Is Samwise Gamgee Right About Potatoes?
Potatoes are controversial in the Primal and paleo world. They represent a bolus of dietary starch, which can wreak havoc on the insulin resistant, but they are undeniably whole, real foods that don’t require much processing beyond simple heating. Grains and legumes, on the other hand, are tiny, disparate sources of calories that need soaking, fermenting, and extensive heating to be palatable (and they’ll still mess you up), but potatoes are big, dense, and obviously food. Chimps have been known to use sticks to dig up and eat wild tubers, and they’ve got even less salivary amylase to break down starch than we do. Evidence exists for human consumption of roots and tubers from multiple sites spanning multiple time periods: Northern Europe (specifically Poland), in the terminal Paleolithic and early Mesolithic. Clearly, we have the physiology (amylase production, glucose metabolism), the tools (fire, hearths, digging implements), and the motivation (attraction to dense caloric sources with negligible or easily neutralized anti-nutrients) to consume starchy tubers.
So what’s the hold up? Why do I generally recommend limiting their intake?
As I mentioned in the rice post, a human metabolic tabula rasa can handle all macronutrients in whole food form without metabolic dysfunction. That’s why you get folks like the Kitavans eating a high starchy tuber diet with excellent health and fit figures, or the supremely healthy pre-colonial Tokelauans, who ate a mixed diet high in saturated fat from coconuts and supported with plenty of yams and breadfruit (similar to a plantain) that amounted to a roughly 52/36/12 fat/carb/protein macronutrient split. Not low-carb (or low-fat, for that matter), but they were starting from scratch using ancestral whole foods.
So, before you start frying up some hash browns in that bacon fat or enjoying an extra large baked potato with your steak, ask yourself: are you Samwise Gamgee or Frodo Baggins?
Remember the Lord of the Rings flicks (yes, I know the books are better, but my take on this relies strictly on the actors portraying the characters and a specific line used in the movies)? Besides being masterfully crafted amalgamations of Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology, fairy tales, and Judeo-Christian theology, they also represent an interesting – if unwitting – treatise on nutrition, metabolism, and the necessity of dietary individuation, especially when it comes to potatoes (who knew?!). Samwise Gamgee, as portrayed by Sean Astin in the movies, waxes exuberant about the myriad uses of the waxy tubers: “Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!” But should we listen to the portly halfling’s views on potatoes? I mean, the guy walked clear across Middle Earth, all the way to Mordor and up the face of Mt. Doom, without losing a single pound. If anything, he gained a bit.
And what of Frodo? It’s true that Frodo was able to subsist entirely on Elvish bread while staying lithe and lean, but it was magic Elvish bread known as lembas. The Elves (stay with me here…) were immortal, giving them plenty of time to develop a mode of grain processing that destroyed all dietary lectins, gluten, and phytic acid while preserving nutrient, vitamin, and mineral content. Besides, Frodo got a lot of low level, slow moving cardio – hiking, really – and didn’t eat much fructose or seed oil, so his insulin sensitivity was adequate to deal with non-optimal food sources. He could eat potatoes (or lembas) for days and not gain an ounce, or worry about metabolic derangement.
But Sam? Sam reacts differently to potatoes. He’s a chubby, emotional eater who’s prone to manic excitement and instinctual distrust of outsiders. He clings to starchy foods, even as his ability to effectively metabolize them without excessive fat accumulation falters. Sam’s an active guy, too, putting in a ton of hiking, hill walking, bouldering, and hobbit-carrying, but he can’t seem to shake those pounds. Sound familiar?
You might say he’s a fair approximation of your standard SAD-eater straining away on the treadmill. His metabolism was damaged long before joining the Fellowship, and eating potatoes only makes it worse. Are you Sam or Frodo?
Of course, this is simply a playful way to illustrate my point: whether potatoes belong in your eating strategy may have a lot to do with the state of your metabolism.
My first impulse is to speak to the Samwises of the world: the metabolically-deranged, overweight, insulin-resistant men, women, and children (and even, horrifyingly, infants) who have lost the ability to handle glucose. They’re the ones who are most likely to be looking for a solution, while skinny (on the surface), fit (on the surface) folks tend to be satisfied with their current dietary path. Many of my readership started reading because they were overweight. A good chunk of this country, and indeed the entire world, is overweight. This is a problem. This is a problem that’s growing, quite literally and figuratively. And they may not have gotten overweight in the first place because of baked sweet potatoes with grass-fed butter, or Yukon golds roasted in duck fat, but those foods certainly aren’t going to help their current insulin-resistant predicament. Potatoes should be limited, or even outright eliminated, for this (large) subset of the population. For the lean and active, however, I don’t think a few red potatoes with dinner are anything to worry about.
The Final Word (There Isn’t One)
Deciding whether potatoes fit into your diet is ultimately a personal decision, but exactly how your body reacts to starch – in its current metabolic state, which, remember, is not set in stone – should be the major determinant. Other potential, secondary concerns with potato consumption exist, things like glycoalkaloids, macro- and micro-nutrient counts, intestinal permeability, and anecdotal accounts (including my own) of joint irritation, all of which I’ll get into next time, but for now, potatoes reside in dietary limbo. You guys are the deities here, folks. You get to decide who gets redeemed. You can be a loving, caring, selfless god who accepts everyone (including more weight around the midsection), or you can be a clever tactician, taking that which suits your current situation (think of the Greek gods, those immortals with very mortal flaws and foibles). If you’re still trying to lose thirty pounds, I’d go with the latter option and maybe hold off on the spuds.
(For my money, I’ll have what Gollum’s having, thank you. He rocked 5% body fat, a great strength-to-bodyweight ratio, retched at the thought of eating bread, and dined on whole, raw, living fish. I don’t recall him eating all that often, either, so I’m going to say he’s firmly in the IF camp, too. Yeah, Gollum was pretty Primal.)
What do you think? Can you eat potatoes and avoid fat gain? Did you have to lose the weight and reset the metabolism before you could partake? Let me know in the comments!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Being Scottish/Irish I must love potatoes (by law I think). I try to limit them to once a week or less and keep them to farm fresh reds, yukons and the like. They are perfect in that slow cooked beef or pork, right next to the carrots and onions!
I am curious, but what of potato skins? What are their role in the Paleo world?
Hey. It was Golem that didn’t like potatoes. He was pretty thin.
At the risk of sounding really really nerdy: You forgot to mention along with frodo’s slow moving cardio he was also doing heavy lifting. The ring got heavier as he approached mount doom.
Also
I am luckily blessed with a higher metabolism and good insulin tolerance. I can probably handle the odd potato and rice without any issue. However, I do prefer eating more meat and veggies than having potato. But sometimes i enjoy my baked potato with butter, sour cream and chives when we go out to eat. Especially if their “vegetable” of the night is “corn on the cob”.
Wow, this is a timely little ditty! I was just at our local farm when I saw a little bag of organic fingerlings that looked too good to resist. I don’t eat potatoes. I have an autoimmune condition that reacts very badly to nightshades of all kinds. In fact, I never, every buy potatoes… until today.
I bought them for our kids (all three of them). I thought it would be a nice little treat to have cooked up in my bison tallow with a light salting of oak-smoked sea salt, to accompany the garlic heavy pork chops we’ll be eating tonight.
I don’t see any harm in using potatoes as a treat here and there for someone who, like Mark said, has the metabolism for it. I would also avoid them entirely if there is any sort of autoimmune or inflammatory type conditions.
I love this analogy, because before I started eating PB-style, I joked about my “Hobbit Diet”: breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, etc. Basically, I got hungry every couple of hours. Now I only eat two or three times a day, and I would say that I’ve reached a more Frodo-like state where the occasional potato won’t hurt anything, but it’s not a regular part of my diet.
haha nice post Mark. The endpoint is perfect:
ultimately a personal decision
I ditched ‘em when I got onboard the PB bus. I like some sweet potato or yam periodically – they are just so much yummier imo.
I’m of Scottish extraction, too, and I love them, but merely looking at them makes me gain weight (and right in the belly). It’s hard, but I gotta let them go. *sniff*
I’d like to see some sort of comparison chart between sweet potatoes, butternut squash, red yams, and spaghetti squash. How do these types of squash stack up against the sweet potato varieties? Is there a caution for squash as well? I suppose this could be done on nutritiondata’s website, or maybe even fitday. Perhaps I’ll look at that this afternoon.
Oh yeah– I’d love to see a TUBER-O-METER or something.
I second that! Root tubers vs stem tubers, what has the best nutritional profile.. or glycemic load..
We eat them daily, up to 2-3 potatoes per person per day with no ill effects or fat going on. We bake, mash, shred and fry them up—or mix/mash them with less starchy sweet potatoes and carrots. I wish farm fresh or organic were an option for us, but even living in Idaho, since we are 2 hours from civilization we get nasty, garbage potatoes. Even then, we are healthy eating our modified Paleo/gluten free diet. Feeding a family would be prohibitively expensive—especially with 2 teenagers—if we didn’t add potatoes in to fill in the empty spaces
Would love to see your post-prandial blood sugar readings. Mine would spike for sure, but I often wonder what readings “normal” people really have eating like this.
if you choose to eat them, they are the easiest things in the world to grow yourself. cut one in quarters and bury it a few inches underground. water it and it will grow! no need to eat “garbage potatoes”
Potatoes, white rice, and corn. I’ve added these 3 things back into my diet. I’d say I eat 3-4 servings per week out of that group. I still keep off the gluten grains though.
I find it adds some variety back into my diet and keeps me from straying to the really bad stuff (see the aforementioned gluten grains). Plus, I wasn’t about to go through a summer BBQ season without some fire-roasted corn-on-the-cob, and now that the weather is cooling I will have some rice to go with my chili (since I still don’t eat beans).
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/18/130654483/paleolithic-diet-included-flour-made-from-cattails&sc=tw&cc=share
Definition of BOLUS
1
: a rounded mass: as
a : a large pill
b : a soft mass of chewed food
2
a : a dose of a substance (as a drug) given intravenously
b : a large dose of a substance given by injection for the purpose of rapidly achieving the needed therapeutic concentration in the bloodstream
Origin of BOLUS
Late Latin, from Greek bōlos lump
First Known Use: 1562
Great post!
My opinion,
There is nothing less wild than over-thinking simple, whole, real foods.
truth,
Intake of patatoes should be directly relational to activity level.
Bread was around 30,000 years ago -study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101018/india_nm/india522760
So how do they figure that just because some type of bread was made that that somehow becomes the primary food? They want to say this discovery of grinding flour means that these primal peoples did not eat primarily meat and veg. Tell me how these people found an unlimited supply of cattail roots.
1) Your comment makes no sense. “Tell me how these people found an unlimited suppy of cattail roots”? Really? Tell me how people found un unlimited suppy of meat. Tell me how people found an unlimited supply of vegetables. What?
2) I believe the actual study, not the Yahoo story, argues that bread made from cattail (and probably other) starchy substances was PART of the diet much earlier than previously thought, not that it was the PRIMARY component. Since before we were Heidelbergensis, the primary component of our diet was likely gathered fruit, vegetables and nuts, with meat coming in a strong second.
It’s called sarcasm. Both the Yahoo story and the NPR story say that this discovery proves that they did not live primarily on meat and vegetables. It is a stupid conclusion. Of course they ate anything and everything they could that was edible.
Helen: Re-read the story. It does NOT say that this proves early modern humans did not live primarily on meat and vegetables. Your reading comprehension needs some work, I think.
They don’t really offer any evidence of “bread”, just ground plant material. The resulting paste/powder could have been baked, made into a porridge, or eaten as is by babies. It’s all supposition.
It doesn’t matter if they were making bread or not…an extra 10,000yrs on our evolutionary time-line is only around a half of a percent. Or to be technical, a drop in the bucket.
Really? I find your lack of faith in the power of Natural Selection disturbing.
In humans alone, adult lactase production (aka lactose tolerance) and blue eye phenotypes appear and proliferate broadly in <10000 years.
Larry: I’m with you. Who’s to say they even ate it? Maybe it was used for another purpose entirely??
This was tuber bread, not grass-seed bread (ie: grains). Still starchy, but not the same as wonder bread.
Exactly, because despite the scare-quotes around process, primitive peoples made their best efforts to process plant foods into something safe to eat (and animal foods into products that could be stored and carried), whereas Wonder Bread is manufactured with callous disregard for the health consequences to those consuming it…
Remember: It was stoneground flour, different type of wheat. Flour is now ground so fine, it’s digested differently. (I get gut-wrenching pain reaction to ordinary breads, bagels, croissants, etc., but no pain the following morning if I eat Ezekial bread, for a sandwich.) I have been tested for celiac. That’s not the problem. Can remember having this pain since age 12. Deep black circles under the eyes since age 5. No pain with tabouli salad or pasta. I do have “wheat belly” so may drop all wheat products for a while.
Nice post Mark,
What are your thoughts on the peel of the potato? I know Mat Lalonde recommends eating tubers, but making sure to peel them first.
Stephan Guyenet also recommends peeled tubers, such as potatoes, as a healthy part of the human diet. Personally, I do just fine on them in moderation. When I make mashed potatoes for the kids, I add some raw milk and a ton of butter from pastured cows. It’s pretty hard to resist!
Thankfully, I never really had a poor reaction to potatoes. I still keep them in my diet and like to add them to hearty stews or have them Mashed with lots of butter and cream. Heaven!
It’s not a regular indulgence, but it is one that I will never give up.
Potatoes are the starch of choice in our household. I can’t really eat rice or noodles without feeling bloated and sick, and bread leaves me feeling hungry mere hours after, but I can eat a potato every week or so and feel good. I like reds or Yukons best. (My husband is a “Sam,” so he doesn’t eat them so much, but I’m trying to gain weight, so I guess I’m a “Frodo.”)
O yes, no corn either, of course. Corn is reserved for on-the-cob on the 4th of July, and that’s it.
Try it nixtamalized. Personally, I found that for me, eating cornmeal products (cornbread, for example; also, arepas, polenta) led to violent acid reflux, whereas masa products–tortillas, gorditas, grits, hominy, tamales–go down super-easy.
Nixtamalization breaks up the anti-nutrients and a lot of the corn gluten (I think this is called zein?) and also frees up the niacin. The meso-Americans only consumed corn this way–or fermented–but when maize spread elsewhere the preparation methods were lost.
I love tortillas and gorditas. They don’t cause bloat like rice seems to. Of course I dole cheese and full-fat yogurt with extra butter for good measure all over them. Sour cream and crema mexicana are good too…
Duh, masa is the FLOUR made from hominy, so hominy does not belong to the subset of masa products. It does however belong to the subset of nixtamalized maize products.
Clear as mud?
I find that I carry a bit more fat when I eat potatoes along with my meat and vegetables than when I go without. However, the amount is so negligible that it is hardly worth mentioning. Any side-effects that some experience from their consumption I also do not feel, such as joint irritation; while I do not try to downgrade others, it may just be confirmation bias.
Potatoes are also very useful if you do an extensive amount of anaerobic exercise. I go to college and bike around UC Santa Cruz, and if anyone has ever been there, they would know that you get a real workout just going from class to class! A diet with some supplementary potatoes (say, 3-4 a day mashed with butter) definitely helps me recover more quickly and have that boundless energy the next day.
Also, I feel no hunger swings and other symptoms of sugar addiction when eating potatoes; my eating regimen still consists of lunch and dinner, no breakfast, and a feeling of satiation for hours after every meal. You just have to strike an optimal balance.
Haha, if it’s possible this post made me love MDA even more
I’m a big LOTR fan (okay, nerd, whatever), and loved that analogy. I always wondered why Sam didn’t lose an ounce over that whole journey!
I love sweet potatoes and squash, but I do avoid white potatoes 99% of the time. I’ll have them at a gathering maybe once every few months, but even then it’s a minimal amount. The carb crash and joint inflammation from eating a big dose of white potatoes makes it not worth it.
I will continue to eat my 1-2 potatoes per week. I usually go for the sweet potato but enjoy a nice variety. Yukons gold are awesome tasting. Throw some butter or coconut oil on it for some healthy tasting fat!
Timely post – I started the Paleo Diet about 4 weeks ago – lost 12 pounds so far! Yay! I cut out potatoes completely. This weekend I’m going to a Wisconsin Fish Boil – which is boiled fish and potatoes, coleslaw, sweetbreads and Cherry Pie. I’m going to indulge in the boiled potatoes – we’ll see how I react after not having any for 4 weeks.
Celery root! I can’t say it enough. For hash browns, stews/soups and even mashing, celeriac rocks! Low GI, high flavor.
Are you saying that after a few months of primal eating and repairing our bodies, we can go back to eating potatoes?
I was surprised by how big of a staple potatoes used to be in my diet before I had any guidelines. When I turned Primal I was pleasantly shocked at how easy it was to forget about them. I thought it would be tough to ditch potatoes, but it was a non-thought! I’ll have a little bit every now and then since my insulin sensitivity seems to be at a great spot and my weight is in a good place as well. That’s what I tell my girlfriend when she respectfully challenges certain primal stuff: potatoes are REAL so I think we can eat them, but since we have knowledge about what they can mean for you, you should make a concious effort to eat them correctly!
At the risk of also being nerdy: Frodo survivded off of the ‘magic’ power of the ring for a while… talk about low carb, try no carb! Turns out Frodo is a posterchild for anorxia… never thought about that before
What about Golem/Smeagol? He regularly eats lots of fresh fish (and the occasional goblin child under the misty mountains). He’s probably the most primal of the bunch! Of course, he seems oblivious to produce. And with all that time spent underground, he probably has a pretty nasty vitamin D deficiancy. ;^)
I just saw the paragraph about Golem. Strong, yes but bad hair and skin. His time with the hobbits was probably the healthiest that he’d been in quite a while!
Right, Gollum didn’t get sun. He was low on vitamin D.
Not that low if he ate whole fishes!
He didn’t eat very much after Sauron tortured him; he was preoccupied with finding the ring.
If you can relate all future posts to Lord of the Rings as well, you have my undivided attention.
agreed
Also Agree
We eat the occasional sweet potato or yam, plenty of squash and some parsnips. You can eat like 10 parsnips for the carbs in one standard potato and they taste damn close, especially with all the good stuff on top.
oohhh and i love parsnips!!
this cracked me up… excellent analogy.
me too. pretty funny.
sweet potatoes are also delicious raw! Peel’em, cut’em into sticks or chips and enjoy.
you can eat sweet potatoes raw. however, they do contain trypsin inhibitors which make protein hard to digest.
Hey I think you’re being a bit harsh on poor old Sam! Not only does he have strength of character showing stalwart loyalty to Frodo but he also can’t have been in bad physical shape to have made the trek all the way to mount doom! LOL