Potato Diet

Potato Diet. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I think I have heard of just about every kind of diet there is, even tried a few of the odder ones. We American's can get a bit obsessive about dieting but one man is trying to prove a point with his diet of only potatoes. Chris Voight is the Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission and it currently a couple of weeks into his self-imposed 20 Potato A Day Diet. VOIGHT: Going good! I'm kind of in a groove now I think and physically I feel great, no weird side effects, feeling good, good energy level. I'm dropping weight which I guess I sort of anticipated I'd probably drop a little bit. It's just mostly because I can't get enough food in me. I'm just kind of feeling full all the time I guess so it's hard to get enough calories in me. Voight says he has dropped 10 pounds so far in the 2 weeks he's been on the diet. VOIGHT: So that's not trying to by any means but it's actually good for me. I'm kind of hoping I wouldn't mind dropping another 5 pounds and just calling it good and try to really increase my calorie intake, really force feed myself. Make sure I'm eating enough to kind of keep my weight at about 180. I'm about 187 this morning. If for some reason you have not heard about the 20 Potato a Day diet that Voight is undergoing it was a dramatic way to show that potatoes are a good food source and not an evil one to be shunned. Voight's problem with feeling full comes from the amount of fiber in potatoes. VOIGHT: Potatoes rate very high in satiety and satiety is that sense of feeling full. And even though there's just 110 calories in a potato it really kind of gives you that full feeling and so you're not always hungry so that's one of the things I have been struggling with. And on the subject of fiber... VOIGHT: This is a delicate subject. (laughs) So I'm getting like 250% of the recommended daily allowance for fiber so you kind of do the math and it kind of make you a pretty regular guy I guess. It's funny because there was a guy on my blog that I have going here and he did a potato diet for about a month and I love his quote, he said, "It was a potato going in and it was a yam coming out!" So maybe that's too much information. 14 days down and only 46 more to go in the potato diet for Voight who is only eating Irish potatoes with no toppings, no chili, no sour cream, no cheese, no gravy, just potatoes and maybe some seasonings or herbs and a little oil for some of the cooking. We will check back in another couple of weeks. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.