Coincidentally I've just carried out an N=1 experiment to test the effects of prime rib on my blood sugar levels. After consuming 2 ribs w/ 1 tbsp of butter and 50g of fruity pebbles I was shocked to see my blood sugars rise. It seems meat is terrible for my metabolism...

Well, he says it himself, "What does it mean for YOU? Really, it doesn’t mean anything about how YOUR body will respond to sweet potatoes." Good for him for finally being open-minded to trying to incorporate starches since what he has been doing hasn't been working. I do agree with his point about eating protein/fat with the starch to prohibit a blood sugar spike... But isn't that common knowledge?

Honestly, what really irked me is that he added honey to a sweet potato the first couple times and then decided to replace honey with stevia. This isn't a question about whether or not I agree with honey/stevia (I don't, but that's me) but why add it to a sweet potato??! As a lover of the little orange tubers, I just don't get it.

I'm glad Jimmmy posted his n=1, particularly with photos, because I realized 3 things:

• I am exactly like Jimmy with regard to appetite control/binge impulse issues
• My SAD binges were exactly like Jimmy's, with 2-liters of Coke daily and chips, cakes, etc.
• At present, I couldn't eat more differently than Jimmy if I tried

My current food mix is about 70% raw greens, vegetables and fruit, supplemented with modest portions of cooked meat, vegetables and yogurt/water kefir. My blood glucose is fine, my digestion is terrific and my weight is completely in my control.

Jimmy's meal photos didn't look like food to me and that was a revelation.

Half a sweet potato + 3T butter.

What a joke.

Jimmy, please redo your N=1, but this time control for the carb content. It's great if you want to to test the starches, but adding sweeteners confounds your data. Leave the sweeteners off. And yes, also eat non-processed meat, which also tend to contain sweeteners. Glad you're doing these experiments. We can all learn from it.

Jimmy really is the king of denial. I too wonder what he is really eating when a sweet potato without honey or stevia is just not sweet enough.

It irritates me how people are so addicted to the taste of sweet that they are unable to enjoy things that are naturally sweet without adding a bunch of extra sugar to it.

I went to lunch one day and ordered the sweet potato fries not realizing they would come with sugar on them. Seriously, who does that. Now if I do order sweet potato fries when I eat out I check and make sure they do not add sugar.

When I cook sweet potato fries at home I use olive oil and salt. They taste plenty sweet to me.

Anyway Jimmy Moore is now up to 300 pounds and his weight shows no signs of stopping. He no longer posts his menus so who can say what he is eating.

I just can't believe that all the low carb and weight loss experts he has access to and consulted and not one has been able to help him or solve his problem.

So one can conclude that either Jimmy is not telling the truth to the experts when he tries to get help or the experts really have no clue about anything and sometimes their plans work and for those who it does not work for then it's just too bad.

What does 'metabolic derangement' mean anyway? Until that term can be precisely defined and quantified, it will remain Jimmy-speak (and others) for, 'Dang it! I don't know why I can't eat as much as I want as long as it's low carb and still lose weight'. As was pretty obvious when he first posted his 'low carb paleo' meal pics last summer, the issue appears to be one of portion size (hence calories). The 'paleo lemon bars' that shortly followed were hardly surprising. He's obsessed with sweet (remember those Da Vinci Syrup-and-whipped-cream concoctions from back when he actually posted menus?) and refuses to relinquish the idea that weight loss might actually entail a degree of deprivation. Dr. Kurt Harris was dead-on right in his advice about what should be done to counter all this Livin La Vida Nonsense. And if anyone wonders where the derision comes from, I suggest asking the (no doubt) hundreds of well-intentioned commenters who've been summarily banned from his forum and sites. All in the interest of free and open expression of ideas, I'm sure.

So I asked Jimmy on G+ why he needs sweetener and so much added fat, this is his response -

Jimmy Moore

So much sweetener? I used just a tiny amount of stevia to bring out the flavor of the sweet potato. Personal preference. As for the fat, I was told to consume it with lots of fat to minimize the blood sugar impact. And so I did. My experiment without the fat in the last day confirmed it was a wise choice.

I have now un-followed him as I think he is delusional.

When will people realize that a safe starch diet doesn't work for everyone, just like a ketogenic VLC diet doesn't work for many. I don't know who talked Jimmy into trying a safe-starch experiment, and he's indulging us graciously like only he can. But this diet isn't gonna work for him: not because he's not implementing it correctly (butter, honet, etc.) but because his metabolism isn't suited for safe starches.

Jimmy is metabolically deranged, though he may not be diabetic. I've met plenty of metabolically deranged yet nondiabetic obese people at my gym to know that their only chance is with a VLC diet. Yes, I'm aware of those who followed VLC/Atkins diets and later swithced to higher carb/PHD diets and felt much better and even lost more weight: I'm one of them. But I was never morbidly obese; at my worst only slightly obese.

Those who benefit from safe starch diets tend to be mostly normal metabolically, or in some cases, metabolically deranged slightly. Someone who used to weigh 400 lbs. and now is at 300 lbs. isn't suited for a safe starch experiment, especially not when his weight is creeping back up.

Polymorphism rules and we can easily understand if we just look at the genetic diversity even among our closely related people: ApoE genes will dictate how you respond to carbs or fat in serum cholesterol. Just because your diet worked doesn't mean it will work for Jimmy. And vice versa.

It doesn't really matter what the starches are going to do its the way he eats - 3 tablespoons of butter on half a sweet potato???? Talk about unnecessarily adding to the calorie count which matters for weight loss.

I'd like to see him give an egg, chicken breast, sweet potato and green vegetable diet a go. Nothing else added besides maybe a little cottage cheese. Sure, it doesn't sound very gimmicky but it works.

There's so much to say about all this one hardly knows where to begin. I'm sure Evelyn will get around to saying most of it (and God bless her for it). It is good, however, to see this n=1 stuff return - but no Quest Bars? Hmm. Might that be because sweet potatoes aren't a valued sponsor on LLVLC? Nah, that would be me being divisive and mean. Gotta love Jimmy.

I posted a question last nite as a guest and guess what. It wasn't added to the discussion. It was a good question about Mr. Moore's health practices and was ignored. I listen to Jimmy with a large grain of salt these days.

What if he were to stop dieting for weight loss and instead try to heal his deranged organs with diet and supplements. Clearly his liver, kidneys and pancreas are compromised--and until they are functioning properly no amount of calorie restriction, low carbing, diet hacking is going to help his overall health. He sounds like such a sad guy.