My suicidal experience with potatoes solanine driven depression
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For the last 2 weeks I've been eating 1.5 kg of potatoes a day instead of grains.
First 2-3 days cognition verbal fluency improved drastically and a motivation to socialize also
The problem appeared after a week and half when things started to feel off
A feeling of sadness combined with depression learned helplessness and delusion was present all day that killed all spice of life I had
In the beginning I didn't blame potatoes because I loved them so much ... While working I was having these intrusive thoughts about past life experiences which can be activated only during a highly serotonergic state.. I wasn't expecting solanine as a ACHe inhibitor to has such effect .. this state lasted for 2 days and no one could convince me it is driven by my physiology brain chemistry , i really believed past problems were the cause of it, even tho I get over them long time ago
in the end it with fasting and a bit of bread, delusion went away and I could finally notice the culprit
I really tried to change to nightshades since it gave me good stomach acid but this experience which led me to conflicts with others created in me a sense of disgust towards potatoes
Once in a while could be great, but man, fuck it, never again as a staple -
Similar experience.
A few years ago, I wanted to do a 90% potato diet. Mostly potatoes, and some grapes. I lasted about 3 days because I experienced massive depression, even started contemplating suicide.
It’s odd, because continental European ancestry should tolerate potatoes well.
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Same experience here.
All my potato experiments go like this.
If I do potatoes as my only carb source I end up feeling very bad. If I eat them in moderation I also feel bad but don't recognise the negative effects until I remove them from my diet.
At the moment I am in a period where I eat them sometimes for convenience and easy nutrition, but I know what I would feel more optimal (bright, relaxed mood) without them.
I go between either gluten or nightshades being the top diet culprit for me.
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@GreekDemiGod There is one youtuber Mossy Bottom who lives offgrid and bases his diet on mostly potatoes
i dont understand how he does it and he feels actually good and not depressed
maybe what he does boosts so much dopamine that doesnt affect him or at some point solanine loses sensitivity -
@Korven what you describes sounds familiar like a delusion feeling while on them
Its interesting how gluten for me has just a sedating effect and lowers iq a few points but not moodRice would have been the best choice but you know it absorbs water in the intestine and constipates leading to a selfish no empathy state
there is no safe starch unfortunately
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@Androsclerozat
Balance in everything. That said, potatoes have never given me bad effects. Maybe a glycemic rush but nothing psychological. Usually just very calming and soothing. Excess bread or grain has made me irritable and neurotic but who knows what the true culprit is? -
Is there a lot of solanine left if you peel them before cooking?
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@Luke Yeah I thought they were mostly just in the peel.
I notice some indigestion and gas from potatoes. And I always peel them. Pretty good micros though
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I would love to be able to do a potato based diet for cost reasons but they also make me feel worse than other starches for some reason. Even if I peel them well and thoroughly cook them and eat with butter/cream, they mess me up.
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@BroJonas said in My suicidal experience with potatoes solanine driven depression:
@Luke Yeah I thought they were mostly just in the peel.
I notice some indigestion and gas from potatoes. And I always peel them. Pretty good micros though
Not 100% sure, but as far as I know it makes a difference whether you peel them after boiling or before. If you peel them after boiling you only remove the very thin skin and some solanine is still in the outer layer of the potato. If you peel them before boiling you remove the skin and also a bit of the outer layer of the potato, and thus more solanine. (It sucks though, because potatos boiled with skin taste better if you ask me)
Would be interesting to know whether the users who had bad experiences noticed a difference between peeling before and after.
If they have green color right below the skin, it indicates higher level of solanine.
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@Androsclerozat rice noodles and buckwheat are my "safe" starches, they digest quite well and don't have the same negative long term effects that I get from potato consumption (solanine has a very long halftime, it stays in the body for weeks
)Though I agree on the rice thing. Eating a lot of plain well cooked rice (a lot of water content) doesn't work for me. It has to be cooked relatively "dry", not boiled for too long, to digest properly for me. I prefer rice noodles.
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Interestingly, I get the worst mental symptoms from boiled potatoes...
French fries (even loaded with PUFA) are much better.
Baked potato wedges are also somewhat okay
It could have something to do with really high temperatures breaking down some of the solanine
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@Korven said in My suicidal experience with potatoes solanine driven depression:
Interestingly, I get the worst mental symptoms from boiled potatoes...
French fries (even loaded with PUFA) are much better.
Baked potato wedges are also somewhat okay
It could have something to do with really high temperatures breaking down some of the solanine
For example, boiling potatoes reduces the α-chaconine and α-solanine levels by only 3.5% and 1.2% respectively, but microwaving potatoes reduces the alkaloid content by 15%.[23] Deep frying at 150 °C (302 °F) also does not result in any measurable change. Alkaloids like solanine have been shown to start decomposing and degrading at approximately 170 °C (338 °F), and deep-frying potatoes at 210 °C (410 °F) for 10 minutes causes a loss of ~40% of the solanine.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine#Effects_of_cooking_on_solanine_levels
Not sure what temperatures are reached with deep frying, but I think more than 170 °C (338 °F).
I would suppose that french fries have a pretty low solanine content due to removing the skin and outer layer before frying and the high temperature.
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@Luke thanks, that is really interesting!
That means you can cut the solanine in half just by cooking at high temperatures. And perhaps even more by making sure to peel the potatoes first.
It coincides with my cravings as well:
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I really do not enjoy plain boiled potatoes, it is somewhat repulsive to me (though somewhat okay with butter and cream added but then am I liking the potatoes or the butter/cream you start to wonder
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Fries - they are tasty but you can't eat them because you will die an early PUFA Death
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Potato oven wedges - my preferred way of eating potatoes. I peel and cut potatoes into an 200 C° oven with little bit of rosemary and olive oil and then cook a big steak in butter and make a sauce in the pan from the steak drippings.
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@Corngold you didn't eat astronomical amounts, that's why
the culprit of grain could be an irritated gut by some citric acid or phosphoric because i have the same neurotic effect if i drink coke and eat bread afterwards
sometimes even just bread alone if it has some emulsifiers
sometimes working hard physically does that too, by increasing permeability -
@BroJonas maybe its the water or poor quality potatoes
i have the same effect but not with organic ones -
@Korven i know an old friend who loved rice noodles.. i think his name starts with R
today i started eating a high carb rice meal with pineapple and bread without fat to see if there are any downsides and to be honest i dont feel bad
i will see tomorrow -
@Androsclerozat said in My suicidal experience with potatoes solanine driven depression:
you didn't eat astronomical amounts, that's why
do you think eating astronomical amounts of anything is going to have a good outcome? lol.
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@Corngold I mean if you want to make a staple in your diet or you are cultivating your own food, some of them are sustained with potatoes or any other food that may be considered in astronomically amounts
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@Androsclerozat rice noodles are based