WEBVTT - What are the only 10 Foods You'd Need to Survive? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.559 Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? Do you hear about 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:04.800 this super pizza they invented in England a couple of 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:07.080 years ago. I was, I was just reading about it again. No, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:08.960 but I did get a note from a very sweet 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:11.440 listener asked me to stop using the word super so much, 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:13.840 and I was thinking for today's episode, I just used 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.680 the word top notch instead. So tell me about this 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.360 top notch pizza. That's a good word, mango. Well, super 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.079 pizza was developed at Glasgow University and it's this frozen 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.920 pizza that has seaweed baked into the crust and then 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.880 the sauces boosted with nutrients. And the whole idea is that, 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:32.800 because it has a third of your daily vitamins and minerals, 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.159 you could actually eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.640 and be somewhat healthy. That's pretty cool. But how's it taste? Well, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.159 I guess top notches, you might say, but now I 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.360 think like pretty good from what I've read online. Anyway, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.040 reading about it made me wonder if you had to 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.680 pare your pantry down to the bare minimum, what are 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.040 the only foods you'd need to survive? And that's what 0:00:53.120 --> 0:01:13.040 today's episode is all about either podcast listeners, Welcome to 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.680 part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.600 joined by my good friend Mangesh Ticketer and sitting behind 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.280 that soundproof booth baking some tiny but delicious pastries and 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.640 his easy bake oven as our producer Tristan McNeil. Where 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:27.840 did he get that? What is that, Tristan? Or those 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.720 tiny croissans? Yeah, listener, those are tiny croissans. Want a 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.199 tiny Croissan? That's so good? All right? Well, for today's show, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.120 we decided to do a little thought experiment. Basically, we 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:39.880 want to know if you were going to limit your 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.319 daily diet only a handful of different foods, ten or 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.280 five or even just one, what should you eat? Yeah? 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:48.880 I was pretty sure the answer is going to be 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.120 flaming hot cheetos. But apparently the answer is not flaming 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.200 hot Cheetos. I don't think it is, Yeah, because this 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.960 really isn't what snacks you couldn't go without, so much 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.000 as the stuff you couldn't live without plus three times 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.120 a day Cheetos have. It couldn't be that healthy for you. 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.280 Probably not. And you know, I think the idea here 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.160 is to concentrate on building the most restricted diet we can, 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.720 using foods that are nutritious enough to actually keep you alive. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.120 And along the way, we'll explore the reasons why some 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.680 people actually strive for a lack of variety and what 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:17.560 they eat, and and we'll also take a look at 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.120 some of the craziest restrictive diets that people have ever 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.160 subjected themselves to. Speaking Wish will also be joined by 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.200 Andrew Taylor. He's the Australian man who declared two thousand 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.520 sixteen to be the Year the Spud and then he 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.840 commemorated it by eating nothing but potatoes for three d 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.200 sixty six days and he chose a leap here. Yeah, 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:36.919 and now he's written a book called The d I 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.360 Y Spud Fit Challenge, and it dares readers to change 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.760 their relationship with food in order to live a healthier life. 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:44.960 So we'll find out what possessed him to do this 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.480 in the first place, and and why potatoes, of all things. 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.120 I mean, it's so weird. I feel like growing up, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.600 potatoes were considered a healthy vegetable, or at least healthy enough. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.240 And then there was the whole anti car movement and 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.840 this this big push to cut potatoes out entirely, and 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.679 now it feels like it's sort of nudging its way 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:03.680 back in. I know, it's so weird how these things 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:05.880 go back and forth, Like eggs are the same way 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:08.160 with all their cholesterol in that debay, and and it's 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:10.800 just so strange like that we can't decide to just 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.760 do this in moderation. Yeah, and and and the strange 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.520 part is it it almost feels he radical to be 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.560 talking about limiting our food selection. I mean, we've mentioned 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.520 this before, but Americans have never had such a huge 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.600 variety of options as we do today, and the idea 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.799 of purposefully removing choices it kind of runs counter to 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.760 most people's thinking. Yeah, so I know this isn't food related, 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:32.840 but for a while I was enamored with this idea 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.440 of having a daily uniform. My mother in law gave 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.160 me this book she was reading about willpower and and 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.200 it there's this argument that you only have so much 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.240 willpower and decision making power in a day. And so 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.880 people like Obama when he was president, supposedly had someone 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.000 pick out his clothes for him, and all of his 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.600 shirts and pants were different colors but the same style 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.160 and the size. He liked, the idea being if you're 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.920 not using your brain power for any of those smaller decisions, 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.000 you can actually save it for making swift, important decisions 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.440 later in the day. But I I know a number 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:03.960 of successful people who just have one basic lunch they 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.480 rely on, and whether that's like a turkey sandwich or 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.560 a PBNJ or ramen from downstairs. Yeah, and they just 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.000 eat that every day because something they like enough but 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.760 don't have to spend any time thinking about. Yeah, and 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.200 you know, time and efficiency. That's definitely one aspect of 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.120 narrowing your food choices. But another that I've been thinking 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.800 about is, you know, space travel. How's that? According to 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.600 pops I quote, the impetus of a lot of nutritional 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.760 sciences how do we feed people in space? And so 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:32.400 a lot of the effort is on how to pack 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.240 more nutritional content into lighter weight foods you know that 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.920 that are easy to carry. Well, well, we'll definitely talk 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.000 a little bit about food science and efforts to pack 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.880 foods with more nutrients. And of course there's also this 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.839 trend of monodiets where people eat from just one food 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.479 group and even just one particular food. People do this 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.240 with bananas or watermelon, or in the magician Penjalette's case, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.040 he did this with potatoes as well, and it's supposedly 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.400 to shock his body and too weight loss. I have 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.480 to say that it just sounds so miserab doable. But 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.919 I mean, I guess they're all sorts of ways to 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.200 eat a potato, and he's probably not just eating baked 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.680 potatoes all day, at least I hope he's. I don't know. 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:09.920 I wonder how many people were inspired by the Martian 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.239 to do this diet. But uh, but when I first started, 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.440 you mentioned this topic and this idea of foods you 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.279 can't live without. It reminded me of that German poet 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:22.320 and philosopher Frederick Schiller, and he'd keep rotting apples in 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.640 a drawer in his desk, and whenever he was getting 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.719 writer's block, he'd open the drawer to take a whiff. 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.760 Supposedly it inspired him to keep writing that before I know. 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.720 And then then there's like Ballza who had fifty cups 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:34.359 of coffee a day to keep them writing. But do 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.160 you have any tricks for retter's block? Uh? I don't 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.760 actually think I do. What about you, well, it's not 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.680 a trick, but I actually hate writing, so whenever I 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:45.080 have to do it, I have to get like a 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.200 bag of jelly beans as a treat, just to make 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.279 the experience seem more fun. But uh, I know I 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.400 took his off track. Nutritionists definitely worn against mono diets, 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.120 but sometimes that dieting can't be helped. So what do 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.880 you mean by that? Well, it can also be psychological 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.240 like that. There was a story a few years ago 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.559 about that teenage girl in England who had been hooked 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.480 on chicken nuggets. She'd been doubting them since like age 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:09.920 two or something, and according to the report, she had 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:14.200 eaten practically nothing but chicken nuggets for like fifteen years. Wow. Yeah, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.120 I remember hearing about her. I know what. It sounds 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.080 kind of funny or impressive, even until one day she 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.960 passed out and couldn't breathe. That's a lot less funny. 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:24.400 So did she did she have a heart attack or something? No? 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:26.920 Apparently she was so malnourished that she had to receive 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.600 vitamin and nutrient injections. Woh. I mean it's actually kind 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.360 of heartbreaking when you think about it, I know. And 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.120 and the sadder part is that her mother couldn't even 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.840 stop her. Like her words were, quote, uh, it breaks 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.919 my heart to see her eating those damn nuggets. You 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.160 know what, what you're describing sounds way more than just 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.360 hankering for chicken nuggets. I mean, it actually sounds more 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.720 like compulsive behavior. And in some cases people are like 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.520 highly selective about foods they're willing to eat because of 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.840 food addictions. But it can also be about food phobias. 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.200 And in fact, there was this other British woman who 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.880 ate only chicken nuggets for twenty five years, but she 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.320 was also that's with the Brits and their nuggets. I 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.839 have no idea, but in this woman's case, she became 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.440 so accustomed to eating her favorite food at home that 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.720 she developed this serious fear of eating anything else. Like 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.240 when she put in her mouth she gagged. But after 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.760 visiting a hypnotherapist in London for a single hour, just 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.000 an hour, she was totally cured. And she's been feasting 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.720 on a non nugget diet ever since. I'm so happy 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.240 she's off the nuggets, all right, So this is obvious, 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.760 but in general, it sounds like eating only one kind 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.240 of food is a very bad idea. I mean, I 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.160 guess it works for pets. Ruby has this pet bearded 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.000 dragon at school that apparently only eats crickets, and it 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.440 seems to be doing just fine. But but you're right, 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:44.480 I mean, part of the problem is that, like, they're 0:07:44.560 --> 0:07:47.720 huge parts of the world population, especially in Africa and Asia, 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.160 and they survive on a diet that's made up almost 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.320 entirely of rice. So it's not really by choice. And 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.320 in fact, according to a report from the E. T. 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.200 H University in Zurich, and I'm employing this on now, quote, 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:02.720 nearly every second person in the world eats primarily rice 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.640 to meet the daily calorie need. A meal of rice 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.720 stops the hunger, but contains only very few or none 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.760 of the essential micronutrients. So, I mean, the good news 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.640 is that researchers have had lots of success with creating 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:19.400 genetically modified multi nutrient rice to help fight malnutrition, especially 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:23.120 in those rice dependent regions. You know, I know they're 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:27.440 economic and political implications of the genetically modified food stuff, 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.560 but it is kind of amazing that you can just 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.800 infuse all these nutrients into rice and and and solve 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:36.439 this big problem. Of course, whether someone chooses a restricted diet, 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.520 or has it thrust upon them. That lack of dinner 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.319 table variety poses other problems, you know, aside from the 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:44.520 nutrition of it all, and and mainly that just makes 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.200 meals seem so boring. Really, yeah, I mean, that's my 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.400 biggest gripe with all of this, and that's not just 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.600 our opinion. I mean humans actually experienced a phenomenon called 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.280 sensory specific safety, and that's when we keep eating the 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.839 same thing. So I've never heard of that. What's that mean? 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:00.880 You know? So basically, the more you eat of a 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.800 specific food, the less appetizing it gets and and the 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.840 less you can stand the thought of eating it, which 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.200 explains why kids always complain when they're full midway through dinner, 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.280 but then miraculously find more room in their stomachs when 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.359 dessert rolls around. That's exactly what's happening there. And researchers 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:19.640 think sensory specific sayt he might be an evolutionary trade, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.640 you know it It acts as the body's way of 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.680 telling us to eat something different in order to avoid 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.320 that malnutrition. But of course you don't have to stick 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:29.480 to just a single food item to suffer this. The 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.480 effects of this even you know, limiting yourself to one 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.960 food group can be unhealthy. And I mean, just look 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.959 at the fruitarians out there. So I grew up vegetarian, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.400 but I remember when I heard about fruitarians thinking that 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.200 feels like a step too far. I would agree with that. Well, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.040 it's definitely a more extreme form of vegetarianism. And the 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.880 idea is that sev or more of your daily food 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.080 intakes should be fresh fruit and usually eat and raw. 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.080 And health and wellness bloggers have helped popularized the diet 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:59.760 in recent years, so much so that hundreds of like 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.200 ended eaters now gather every year in New York for 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.280 the Woodstock Fruit Festival. The Other wood Stock, I think 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.560 it's probably just a little bit different than the Other 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.280 wood Stock. So it's this week long event where fruitarians 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.600 gathered a mingle with other fruitarians. They attend lectures and 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.719 gorge themselves on the all you can eat fruit and 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.400 vegetable buffet, you know, and that's what they get for 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.240 their twelve hundred dollar tickets. Yeah, it's crazy. And if 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:24.480 you're wondering how much fresh produce it takes the feed 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.440 close to a thousand hungry fruitarians for an entire week 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.080 the answer is over a hundred thousand pounds. That's so 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.720 much fruit. So it wasn't Steve Jobs a fruitarian. I 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:36.840 feel like I read that somewhere. And and also that 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:39.199 he smelled terrible. I I don't know if that was 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.560 because of how his body reacted to the fruits or 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.520 because he didn't use any deodorants. Well, I I can't 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.600 confirm why he smelled. But but Jobs was probably the 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.280 most famous fruitarian in the world, and he kept the 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.240 strict vegan diet for most of his life, went through 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.920 stints along the way where he would only drink smoothies 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.160 and eat raw fruit, all just that kind of strict diet. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.640 And I guess, oh, it makes sense in hindsight, right, 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.880 Like it's right there in the company name. Well, you 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:07.160 may be kidding about this, but it's actually true. So 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.280 Jobs came up with the name Apple Computers during one 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.000 of his fruit terry and faces, Yeah, it says it. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.320 In his biography, he wrote, I had just come back 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.200 from the apple farm. It sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating. 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:23.000 Apple took the edge off the word computer. That's so crazy, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.120 Like I always just assumed the Apple was a reference 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.640 to Isaac Newton, although it didn't all that fruit actually 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.760 wind up contributing to Steve jobs illness. Like I I'm 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:33.920 pretty sure I read somewhere that there's a higher risk 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.280 of pancreatic cancer if you consume a lot of fruits 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.920 and juices. Well, some studies have definitely shown a strong link, 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.040 but of course there's there's no real way of knowing 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.160 what brought on Steve's illness, and diet can definitely play 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.840 a role, but it's hardly the deciding factor with something 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:50.959 like cancer. That said, when Ashton Kutcher took on the 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.920 role of Steve Jobs for that biopick, Kutcher it here 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.760 to a fruit terry and diet for about a month 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.439 as a way of getting into character, but apparently it 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.000 was a disaster and he end up being rushed to 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.480 the hospital with stomach pains, you know, just a couple 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:06.360 of days before filming began, and the test found that 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.040 his pancreas levels were way off what they should have been, 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.040 which really is kind of frightening given how Jobs passed away. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:14.360 And it's kind of counterintuitive, right, like to think of 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:17.319 something we equate with such health being bad for you. 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.400 I guess it's just another win for like boring old moderation. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.480 You know, you're definitely not going to find most doctors 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.680 or dietitians that recommend you take up fruitarianism or any 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:31.080 other highly restrictive diet. And a good general rule of 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.199 thumb for diets is that you know, if it's making 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.360 you sick, it's probably a bad diet advice. But vegetarians 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.480 square off fish and meat, and they tend to be 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.240 pretty healthy in general. How can we can get away 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.200 with dodging some food groups but not others? We tend 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.400 to aim for very diets because that gives us a 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.000 better chance of getting all the different nutrients we need 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.280 to help our bodies function properly, and cutting out whole 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:56.920 food groups lessons that likelihood to two different degrees. So 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.000 eliminating meat is one thing. I mean, you can make 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:04.120 up the protein other ways, but eliminating everything except me, honestly, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.680 that would be about as dangerous as the all fruit diet. Well, 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.240 we should definitely get into what ten foods we've taken 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.040 to space or to a desert island. But now seems 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:14.680 like a good time to get Andrew Taylor on the 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:16.200 line and see if we can figure out how he 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.240 beat the odds and managed to survive and even thrive 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:29.760 on his all potato diet, Samango. I know today we're 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.000 talking about limiting diets to ten foods, and what would 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.560 those ten foods be if that's all we could choose. Well, 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:40.640 today's guests took that to another level. So and in 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:45.160 two thousand sixteen, Andrew Taylor was struggling with depression and anxiety, 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.600 and he also weighed more than he'd ever weighed in 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.160 his life. So he decided to take matters into his 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.160 own hands. He took what you might call a pretty 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.520 unusual measure, and that was he decided to eat nothing 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:58.880 but potatoes for a year. I don't know if that's 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.040 how you've ever decided or thought about approaching a weight 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.640 loss or anything like that, but Andrew Taylor welcomed the 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.080 part time Genius. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited. Yeah, 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.000 we're thrilled to have you as well. So, Andrew, you 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:12.960 said that you were addicted to food at the time, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:14.679 and I think I read you wanted to make your 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.760 food as boring as possible, so your mind wasn't consumed 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.120 by food. Why did you decide on the potato. Yeah, 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:23.960 that's exactly right. It was. It was an experiment really 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.000 to say if, uh, if dealing with my own food 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.040 addiction through abstinence would would be a helpful thing. So, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.520 you know, an alcoholic should quit alcohol, and I think 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:36.320 it may be a food add it should quit food. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.520 And obviously we can't quit food entirely. So I wonder 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.920 if there was one food that I could eate and 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:45.280 and then quit everything else and getting as close as 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.520 possible to quitting as as you could. Um, So I tries. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:51.840 The title is after a lot of race there. I 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.120 spent six weeks studying to figure out what would be 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:58.280 the best food to choose, and the title has just 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.320 had the most evidence behind them. Basically, most people know 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.520 about the Irish diet. For a couple of centuries, the 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:10.600 Irish entire population almost only potatoes, and they would maintained 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.080 good fitness and health. And they actually went through a 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.320 population zoom, which wouldn't happen if they weren't kitt and healthy. Um. 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.400 There are tribes around the world. There's the Puppin Pup 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.800 in New Guinean highland of tribe. To this day um 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:28.080 eat almost only sweet potatoes. UM and there's you know, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:32.000 examples in Japan and the Okinawa and getting nearly all 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:37.360 of their calories from Japanese sweet potatoes and living having 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.000 a very high rate of centenarians as people that lived 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.000 till a hundred years old. Um. Another interesting thing was 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.240 prisoners of war. I read about prisoners of war that 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.240 were fed out the potatoes, and they were the same 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.160 thing they would in great health and in uh, in 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.920 great fitness. And you know, you see photos of prisoners 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.960 of war that have totally malnourished, and uh, that's that's 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.920 not these guys. These guys that were fed only potatoes 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.760 did really, really well. And another great season of information 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:10.760 I found was there was a study done in the 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.200 twenties and the late nineteen twenties where a marathon running 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.760 couple were supervised by scientists for six months eating only potatoes, 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.480 and again they did really well. They maintained good fitness 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:25.080 and health, and at the end of six months, I 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.880 actually ran personal best marathon. So there's a lot more 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.120 information that I read that that's the best examples I 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.320 can give you. And and yeah, once I read all that, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:38.320 a lot more than my decision was easy. The potatoes 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.600 are the obvious choice. Wow, that's a that's just fascinating. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.560 And clearly you did your homework on this. I am curious. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.400 Were you consulting a nutritionist at all through the process. No, 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.720 I've got my personal doctor is a dietician as well 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.080 qualified dietician and doctor. And once I've done all my 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:58.440 research and made my decision and decided that that's what 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.440 I wanted to do, I went to him and basically 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.600 told him what my plan was. And and yeah, he 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.800 agreed to supervise me and help me, but he didn't 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.000 have any input in the initial planning of it. Now, 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.000 and I heard you mentioned sweet potatoes and and I 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.640 think regular potatoes. Did you mixed potatoes or was there 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.639 just one type of potato you're reading on the stand? 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.119 I had all kinds of potatoes. Yeah, I didn't want to. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.040 I wanted to be restrictive, but I didn't want to like, 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:26.840 you know, if I went to the to the store 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:29.359 and they only had one kind of potato available and 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.000 it wasn't the kind that I was eating, that was 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.040 going to make things hard, you know. So I just 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.359 decided to make it all kinds of potatoes, just the 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:41.360 logistical reasons. So, yeah, and obviously the potatoes pretty versatile 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.119 to cook. But well, what types of meals did you 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:45.720 make and and did your art of cooking the potato 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.680 evolved as you continued on this process. Yeah, Well, like 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.360 you briefly mentioned earlier, my I figured that a big 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:55.280 part of my problem with food was that I was 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.400 relying on it for comfort, enjoyment, emotional support, things like that. 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.720 Like at the end of a bad day, I would 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.440 get home and want to try to make myself feel 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.520 better by eating um, exciting, interesting food. So the idea 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.240 was that I wanted to make my food as boring 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.720 as possible so that I'd have to retrain my brain 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.640 to get that comfort and enjoyment and emotional support from 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.679 other areas of life rather than just from food. So 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.000 for that reason, I kept it for as boring as 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.920 possible on purpose. So per cent of my meals were 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:31.240 probably mashed potato, baked potato, or um or boiled potato, 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.360 or just playing and m Yeah. Every now and then, 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.159 maybe once a fortnight or even once a month, I 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.560 would do something a little bit more interesting, like, uh, 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.440 they make some oven baked chips or some potato waffles 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.280 or something like that. But really it was it was 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.640 all about learning to be happy with boring food. And 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.320 I got this saying making food boring in your life interesting. 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.320 So rather than spending my time and energy on trying 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.160 to make interesting, exciting food, I just tried to do 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.640 interesting and exciting things. It seems like a great way 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.359 to approach. And I'm curious, are you still eating potatoes 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.640 now that you've finished your year of only potatoes? Yeah? 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.920 I had mashed potatoes and rockets. I think you got 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:19.680 called a rugula mashed the tatoes and a rugula for breakfast. So, Andrew, 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.720 I'm curious. I know, you know, diet experts would probably 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.639 point out the lack of protein that you're getting in 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.280 this diet. So what what would you say to those 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.359 that that would be critical of the diet or be 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.040 concerned that you might not be getting enough protein or 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.880 or you know, other essentials in your diet. Yeah, well 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.760 there there are. I've had lots of input from diet 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.800 experts around the world and since I started doing this, 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.320 and it's it's interesting that potatos. I guess I have 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.639 a bad rat the table of things that they're lacking 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.000 in so much nutrition, but they've actually I was getting 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:55.000 when I was eating in the potatoes only, I was 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:59.080 getting idy flops and antigrams of protein a diet which 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:03.199 is death really well within the recommended daily intake. And 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.240