This site is under continuous (re-) construction, update, & modification.
ANY and ALL parts should be considered under review and in a state of flux
and NOT necessarily 'the FINAL wording', and should be received and
taken and understood and used (or not) with that in mind.
Potatoes are the perfect food.
— Dr. John McDougall
The Potato Mono-Diet
Disclaimer: Read it!
For those looking specifically, or additionally, to lose weight, the Potato Mono-Diet is
a good place to start. And this is especially true if you would like to lose weight "quickly" (!)
and healthfully (!!).
Some suggest or claim that a "mono-diet" is a good way to "reset" the human body food- and diet-wise. (similar to fasting and other methods) It also resets your taste buds and food addiction (yes, habit / addiction) for sugar, salt, oils and fats. This will help you kick your habit.
The latter-mentioned food stuffs are not naturally-craved or desired — almost everything you eat is due to habit, taught, trained and reinforced by your parents, educational systems, peer pressure, governmental influence, and advertising & marketing, too much of all of it effectively brainwashing. And because you MUST eat, you have no choice, about 3 times a day, plus snacks, it becomes a habit, and, as we all know, habits can be hard to break.
For those who do not want to be so strict, you can always try the McDougall's "McVegan"
plant-based Mary's Mini-Diet of mostly potatoes, and some greens. (no oil, salt, sugar, etc.)
More info on the McDougall site June and July 2006 newsletters and the March 2016 video update:
• June 2006 Newsletter Article
• July 2006 Newsletter Article
• March 2016 Video Interview Webinar Update
The Potato Mono-Diet Works
Eating ONLY potatoes is a very good way to lose weight over a fairly short period of time. (NO butter, margarine, sour cream, 'bacon bits', ideally no salt, etc...!! although, if you absolutely cannot eat another bite of potato, instead of stopping, throw a tiny bit of A-1 Sauce, or salsa, or even vegan ketchup, or similar low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar condiment on it, and/or some garlic or onion powder or other spice — BUT, the more you can stay "pure", the better)
Or just toughen up and power through it. You will automatically eat as many potatoes as you need to eat, so eat as many as you want. You literally cannot eat too many potatoes. And do not worry about eating "three meals a day" — just eat when you feel like eating. It is literally that simple.
You can eat the potatoes, any kind of potato, including sweet potatos, baked, boiled, steamed,
mashed, but obviously not fried in oil, or French fries, etc. (air-"fried" is fine; a soup would
be acceptable, even if it had vegetable broth and spices; microwaved is okay, but microwaved
food is probably not good for you, food-wise, environment-wise, and radiaton-wise — that
is a whole subject and discussion unto itself)
Remember (or know) that potatoes are a "perfect food". They have all of the vitamins and minerals and protein (yes, protein) and calories a body needs, except Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D. So they are a very good mono-diet food source. And if you like or love potatoes, so much the better. (although you will most likely come to hate, if not despise, them in time — but that is only a temporary situation – and actually helps with the amount of food intake, as well)
You might have to re-train and re-educate yourself if you still believe that potatoes, which are starch / carbohydrates, are "fattening", because they are NOT. If anything, it is the stuff you put on them that is fattening, such as butter / margarine, sour cream, "bacon bits", etc... (and more likely, as well, all of the other foods you eat with those potatoes that are high in oils and fats, like steak, chicken, cheese, etc... — THOSE are what are fattening) Potatoes are not fattening.
Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D Facts
(and 'facts')
Depending on which sources you want to 'believe' / accept, most, if not all, people do not need Vitamin B12 in their diet, and/or can easily (most probably, if not absolutely) get by for some number of months without it. Some sources claim that the human body has enough Vitamin B12 stored within it to last for about 20 to 30 years or so. So you most likely do not even need to worry about supplementing. There has basically never been a recorded, reported case of Vitamin B12 deficiency in the United States in the 20th or 21st centuries, so there really should be no worries. (except for VERY rare cases specifically due to and caused by disease; same for Vitamin D)
And Vitamin D can easily be created by the human body with small amounts of access to sunlight.
(even in most cloudy times — lucky for us, most "cloudy" and rainy days, Ultraviolet
Radiation (UVB) makes its way through the clouds, and that is actually what is needed by the
human body to create Vitamin D, not visible sunlight; UVB is also what causes sunburns, which
can actually occur on cloudy days, so be careful)
"Lately", there has been some controversy over supposed Vitamin D deficiency in people. Most of the information, data and decisions about Vitamin and Mineral levels and requirements (RDA – Recommended Dietary Allowance) for human animals is due to VERY questionable non-human animal-based "science" and research from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. And then sometimes certain people or agencies will make changes based on "current research", which is also equally questionable. Most people (99%+) should have no worries, and not even need supplements, especially if you live in locations like the United States, or other "first-world countries".
BEWARE of situations like, when "someone" decided to change the definitions and levels for High Blood Pressure and Cholesterol, and suddenly there were millions of "sick people" in the U.S. and around the world, who were then sold prescription drugs to deal with their problems. Things of this nature are highly questionable. Caveat Emptor!
There is a BIG he-said-he-said issue with all vitamins and supplements, but, if you do some reading and study and research, we think it eventually becomes clear that there are several reasons why we see myths and misinformation about vitamins and supplements, from moneymaking scenarios by the companies that make and sell them, to doctors, scientists and researchers either not really knowing what they are talking about, and not being up-to-date on the latest information, performing studies backed by questionable funding sources and conflicts of interest, and using basically arbitrary values for minimum levels (USDA/FDA), sometimes based on old pre-1960s vivisection and non-human animal medical research with human correlations, which should always be questioned. Articles like the 2016's "The sun goes down on Vitamin D: why I changed my mind about this celebrated supplement" being the ones we should probably be listening to, believing, and giving more credence.
A Textbook Case
Following is a textbook case that should convince anyone of the truth of these claims. (and it is only one of many testimonials — again, do your own research to verify and substantiate — and there are various scientific studies, and such, as well)
• How Penn Jillette Lost over 100 Lbs
(and Still Eats Whatever He Wants)
Penn Jillette is half of the Magician-Comedy team of "Penn & Teller". (Penn is the big guy, he's about 6' 6" tall, and Teller is the one who never talks) He is a Las Vegas magician, comedian, and actor. His weight had gotten over or around 340 pounds, but he is now about 230 pounds, which is a decent weight for a man of his size.
Before he lost weight, his health was getting bad, and his blood pressure was very high. He is
about 60 years old now, and had
children at an older age. One day he decided he wanted to live to see them graduate high school
and college.
So he decided to do the Potato Mono-Diet. (to start — then basically a 'pure' all-carb vegetable-based diet after that) He lost about 14 pounds in the first two weeks. This is fairly typical. After this "reset", he continued to eat whole plant foods, basically starches (carbohydrates — potatoes, unrefined grains, rice, beans, & legumes — AND, ideally, as much of it organic as possible) and vegetables, with low sugar and salt, and ideally no concentrated oils and other fats. (no meat; all of which he no longer craved, so it was easy, and that surprised him) During the second phase, he lost almost a pound a DAY of weight on average.
Of course, the McVegan diet says NO oils, or animal flesh, animal products, or animal by-products, and high-fat plant foods occasionally / rarely, as well as no processed or concentrated foods. So Penn did well, but not as well as he could have, or should have. He is not a vegan, ethically or otherwise, and occasionally eats other things, maybe every couple of weeks, or so. He no longer craves or desires those foods he used to eat, so it's not a big deal. But, bedsides losing weight, he has greatly increased his health prospects.
That is a quick synopsis, summary and paraphrasing of his story. You can watch him talk about it
in the two videos below from 2016. (about 10 minutes and 40 minutes in length, respectively) He
also wrote a best-selling book about his journey to and toward health in 2016, "Presto!: How I
Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales". You might check it out on
Amazon or elsewhere books are sold.
(this is another 'clue', of sorts, in regard to the 'age old' question of "Why doesn't everyone know about this if it is so effective?", etc. — we are semi-fans of Penn & Teller, and we did not know about Penn's health journey, or his book, until a couple of years afterward — it just seems to be the way the world works and information flows, with some luck and circumstance and randomness and being in the right place at the right time involved)
"How Penn Jillette Lost over 100 Lbs and Still Eats Whatever He Wants | Big Think" | Penn Jillette | Talks at Google
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NelIXCuuSZ0
"Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear..." | Penn Jillette | Talks at Google
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4jBWUhFagXM
