* Ben Balzer ([log in to unmask]) [991005 07:45]:
* Subject: Re: [P-F] Pototoes:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alan Lundin <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 9:48 PM
> Subject: Re: [P-F] Pototoes
>
> > allowed to eat whole potatos (with the skin), but they
> > could eat as much as they wanted.  The group supposedly
> > lost excess weight and returned to health.  Unfortunately,
> > I didn't read the actual study, but read about it
> > second-hand in health and diet books. :-(
> >
> > I would have thought that if the anti-nutrient load was
> > very high, that the people would have starved to death
> > and suffered massive health problem before that.
> >
> This confirms that they aren't nourishing. They are ingestible but they are
> not edible as such.The protease inhibitors block your digestive enzymes, the
> lectins do other nasty things. In rats, raw soybeans have the same effect-
> they cannot grow on them. So, I imagine these people lost weight due to
> starvation essentially, but that the return to good health was really when
> they went off the diet. That is to say that if you gave raw potatoes to
> people of normal weight, they would lose weight too! cf on paleo they
> wouldn't.

I've always been amazed at how easy it is for people
to rationalize virtually anything.

Forgive me but if I would have said the subjects gained
weight (which seems to happen when they don't eat the
skins), what would you have said then?

How about the fact that people, myself included, that
have eaten large quantities of potatos (both raw and
cooked), sometimes with nothing else, have not lost
weight, and have had no shortage of energy.  How does
that confirm this "potatos are bad" dogma?

BTW, no, these people supposedly got healthy while ON
the potatos diet, not after.  They were looking for a
diet that would help them lose their excess weight, and
conventional wisdom said that one could never lose weight
by eating potatos.  Much to everyone's surprise, when
they ate potatos with the skins (i.e., a whole food) the
potato diet was quite successful at returning them to
normal weight and good health.

--alan