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> Losing weight isn't causal to being healthy. Except that's not how it works. An excess of fat can directly cause problems. Above a certain point, having too
by TJSomething 4y ago
> Losing weight isn't causal to being healthy.
Except that's not how it works. An excess of fat can directly cause problems.
Above a certain point, having too much fat causes chronic hypoxia in fatty tissue, leading to chronic inflammation, which can eventually lead to systemic problems like insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, liver disease, and cancer.
Edit: I am specifically referring to abdominal fat in excess of what a given body is able to cope with.
- naraic0o 4y agoExcess dietary fat or do you mean obesity?
- arghwhat 4y agoI don't think OP was suggesting that being overweight was healthy or that losing weight was bad. They merely suggested that weight loss does not occur as a result of a healthy diet, but rather as a result of an intentionally deficient diet (technically an "unhealthy" diet). That you can lose weight eating only potatoes is therefore not very interesting and does not imply that the diet is healthy.
- dgfitz 4y ago> an intentionally deficient diet Aren’t all diets whose goal is weight loss “intentionally deficient” ?
- notahacker 4y agoThere's a difference between "slightly too few calories to sustain current weight level" and "total absence of certain essential nutrients meaning the body can't grow or indeed adequately replenish cells regardless of the mass of food consumed"
- dgfitz 4y agoSo, yes?
- kuhewa 4y agoThere's nothing inherently unhealthy about being in a temporary state of negative energy flux (unless you are already underweight or deficient in an essential mineral or something)
- Mordisquitos 4y agoThat being true, it could well be that a "Potato Only Diet" is effective for weight loss not because of the reduced energy intake, nor because of some subtlety in how our gut or our metabolism deals with an only starch diet for a while, but instead because potatoes lack micronutrient X or inhibit its absorption and a symptom of X deficiency is losing weight. That could be unhealthy. I don't have an opinion either way and I don't think this is a likely reason, but it is a possibility.
- BizarroLand 4y agoI wonder if it is useful for flushing PFAS and other forever chemicals from the body? They found that indigestible oils like Olestra served to flush out the chemicals that bonded with oils, so maybe the high fiber potato diet is good for flushing out something else?
- kuhewa 4y agopretty remote possibility, unless you have a deficiency in mind that manifests pretty quickly and causes rapid weight loss and doesn't cause systemic disease.
- cheese_goddess 4y agoIf you eat only potatoes you will only ingest the nutrients found in potatoes so you will risk becoming deficient in all other nutrients, not found in potatoes. I don't know what those are, but for example you'd risk running out of all the stuff that vegans have to take supplements to replenish, like B12, iron, zinc, etc. Anyway the diet described in the article doesn't make any assumption about calories. If you're taking enough calories to maintain your weight but losing weight, then it's very likely there's something else you're not getting enough of.
- basicplus2 4y agoIt seems even flying at high altitudes can contribute to chronic hypoxia in fatty tissue! (particularly problematic with fat deposits in the liver) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12030379/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12030379/
- DeWilde 4y agoAdopting a diet that deprives an overweight person of necessary vitamins and nutrients will not improve their health but will deteriorate it as now alongside all of the health problems they had their body can't function properly. Adopting a diet that balances nutrients and calories and also provides all needed vitamins will lead to weight loss and health improvement (in most cases).