Charlotte Canelli is library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood. Read her column in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin each Thursday.
The myth that potatoes are fattening and bad for us has been widely spread for years. Sadly potatoes are the only vegetable not allowed for purchase under the federal Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC. In fact, the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences called for the USDA-backed school lunch program to limit use of potatoes.
This past fall Chris Voigt, the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, decided to change the government’s mind. He desperately wanted to “remind the public about the nutritional value of potatoes” and he went on a diet. Of potatoes. Only potatoes. For sixty days.
Mr. Voigt didn’t necessarily need to lose weight but he did hope that he might lower his blood pressure and cholesterol. Most of all, he wanted to prove that a diet of potatoes, and only potatoes, wouldn’t kill him. Or us.
From October 1 through November 29 Chris Voight ate 20 average potatoes a day. That’s the number of calories he needed to consume to maintain a healthy weight. Those potatoes were no small potatoes. An average potato has 110 calories and weighs one third of a pound.
The amazing part is this. Not only didn’t the diet of potatoes kill Chris, but he lost twenty-one pounds in the process. And he dropped his cholesterol sixty points, shocking his doctor in the process.
Now, to be honest, there was no way this diet wouldn’t work to lose weight. Cheese, sour cream and bacon were not okay but potato chips and French fries were fine.
And one thing about this diet is that Chris almost got sick of eating. That one food, that is. Potatoes. Anyone can lose weight when they get sick of eating.
There are links to eighteen videos which chronicle Chris Voight’s unusual experience on the website 20potatoesaday.com. There is an especially sad and funny one in which he shaped mashed potatoes into a turkey complete with fat, tasty legs for his Thanksgiving dinner. He even roasted it in the oven to golden perfection. And he sliced it with an electric knife. Kinda sad. Very sad.
This is the New Year and time for resolutions. This often means dieting. You don’t have to go on a potato diet to lose weight, of course.
“The Everything Mediterranean Diet Book” by Connie Diekman or the “Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mediterranean Diet” by Kimberly Tessmer were published just this year and they are tasty alternatives. Even tastier, or at least cooler, are “LL Cool J’s Platinum 360 Diet and Lifestyle: A Full Circle Guide to Developing Mind, Body and Soul.”
For those of you who love eating, “The Full Plate Diet: Slim Down, Look Great, Be Healthy” by Stuart Seale looks pretty filling. On the other hand, “The Skinny Carbs Diet: Eat Pasta, Potatoes, and More!” by David Feder seems a bit too good to be true. So does the “Carb Lover’s Diet: Eat What You love, Get Slim for Life” by the editors of Health Magazine. Well, unless you love potatoes and only potatoes.
If you love rice rather than potatoes then “The Rice Diet Renewal: A Healing 30-day Program for Lasting Weight Loss” by Kitty Gurkin Rosati is the diet for you.
Very hot this past year are the diet books by David Zinczenko: the “New Abs Diet” and the “New Abs Diet Cookbook: Hundreds of Power-Food Meals That Will Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean for Life.” Zinczenko is also the author of the “Eat This, Not That”, “Drink This, Not That” and “Cook This, Not That” books. Each of them has alternatives for bad eating, drinking and cooking. There are thousands of simple food and drink swaps that save you tons of calories per year.
Other books published this past fall focus are the “O2 Diet”, the "Flat Belly Diet”, the “New American Diet”, the “New Sonoma Diet”, the “South Beach Diet”, the “Hormone Diet”, the “Yoga Body Diet”, the “I Diet”, the “Hundred Year Diet”, the “Flex Diet” and the “Dorm Room Diet.” The latter guides you through healthy and responsible eating in college. A good place to start. The author, Daphne Oz is the daughter of New York Times bestselling authors Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lisa Oz. She is a Princeton graduate and she resides in New York City.
There are thousands of books in our Minuteman Library catalog to help you in any health and fitness quest. Stop into the library for our new flyer with diet and exercise titles coming out in the new year. Try searching with the keyword “diet” or “health and fitness” or “nutrition.” For help searching in the Minuteman catalog or for placing requests, visit the Morrill Memorial Library, call the Reference librarians (781-769-0200) or visit the Minuteman Library Catalog on our website, www.norwoodlibrary.org.
