Laura Schoenfeld: Again, this is another diet that I’ve not done with a client mostly because I don’t have the type of clients who would benefit or would need to do this. I am familiar with the potato hack diet. I have helped Chris put some materials together for the different educational programs explaining how the potato hack diet works.
The potato hack diet is very similar to the protein-sparing modified fast. It probably would be a little lower in protein and much higher in carbohydrates for obvious reasons, but most people are not going to be eating that many calories of potatoes, especially because potatoes are going to be boiled without any flavoring, salt, or anything added for the most part, so it’s difficult to eat a lot of those.
As far as contraindications, I feel like the potato hack diet has fewer contraindications but still similar ones, so I would not use that in children. I would not use that in pregnant women. I would be really careful about using it in the elderly.
Hypothyroidism, I would be less worried about than with the protein-sparing modified fast because you’re still getting carbs and calories, and technically, the person can eat until satiety, so they shouldn’t be feeling extreme hunger or anything like that on that potato hack diet. If you’re choosing between the PSMF and the potato hack diet for someone with hypothyroidism, I would probably go with the potato hack diet because you are going to get more calories, more carbs, and more insulin response, which can help the conversion of T4 to T3, and it’s less likely to make your body think that you’re not eating because really the protein-sparing fast is supposed to mimic a complete fast, and that can lower thyroid activity.
For IBS, as far as the potato hack diet is concerned, that’s going to be an individual patient tolerance situation because some patients will do just fine with potatoes, and the potato hack can help with gut dysbiosis for some people. Others are not going to tolerate potatoes, especially cooked and cooled potatoes if they have certain bacteria that feed off of resistant starch well. There are going to be digestive issues on that diet. I would say the person should only do it if they know they tolerate potatoes, and if you have a client with IBS who has not been eating potatoes, I would bring some potatoes in the context of a normal diet before you start doing a potato hack since you want to make sure that they actually tolerate potatoes in the first place.
I would say they’re very similar. The biggest difference is that with the potato hack you’re eating as much food as you want, and you shouldn’t be very hungry on that diet unless somebody just hates potatoes and is willing to be hungry instead of eating a potato.