Speaking of only eating one thing for the rest of your life, I saw a woman on TV the other night that hadn’t eaten anything but french fries for 23 years. Since she had a child, and hadn’t died of scurvy, I got curious about just how good for you potatoes are.
I once had a stint of extreme poverty in college and had a diet that was about 85 percent potatoes and 15 percent ramen noodles in the middle of winter. I actually stopped menstruating after 3 months of that. Thankfully that point coincided with me getting a new job, so I was only six weeks late (and no, I wasn’t pregnant–had to go to PP twice for tests just to make sure). That’s the only time in my life I have ever missed a period. I hope that lady takes a multivitamin.
Don’t know if it’s true, but I read once that at one time practically all the people of Ireland lived on nothing but potatoes cooked in skim milk, or maybe it was buttermilk.
Cecil to the rescue. It doesn’t directly answer your question; his column is potatoes-and-milk diet. Presumably that means that some stuff in milk, like Vitamin D, is deficient in potatoes. Both lack molybdenum.
Were you very thin? I understand that you need a sufficient amount of body fat to have periods. Some athletes have their periods stop. And I do know you also need sufficient fat in your diet too. Did you eat french fries or have your potatoes in another form?
Yeah, I noticed calcium was missing off that list, too. If the lady in question dunked her fries in ketchup, though, that would up the nutritional value of her diet a bit!
I don’t know about “thriving,” but it would suit the hell out of me to have Outback cheese and bacon fries at every meal every day. I’d probably want a little variety some point, but I think I could go every day with that, at least until my bypass surgery.
I ate nothing but homemade French Fries (with skins on) every other day while on an alternate-24-hour-period-fast for about six weeks. I lost 15 pounds, but one of the lymph nodes under an arm became swollen and painful. I was also walking at least 40 miles per week, and sometimes more than twice that. After this experience, however, I began testing my blood sugar daily and consulted with my GP who read several time my blood pressure at around 120/70 or so (can’t remember exactly).
I wouldn’t recommend this diet, based on my personal experience. At least I changed my diet quickly to include more varied vegetables and the occasional animal protein.
