transition into a Whole Food Plant-Based diet by many people, including Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller magic show fame.
This book outlined a potato-centric Whole Food Plant-Based food system. This book has contributions from dozens of plant-based advocates including Dr Greger and Dr McDougall.
At the beginning of 2016, in the depths of mental and physical despair, Andrew had a simple idea to treat food addiction by quitting food, in much the same way an alcoholic should quit alcohol. He ended up quitting all foods except potatoes, in a simple experiment to see what would happen. In the process, he lost considerable weight, became much fitter and the Potato Diet (also known as the Potato Hack) was born! See The Potato Hack for details.
A great book to discover potato-based recipes! "All recipes are vegan, nut free, legume free, oil free, soy free, grain free and gluten free. 35+ slimming & filling potato recipes" — Jeannine (author). The "About the Book" section says that "Most of the recipes in this book are SOS-Free".
Website: The Potato Reset has free recipes. See 3-Day Potato Reset (free PDF).
YouTube: Potato Wisdom (hundreds of videos) — Potato recipe list.
Presto! chronicles Penn Jillette's unconventional weight loss journey. Topping 330 pounds and landing himself in the hospital, Jillette knew he had to make a lifestyle change. He adopted a Potato Diet for about 2 weeks, thanks to Ray Cronise. He then transitioned to a plant-based diet. Was it 100% plant-only? Not sure. Perhaps not. However, this is still an interesting read for The Potato Hack, a short-term weight loss technique.
Many more may be found on YouTube.
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