Is it possible to survive eating only potatoes

Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Articles Can humans survive on only potatoes? Ben Davis March 3, Can humans survive on only potatoes?

How much can a human eat at once? What happens if you only eat potatoes for 2 weeks? How long can a human survive on potatoes? Can you survive on just milk? Chris Voigt loves his job. And, it seems, he loves potatoes, too. As executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, Voigt has pledged to eat nothing but potatoes for two months. No toppings. No sides. Just the wholesome goodness of 20 potatoes a day to meet his caloric needs, from Oct.

You don't get that kind of commitment from the scallion commissioner, that no-good lackey. But to paraphrase the announcer before any Evel Knievel stunt, "Kids, don't try this at home.

Much research has been conducted on potatoes, and the conclusion drawn by every medical doctor and nutritionist on the planet is that you have to be nuts to think you can live off of potatoes. To Voigt's credit, his lighthearted stunt will educate the public about many healthy aspects of the potato: a decent and inexpensive source of vitamin C, vitamin B 6 , potassium, magnesium and, with the skin left on, dietary fiber.

Also, low-carb advocates are harsher on the potato than science allows them to be. Some potato varieties, prepared correctly, can be as healthy as the much-lauded whole grains. Voigt didn't enter this diet blindly. He told LiveScience he first consulted with a doctor and dietician to confirm he could go 60 days on just potatoes. You need healthy kidneys to process the excess potassium delivered by 20 potatoes a day. According to Spoon University, potatoes provide three of the most important macro-molecules for sustaining life carbohydrates, protein, and nucleic acid.

A decent famine food, potatoes also contain modest amounts of many micronutrients instead of being loaded in just one. For more nutritional virtues of the potato, read this comprehensive review in detail. But potatoes are terribly low in fat. So where do you get the lipids you need for survival?

In comes butter. Apart from that, butter also contains micronutrients like calcium and cobalamin. Dangers of deep-fried food you rather not know about. Now comes the real question — is it possible to survive on potatoes and butter alone? There are plenty of instances of people with weird food fixations eating only potatoes and nothing else.

There was the case of a lady who only ate cheesy potatoes for 30 years of her life. Tired of potatoes being labelled as a fattening food, Chris Voigt, the head of the Washington State Potato Commission, ate only potatoes for two months in He documented his two-month spud diet, ultimately losing over 20 pounds. The result? The pound Taylor dropped pounds.