Previously in this series:
N=1: Introduction
N=1: Single-Subject Research
N=1: Hidden Variables and Superstition
N=1: Why the Gender Gap in Chronic Illness?
N=1: Symptom vs. Syndrome
N=1: Latency and Half-Life
N=1: n of Small
N=1: Dr. Garcia’s Queasy Irradiated Rats
N=1: Bite the Bullet
“I just really like watermelon and finally realized the only limitations were in my mind.”
The current model of nutrition science is that nutrition is a struggle of mind over body. You just need to find the discipline to completely ignore your instincts, to avoid what you enjoy and restrict all the stuff you like. The more you like it, the more you should probably restrict it. You should ignore and suppress the signals your body is sending you and do exactly the opposite instead.
What if we flip that on its head, and assume that your mind is silly while your body is wise? Notice what feels good, things you enjoy and respond well to, then ramp up those?
This seems to have worked well for both Elizabeth Van Nostrand and ExFatLoss (and his participants so far). Elizabeth eats all the watermelon she wants, and in her own words, her health is “obviously doing much better” than before. ExFatLoss loves cream, eats almost nothing but cream, and is currently down more than 50lbs.
Our potato diet came from a similar place. Seeing all the case studies where people lost a ton of weight did pique our interest. But we also just love potatoes, and we were kind of curious if we could eat nothing but potatoes and never get tired of them. Turns out, we pretty much can. Even after months of dedication, we still love potatoes. And so do many of our participants:
(16832193) I was quite surprised that I didn’t get tired of potatoes. I still love them, maybe even more so than usual?!
(57875769) My wife and I went out to eat with a friend and I expected to use today as a cheat day, but honestly potatoes sounded like the best thing on the menu so I ordered hash browns and french fries. The hash browns were very filling on their own so I didn’t eat many of the fries.
Eating tons of a single food you enjoy might not be your ideal protocol. But it’s a good place to start.
SLIME MOLD TIME MOLD 
There’s actually a theory for this called “grazing” in which it is presupposed that a Paleolithic band of humans would come across a tree full of ripe fruit and so settle in and chow down on the fruit for several days, perhaps exclusively. In other words, “grazing” is a combination of a) availability and b) eating large quantities of the same food over a period of time. Interestingly enough, this is exactly what monkeys and apes do “in the wild.”
But you’re right in that modern “nutrition” = body bad/head good. And this is so counterintuitive that it requires daily, if not weekly, messaging to reinforce. I think where the wires got crossed is that so much “food” today is processed junk doped up with chemicals and artificial aromas that garbles the natural signals we depend upon.
LikeLike
interesting idea. reminds me of a post about things that are good for our health tend to be addictive
https://180degreehealth.com/addiction-fetish-health-nutrition/
LikeLike