[toyg]

I remember Kevin Smith talking about his first stab at dieting, following the instructions of the "guru" that got Penn Jillette lean: basically, he ate nothing but potatoes for something like 3 months.

The point wasn't that potatoes were particularly good for you, but to "reset" one's attitude towards food, eating only when hungry rather than for pleasure or to deal with stress - because after a few weeks, one is so tired of potatoes that they'll forego unnecessary eating.

In this sense, the potato diet is probably useless in itself, but might work in that "reset" role.

[CharlesW]

> I remember Kevin Smith talking about his first stab at dieting, following the instructions of the "guru" that got Penn Jillette lean

Penn's a very good writer and hacker (this is a temporary diet hack, after all), and if you're interested you can read more about this here: Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales: https://www.amazon.com/Presto-Pounds-Disappear-Other-Magical...

Penn credits Ray Cronise for literally saving his life. You can read his 2014 paper The "Metabolic Winter" Hypothesis: A Cause of the Current Epidemics of Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease, here: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/met.2014.0027

[ForkMeOnTinder]

This is the reason I do a potato month once a year. It's like a tolerance break from food, except you're not actually starving yourself.

[bee_rider]

I don’t understand how people could feel anything but love for potatoes, they are so perfect. Especially with a little salt and rosemary. And they have the perfect mouth-feel.

[basisword]

If I remember correctly you were allowed potatoes with no seasoning. So no butter, salt, pepper etc. The point was for it to basically be boring so that when you eventually have a bit of lettuce or a tomato you can’t help but love it. You no longer need sugar etc to really trigger your senses.

[ragazzina]

The link says:

- Seasonings are ok. Do what you can to keep yourself from getting bored. - Oil is ok.

Which sounds really strange - I can easily eat a pound of potatoes mashed with a fork with olive oil and salt for example, maybe more.

[bscphil]

> I can easily eat a pound of potatoes mashed with a fork with olive oil and salt for example

1 pound of white potatoes + 2 Tbsp olive oil is only about 550 calories, and about half that is the olive oil. You've got a long way to go for the day if you're not on a starvation diet.

[basisword]

Interesting (as you can tell I didn't read the article). I think the 'originator' of this diet was Penn Jilette (I listened to his podcast at the time), and when he did it I'm certain it was potatoes and nothing else.