Author Tim Steele’s new book, The Potato Hack: Weight Loss Simplified, focuses on potatoes as an article of health and touts the potato as the best diet pill ever invented. Included in the book are simple ways to use potatoes to aid in weight loss and an extensive section on the benefits of resistant starch, of which potatoes are an excellent source.
The “potato hack” diet was modeled after an 1849 diet plan for people who were becoming overweight and “dyspeptic” from, simply put, living too luxuriously. This potato diet simply called for one to eat nothing but potatoes for a few days at a time, promising that fat men would become as “lean as they ought to be.”
Almost 170 years later, the population is more overweight and unhealthy than ever, but the potato diet still works because of natural drug-like agents in potatoes that affect inflammation, hunger, insulin, sleep, dreams, mood and body weight, says Steele.
The term potato hack refers to a short-term (three to five days) intervention where a person eats nothing but potatoes. This short, mono-food experiment is purported to strengthen immune systems and provides dieters with all of the nutrition they need to remain energetic, sleep great and, as a side effect, lose weight.
According to Steele, the potato hack diet is not just for the overweight. The book posits that, as noted in 1849, anyone with digestive complaints who follows an all-potato diet for a few days at a time will find his or her digestion greatly improved.
Modern science shows that simple diets high in fibre create an intestinal microbiome that is highly diverse and stable. This diversity and stability is lacking in most people and leads to digestive complaints like gastroesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowths, says Steele.
This book explains the science behind the potato hack, some variations on the basic hack, recipes, and what to do if it does not work as advertised. Also found in The Potato Hack is a comprehensive review of resistant starch, gut health and potato history.
Most of the book’s photography was done by award-winning photographer Ann Overhulse. The Potato Hack is available now from Amazon.
For more information, visit Potato Grower.
