The Potato Cleanse (Potatoes Gonna Potate)
All hail the great potato!
Ever heard of the 'Potato Cleanse' or the 'Potato Diet'?
I'm embarking on a 10-day challenge to eat a majority of my calories from potatoes. Because, potatoes gonna potate, am I right?
Potatoes are incredible. They have sustained populations through severe famine. They are a staple in my whole foods plant based diet. They are packed with nutrients. And they are delicious.
What could be better than ten days of mostly potatoes?
I began the potato 'diet' yesterday. I use the term diet loosely, as this is only a relatively minor shift in my eating habits. As I said, I already eat a whole foods plant based diet with few overt fats and a lot of potatoes, but for the next week and a bit I'm going to increase the percentage of calories from potatoes in my diet and eliminate other starches, legumes, and fruit. I wouldn't eat this way for any long-term period (I love fruit, beans, and rice way too much for that and wholeheartedly believe that they're essential to good health), but it is far better than many 'cleanses' and 'diets' out there that do not provide enough nutrients or calories and contain processed 'foods' or no food at all.
So what is and isn't allowed?
Basically, the idea is that you eat potatoes and non-starchy vegetables seasoned with spices and accompanied by oil and fat-free dressings and sauces, if you so wish. The point is to get the majority of your calories from potatoes and to supplement with other vegetables such as leafy greens.
What does a typical day look like?
Whatever you like! As an example I'll show you my first day on the diet:
Breakfast
- plain yellow potato fries
Snack
- more yellow potato fries
Lunch
- even more yellow potato fries and a baked sweet potato with sriracha salt
Snack
- baby carrots and cherry tomatoes
Dinner
- two huge salads (romaine, kale, cucumber, tomato) with a little nutritional yeast and vinegar as a dressing
- yellow and sweet potato chips with sriracha salt
- 2 baked sweet potatoes with pepper
When I plug my day into cronometer I come up with these results:
As you can see, I'm getting more than enough calories and 142% of my protein requirements!
All of my vitamins are covered with the exception of vitamin D (for which I spend time outside and take a supplement) and vitamin E. I'll be sure to pick up some spinach and broccoli to get enough for the remainder of the 10 days.
Minerals are also on point, though I'm just shy on calcium. The addition of spinach and broccoli will help on this front as well!
I consumed a ratio of omega 6:omega 3 of 1:5 which is far closer to the ideal of 1:1 than the SAD average of 16:1!
Where do you get your protein? From potatoes!
Why am I doing this?
I have a few reasons for trying out the potato diet.
- I ate barely any potatoes while on the ship and I missed them dearly.
- Potatoes are cheap and I've been saving for a wedding.
- Jason is away and it makes meal prep simpler to focus on one main source of calories.
- My diet hasn't been as clean as I would like since returning home and I want to kick start my way back into my preferred way of eating.
- I've been breaking out and I want to try removing potential causes of inflammation for a period of time before reintroducing them one at a time in the hopes of finding the culprit.
Will it do what I want it to? I hope so! But if not, it will at least be delicious :)
If you have further questions don't hesitate to leave them in the comments below!
Do you eat potatoes on a regular basis? How do you like to eat them the most? Would you ever consider trying the potato diet?
Until next time,
