roots

Chris Voigt just finished his potatoes-only for 30 days diet experiment. I expect to see lots of buzz about it on the paleo/real food blogosphere. So far so good:

So here are most of the stats from my latest medical exam and how it compares to where I was prior to the start of the diet. Weight, started at 197, finished at 176. Cholesterol, started at borderline high of 214, finished at 147. Glucose, started at 104, dropped to 94. So improvements in each of those categorizes. I don't have a hard copy yet, will try to get that tomorrow and will post online. Me Happy!!

In Cordain's new cookbook he says to avoid potatoes because saponins in them might lead to leaky gut/increased gut permeability. But almost every plant has chemicals that can probably irritate the gut. I suspect yams have been off the hook because they are less well-studied. But it wouldn't surprise me if they also contain chemicals that can increase gut permeability. 

I think the onus is on us to figure out if they actually do increase gut permeability in vivo (in real life). So far there are no experiments testing this.

Matt Metzgar recently posted about a study showing that "obese patients with low-grade inflammation had altered gut bacteria but normal intestinal permeability."

Is increases intestinal permeability a cause or a symptom...or both? I suspect in something with robust gut flora that potatoes would not cause leaky gut. But since intestinal permeability has become such an important paleo concept, I call for further study.