Step Four: Take Vitamins. Have a Potato Before Bed

Eating food as your solution to sugar sensitivity demands that you think about what and when you will eat. As you get started, you have some repair work to do. Add three vitamins to repair the systems associated with sugar sensitivity. They are:

Vitamin C B-Complex vitamins Zinc If you use George’s Shake for breakfast, you will get an ideal combination vitamins.

See Page 101-103 in Potatoes Not Prozac for more discussion of vitamins.

Eating a Potato

Now that you are having three meals a day at regular intervals, let's add Mr. Spud to your routine. Have a potato (with its skin) every night three hours after dinner. It will help your body raise your serotonin level and make you feel more confident, competent, creative and optimistic.

You can eat your potato baked, mashed, roasted, cut into oven fries or grated into hash browns. Just be sure you eat the skin. And you can top it with anything you like except foods that contain a protein. (Protein eaten along with the potato at bedtime will interfere with your serotonin-making process.) Good toppings are butter, salsa, mustard, spices, or olive oil. Toppings you should NOT use are cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, or cream of chicken soup.

Your nightly spud does not have to be a big potato. It can be a russet, a Russian fingerling or a little red potato. Experiment. I use a medium Yukon gold with its skin on. If you find that you are having wild dreams on the nights you have your potato, this is a clue that you have low serotonin. This means you are getting a bigger hit of serotonin than you want right yet. The bigger hit means your levels are very low. You need the serotonin, but it is better to go more slowly. Ease into it and let your brain catch up. Have a smaller potato, or eat just a half or even a third of it. Your body is talking to you. Listen.

The potato changes your brain

The potato creates an insulin response that effects the movement of the amino acid tryptophan from your blood into your brain. Your body uses tryptophan to make serotonin, the brain chemical that makes you feel mellow and happy. Serotonin also helps you to "just say no" to sweets and other things by putting the brakes on your impulsivity.

Find more information in the Doing the Steps section of our Resource Center.

Potato Questions and Answers

Go to Step Five