Eating a potato-only diet might sound like a counter-intuitive way to lose weight, but for Andrew Taylor – the man who lived off spuds for a year, it’s been a life saver.
At the start of his weight loss journey at the beginning of 2016, Mr Taylor – a self-confessed food addict – weighed 151.7 kilograms.
Instead of following a prescribed diet and fitness plan to shift 50 kilos, Mr Taylor – who shares his journey on his Facebook page Spud Fit – took radical action as a way to break his dependence on unhealthy food by eliminating everything except the humble spud.
‘Potatoes came up as being the best choice. They’ve got the most amounts of scientific evidence behind them,’ he previously told Daily Mail Australia.
Before and after: Andrew Taylor credits a diet of potatoes for his 50 kilogram weight loss
The self-described food addict took radical action to break his dependence on unhealthy food by eliminating everything except the humble spud
‘They’ve got all the carbs and proteins and fats and minerals and fibre and everything else.’
While it’s unlikely Mr Taylor’s restrictive diet is one that would be given the tick by Australian nutritionists, some experts aren’t ruling out its validity either.
According to a report by Australian Popular Science – which doesn’t advocate for diet of potatoes – it is possible extract enough nutritional value from just eating potatoes to maintain health.
‘The traditional white potato contains all the essential amino acids you need to build proteins, repair cells, and fight diseases.
‘And eating just five of them a day would get you there,’ wrote journalist Ellen Airhart.
‘If you sustained on white potatoes alone, you would eventually run into vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That’s where sweet potatoes come in’
‘However, if you sustained on white potatoes alone, you would eventually run into vitamin and mineral deficiencies. That’s where sweet potatoes come in.’
By including orange potatoes in the mix, the potato eater will be getting their recommended daily dose of Vitamin A, and Vitamin E.
‘No one on a diet of sweet potatoes and white potatoes would get scurvy, a famously horrible disease that happens due to a lack of Vitamin C and causes the victim’s teeth to fall out,’ the writer claimed.
Mr Taylor said his potato-only diet helped with a range of health issues including improving his cholesterol level and blood pressure.
Mr Taylor ate between three and four kilograms of potatoes every day
His claims about the benefits of potato have also been backed by science.
‘For the money and your blood pressure, you can’t beat a traditional baked spud,’ Joan Salage Blake, a clinical nutrition professor at Boston University has previously said.
In addition to helping him lose more than 50 kilos, Mr Taylor also said his potato-only diet had eased feelings of depression and anxiety.
The spud-only food plan involved cooking massive batches of mashed, boiled or baked spuds
Before embarking on the spud-only food plan, Mr Taylor said he’d been spending his days eating deep-fried food, ice cream, cake, chocolate and pizza.
In a previous interview Mr Taylor revealed that although there’s little variation to his diet – which involved cooking massive batches of mashed, boiled or baked spuds – he’d managed to stick to his strenuous food plan for over a year.
‘I’ve not had a single slip up. It’s been quite amazing to me as well.’
Before embarking on any change to your diet, consult your doctor.