POTATOES COULD be the secret to losing weight – but only if you are willing to eat potatoes and nothing but potatoes for an entire year.
That’s what Andrew Taylor did back at the start of 2016., as the Daily Mail reports.
A self-confessed food addict, who regularly turned to food in times of anxiety and depression, back then Taylor tipped the scales at 151.7kg.
A year later, however, he was closer to 100kg - so, what was the secret to his sudden, dramatic weight loss?
There was no prescribed diet or fitness plan at the heart of Taylor’s turnaround.
Instead he took a very different and no less radical course of action, eliminating everything from his diet apart from potatoes.
“Potatoes came up as being the best choice. They've got the most amounts of scientific evidence behind them,” he previously told Daily Mail.
“They’ve got all the carbs, and proteins and fats and minerals and fibre and everything else.”
The all-potato diet worked wonders for Taylor.
Not only did he find his waistline significantly reduced but they also helped reduce the feelings of depression and anxiety that previously dogged his day to day life.
Now Taylor is looking to spread the word about the wonders of the humble potato.
He’s launched his very own Spudfit business, promoting the benefits of an all-potato diet in helping people lose weight and feel better.
According to Taylor, the diet has helped people tackle issues like diabetes and high blood pressure along with weight loss.
He’s not the first man to lose weight eating nothing but potatoes.
A few years back, the head of the Washington State Potato Commission Chris Voigt shed an astonishing amount of weight eating nothing but – you’ve guessed it – potatoes.
According to Irish Central, Voigt successfully lost 21 pounds in the space of just two short months and also managed to reduce his cholesterol levels by an incredible 60 points by eating nothing but spuds.
But before you go rushing off to the chipper, it’s worth noting he had to adhere to a very strict diet regime.
It centres on the following four key steps:
- Eat only potatoes, morning, noon and night. Eat them baked, mashed, steamed, roasted, and juiced, but never, ever, fried.
- Never add milk or butter. Use Chives, mint, cumin, turmeric, fennel, caraway, paprika, dill, nutmeg, rosemary, and fresh garlic. Use potato juice or herbal teas to aid in making mashed potatoes.
- Very important - Leave the skins on the potatoes. The skins account for over 75% of the potato's mineral value.
- Drink plenty of water and herbal teas.
Voigt put the diet to the test, in part, to prove to Washington health officials that potatoes remain a rich source of nutrients and should not be banned from school meals.
He eventually won too, with the Senate stepping in to ensure they remained on school menus far and wide.
So, if you’re looking for a natural, low cost, weight loss diet, you could do worse than opt for a month of the world’s greatest vegetable, the potato.
