Stephans new post on Potatoes page

[Anand Srivastava]

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...-part-iii.html

Interesting that people could survive mostly on potatoes (even including small amounts of grains), without getting any insulin resistance.

There are also a couple of studies where subjects (n = 5) ate only potatoes and animal fats for a whole year, and still stayed strong and healthy.

Another guy is on a new n=1 study of potato and animal fat for 2 months.

[Chaohinon]

While potatoes aren't particularly nutritious foods, they are very filling, which is what sets them apart from grains and sugar.

[breadsauce]

I was so glad to read to read Stephan's post(s) on potatoes. I've added them back since reading that - smallish amounts - with no bad and some good results. So pleased too to find how nutritious they are - and a good source of potassium. Also - if cooked in good quality fat - presumably of vit D.

I'm going to start making dauphinois again with plenty of onion, garlic and cream - prebiotics, fat, the benefits of garlic - it sounds like magic!

[Rivvin]

I want to eat white potatoes so bad... I miss potatoes and melty cheeses and a good ol baked potato with butter. I love my sweet potatoes but I just don't know how I feel about the white potato even after this article.

It's been hammered into me for years now how bad and evil this potato is. Despite this article, white potatoes still contain lectins and anti-nutrients and tons of carbs.

[Lewis]

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...-part-iii.html

Interesting that people could survive mostly on potatoes ...

I haven't read the post - thanks for the link - but I'm not surprised. Many people in early modern Europe seem to have been doing just that - surviving mostly on potatoes. Ireland is only the most obvious example. In fact, the potato was such an efficient source of nourishment that some populations expanded quite a lot on it.

http://www.amazon.com/POTATO-STORY-V...dp/0330481312/

The more you can add richer foods the better, but people did get by on potatoes and not a lot else.

[Anand Srivastava]

@chaohinon

If you read the article, Dr.Stephan is saying that, people have lived all their lives eating little but potatoes, and have been healthy. It is very counter intuitive for it to be nutritionally very poor but able to support people for a very long time. Look at the nutrition data results on Potatoes. Potatoes are much more nutritive than most fruits, and would go neck in neck with the best of them. The nutrient to energy ratio might be poorer compared to leafy greens but so is the anti-nutrient ratio as well. You cannot eat a whole lot of leafy greens without feeling side effects, but you can eat a lot of potatoes.

The carb density might not agree with people having low insulin sensitivity.

[MalPaz]

I want to eat white potatoes so bad... I miss potatoes and melty cheeses and a good ol baked potato with butter. I love my sweet potatoes but I just don't know how I feel about the white potato even after this article.

It's been hammered into me for years now how bad and evil this potato is. Despite this article, white potatoes still contain lectins and anti-nutrients and tons of carbs.

you wont kno until you try...so try it once... make mental note then youll know

[gini]

This guy is eating only potatoes for 60 days: http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog...rom=blog_last3

[buffalo]

Love the potato!

Although it's great to see this article by Stephan, as I was giving second thoughts to my high potato consumption after reading Cordain's work.

Interesting that people could survive mostly on potatoes (even including small amounts of grains), without getting any insulin resistance.

Stephan says in a comment on his potato article, "High carbohydrate consumption per se does not lead to fasting hyperinsulinemia. That is a myth that is often repeated but I've never seen it supported by evidence."

High fructose consumption and high omega-6 consumption I've seen evidence of leading to problems of insulin resistance. In people who have insulin resistance, going low-carb will always lower their insulin levels, but it's merely an assumption that it's the carbs themselves which cause the insulin resistance.

[piano-doctor-lady]

I wondered about Chinese doing well on all that white rice, three meals a day. Yet, even having fried foods with it, so many were fit, thin as rakes, incredibly energetic, and seemed totally healthy. So .... why do so many Americans have to count carb grams if they are not to turn into apple-shaped diabetics?

And then I managed to see Dr. Mercola's video interview with Dr. Johnson, who is an expert of fructose and uric acid and how they cause metabolic syndrome. What he said was that it's not glucose which sets up the high uric acid (which causes the metabolic syndrome symptoms like high blood pressure, obesity, insulin resistance and the rest) ---- it's fructose, which has to be processed in the liver.

So, that made sense: the Chinese could gulp down starch (all glucose, in chains) and do fine, but once they added sweet soft drinks, soda and Coca Cola, there they were, as bad off as all the rest of us.

And once insulin resistance and all that rest of it, like leptin resistance is set up, THEN the starch keeps it going by keeping insulin high.

So yes, whole cultures might do fine getting a lot of their sustenance from potatoes ..... so long as they didn't have sweets, too much honey, too much dried fruit, and so on. On the other hand, the rest of us need to watch out if we are carrying a spare tire, because the insulin resistance will have to be totally overcome and our livers healed from fatty degeneration before we should be eating that much carb again.