A little over 40 days into 2016, Andrew Taylor has lost more than 30 pounds eating as much as he likes. The catch? He’s only eating potatoes.
The Australian man—who weighed 333 pounds at the start of the year—says he decided to go on a spud diet after recognizing his “unhealthy relationship” with food.
“If you’re a drug addict or an alcohol addict, the solution is to quit cold turkey. Obviously you can’t do that with food. So my next thought was ‘perhaps I can quit all food except one kind,'” the 36-year-old tells CTV News.
After reading peer-reviewed studies and researching vegetarian diets, he made his choice. Since Jan. 1, Taylor has eaten nothing but boiled, baked, mashed, and shredded white and sweet potatoes, topped with herbs, spices, and sauces.
“I feel amazing,” he says. So amazing, in fact, that he plans to eat nothing else for 2016.
However, that doesn’t mean you should do the same.
“There’s no real single food that provides all the nutrients that we need, other than maybe human breast milk,” a dietitian tells CTV.
Still, Taylor tells News.com.au that he has the blessing of his doctor and is getting regular blood tests; he only plans to give up the diet if his health is affected.
As a precaution, he’s taking B-12 supplements and adding calcium-fortified organic soy milk to his mashed potatoes. But the potatoes provide more than enough protein, iron, amino acids, and vitamin C, he tells the Independent.
Is he worried he’ll get sick of all those spuds? Not really. Taylor—who’s documenting his diet on YouTube and Facebook—says he doesn’t miss other foods and is actually “quite happy with my boring potato meals.” (Good thing he isn’t pregnant.)
