Melbourne father declares he will eat only potatoes for an entire year
A Melbourne father has embarked on an unusual experiment, declaring to eat only potatoes for an entire year.
With 33 days down and Andrew Taylor is documenting the progress of his 366 day challenge, posting to a YouTube channel and Facebook page, both called "Spud Fit".
The father of one told Yahoo7 News he was a 'self proclaimed food addict' so he thought about quitting cold turkey, but said as it's impossible to quit food he thought about only having one type of food.
After conducting research about different kinds of food, the 35-year-old decided potatoes would be the best option for him.
His intention was never to lose weight but by the 28th day he'd lost just over 10 kilograms.
"I'm amazed actually. Weight loss wasn't the reason why I did it but it's a welcome side effect." Andrew Taylor told Yahoo 7 News.
He has also seen other positive side effects.
"I'm full of energy. I'm sleeping better," said Mr Taylor.
From the beginning, Andrew Taylor declared he wouldn't use oil to cook the vegetables, so he intends to steam, boil or bake them without oil.
In his first video on YouTube he said he aimed to get around 99 per cent of his calories from potatoes and then he would just add seasonings and sauces to them.
"Today I had potatoes with a little bit of garlic, garlic smoked sea salt and I also had some potatoes with Dukkah and at the end of the day I even tried potatoes with a little bit of maple syrup on it," Andrew Taylor said on his first YouTube video.
To this day Andrew is still avoiding cooking with oil and he's found a few creative ways of preparing and eating spuds.
"I eat them mashed, or boil and eat with them with herbs and spices. I've had rösti a couple of times.
He has even made spud pancakes.
"Blend up some potatoes, liquefy them, add potato flour until they're pancake consistency and then just cook them like pancakes," he told Yahoo 7 News.
"The most surprising thing is I'm not at all sick of potatoes."
Initially the young father thought he would only eat spuds for a few months but then he had the idea to do it for a longer amount of time.
"A year seemed like an interesting experiment," Andrew Taylor told Yahoo 7News.
Andrew says he is conducting this "experiment" under the supervision of a qualified dietitian and is getting regular blood tests.
"I'm not trying to promote this and am not getting paid. I'm just trying to do something for me and I'm documenting it in case anyone else is interested."
The 35-year-old says he doesn't expect to have health problems from the research he has done, but if something happens he says he will stop immediately.
News break – February 2
