An Australian man is 100 days into a challenge to eat only potatoes for a year
There are plenty of odd, complex diets out there, but this one is simple to explain.
An Australian man has set out to eat nothing but potatoes for one year, as part of a challenge to lose weight and to break a comfort eating habit.
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Andrew Taylor, 36, from Melbourne has been on his difficult-sounding journey since New Year's Day, recently pushing past the 100 day mark.
He has lost 32.1 kilograms (70.5 pounds) in the time that he has been on the diet plan, trimming down from his original weight 151.7 kilograms (332 pounds) on day one, to 119.6 kilograms (255 pounds) on day 100.
Taylor told Mashable Australia he had a check-up and blood test with his doctor last Friday, who is also a nutritionist, and he is fighting fit.
"It's going really well, and I'm in good health," Taylor said. "There are no issues to worry about, and I've lost a heap of weight so far."
The rather unconventional diet plan started when Taylor was thinking about how he had lost weight plenty of times, but would always seem to put it back on again.
"That thought process led me to think that I had a problem with food addiction," he said. "I thought if I can't quit food totally, then I could find one food that would keep me healthy, and then I could quit all other foods."
Taylor then spent weeks researching on whether surviving on one food would be theoretically possible. He discovered it been done plenty of times before, especially with the humble potato, which was the food source he decided on.
Initially, the diet plan was only going to last one or two months, but Taylor changed his mind and decided to do it for a year. So does eating nothing but potatoes get boring? Surprisingly, Taylor reckons it's not all that bad.
"I thought it was going to be a massive challenge, where sticking to potatoes would be a battle of mental toughness and I wasn't confident enough that I'd be able to do it, to be honest," Taylor said. "It's been not at all like that. It's been quite easy, which is a huge surprise to me. Apart from the first week, of course."
Taylor tries to keep his potatoes "as boring as possible."
Taylor tries his best to keep his potatoes "as boring as possible," including not using oil, in order to retrain his brain to get comfort and emotional support from other areas of life instead of food. Ninety percent of his meals are either boiled, mashed or baked, with "a little bit of sauce or herbs and spices" on top. No fries for him.
Apart from support from friends, family, and now random members of the public on his Facebook page, Taylor has also attracted a sponsor to supply his potatoes. The owners of a local fruit and vegetable shop called Tesoriero & Luca Bros, who had heard of his journey, have been providing him with potatoes since early February and will continue to do so until he has completed his diet.
"Now I'm not even paying for potatoes anymore," Taylor said.
Charlene Grosse, an accredited dietitian and spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia, is concerned that a diet like this cuts out whole food groups, limiting variety and increasing deficiencies with multiple nutrients.
"We know that potatoes are fine as part of a healthy diet, and they're a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin C, potassium and B vitamins," Grosse said. "But we also know they're very low in protein, fats and quite a lot of multivitamins -- just having those potatoes will make it difficult to meet his requirements."
Grosse believes that there are alternatives that will help Taylor lose weight and reduce his comfort eating habit, such as identifying what is triggering the emotional eating and looking at ways to manage it.
"This is an experiment that I'm just doing for me."
"Avoiding foods and limiting it to one isn't changing a behaviour -- at the moment he's getting the media hype and the attention, so it's sort of a motivator, but long term those behaviours will start to creep back in again," she said. "It's a learned response, and different triggers, whether it's environmental or stress, will trigger those comfort eating measures."
As to whether Taylor recommends the potato-only diet, he said that it's really just something he's doing for himself.
"This is an experiment that I'm just doing for me, and sharing it with whoever's interested. I'm not a diet expert, I'm not a doctor, I'm not the one that should be recommending diets to anyone.
"If someone wants to do it, I'd really recommend they do their research and get medical supervision. If they're comfortable and happy with it, then they can make their own decision, rather than going with what I say," he said.
You can follow Taylor's progress on his Facebook page.
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