Ashley Tudor - Sweet Potato Power: Smart Carbs; Paleo and Personalized

VICTORY BELT PUBLISHING INC LAS VEGAS

First Published in 2012 by Victory Belt Publishing Inc.

Copyright 2012 Ashley Tudor
All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 13: 978-1-936608-78-2

The information included in this book is for educational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult his or her healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation or if they have any questions regarding a medical condition or treatment plan. Reading the information in this book does not create a physician-patient relationship.

Victory Belt is a registered trademark of Victory Belt Publishing Inc.

Photography by Bryan Alberstat
Graphic design of cover and book by Ann Liu Alcasabas

TO MOM AND DAD

James, thank you for your contagious love of sweet potatoes. Sweet Potato Power started with you. Your excitement over this humble root, which resembled that of a child on Christmas morning, and your commitment to a healthy lifestyle inspired this journey. Beyond the sweet potato, your friendship, encouragement, and feedback are the foundation of this book.

Dr. Dick Thom, you are the Sherlock Holmes of health. You are willing to jump down the rabbit hole and explore all the issues and possibilities until they are resolved. With your clinical guidance, my passion for self-monitoring and experimentation can now be helpful to others. Your dedicated work, with patients and twenty years of clinical experience, lends this book credibility. Thank you for countless calls and your graceful and patient way of coaching.

Badier Velji, you have the remarkable talent of understanding complexity and communicating simply. Thanks for your patient teaching, pointing me to interesting studies, and painstakingly reading over the science again and again. The world needs more passionate health thinkers like you who can toggle between cutting edge theory and practical application.

Bryan Alberstat, your photography skills brought out the beauty of real food. Our long days of styling, shooting, and editing photos seemed more like play than work. You are talented, creative, and one of the most delightfully quirky people I know.

Ann Liu Alcasabas, years ago when we worked together, I never imagined our paths would be so intertwined. Thank you for your support, design eye, and sharing your great talent. You are a shining star, and I feel so fortunate to have you on my team.

Caleb Ward, I have always dreamed of having someone like you in my corner to polish my prose. Thanks for your willingness to tackle this project and work tirelessly until it was done.

Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, the first time I attended a Quantified Self meeting, I felt as if I had come home. The forum opened up a group of eccentric people at the edge of technology who, like me, enjoyed digging deep to uncover insight. Exposure to the tools, minds, and visualizations pushed my thinking. I eagerly awaited your monthly meetingsalways insightful, surprising, and loaded with brain candy. The self-experimentation/monitoring sections of this book were inspired by you.

Karen Boyd, thank you for your invaluable help with the logic and flow of the copy, and for assisting in the development of more than a few recipes. Your internationally trained palette gave a depth of flavor that all food deserves. Your friendship is truly valued.

Dave, my brother, who has always hated sweet potatoesyour hard-to-please palate was the bar that these sweet potato recipes aimed to jump over. When we started CrossFit in its infancy four years ago, I could never have imagined it would serve as the foundation from which our adult relationship would blossom. You have been the most staunch observer of paleo, and also the biggest cheater. Through it all we have shared this crazy, fun, health journey together, one pint of ice cream at a time.

Farah Maloof, thank you for your adamant encouragement in everything I do. Your recipe ideas, coaching, and cheerleading have been invaluable in every step of this process.

Dr. Jordan Schlain, your innovative spirit is changing the way health care is delivered to patients. Your tireless dedication and energy are an inspiration. Thanks for being my partner in health and writing all the prescriptions for my experiments.

Erich Krauss, my publisher, thank you for giving me the freedom to make this book what it is. When we started out, neither of us knew what a book about sweet potatoes looked like. What a journey it has been to see it unfold.

Robb Wolf, Dr. Jeoff Dropbott, Brendan Mahoney, James Fitzgerald, Matt Lalonde, and Dr. Lucas Tafur, your thoughts, comments, and critique have been invaluable. Mary Gallent and Tara Smith, thank you for your research assistance.

March Pantry, thank you for the use of your beautiful dishware. Your minimalistic design inspired the photography. Your gracious staff was full of brilliant design ideas and they were always eager to assist. When I grow up, I want to have a kitchen just like yours.

Dad, you are the biggest carb monster I have ever met. Your considerable weight loss, which resulted from making no change other than eating sweet potatoes, is testament that I did not make this up. I am the luckiest girl in the world, and I have the life I live today because of the gentle man that you are.

The San Francisco Public Library long before Internet searches there were libraries. I am indebted to the staff at the Presidio Branch, who helped me sleuth out resources. Full of natural light and comfortable chairs, your domain made countless hours of endless reading and research melt into effortless productivity. Also, thank you, Jennifer Harbster , at the Library of Congress, for your informative posts and helping to search out difficult-to-find information. Our libraries and their staff are a treasure.

Finally, Mom, you have been my supporter; my cheerleader; my proofreader; and, through all, my friend. Without you this book would be one run-on sentence devoid of commas. Because of you this book has become more than I could have ever imagined. Thank you for patience and commitment that mirrored my own.

Carbohydrate-conscious diets are here to stay. While many people believe that low-carb diets are a passing trend, the idea of limiting carbohydrates has been around for centuries. When Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina in 1873, one of his characters made explicit reference to the power of low-carb diets. Annas lover, Count Vronsky, avoided starchy foods and dessert to lean out for an upcoming horse race. Countless books about low-carb diets have rehashed and modified the concept.

Recently the paleo diet, focusing on foods our biology was designed to consume, has emerged as a refined version in the low-carb world. Instead of the amount of carbs (low vs. high), the diet emphasizes the quality of carbohydratesvegetables, some starch, and little fruitand eliminates health culprits, such as grains, legumes, and high-carb processed food.

With the paleo diet, food has once again become a powerful drug in the arsenal of health. Patients have been cured of diabetes. Prediabetics have taken control of their diets so they do not need medical intervention. Markers for heart diseases have disappeared. Autoimmune disease is brought under control. Overweight men and woman lean out. People are coming out of their diet-induced mental fogsregaining energy in body and mind. Kids are less prone to temper tantrums. And athletes are seeing gains in their performance. Individual by individual, the merits of this way of life are spreading and becoming mainstream.