[Aerynne]

While it's true that excess calories make you fat (and I would never advocate drinking soda all day), some things are easier to get fat on. Someone named Dr. Shintani has developed a scale called the "eat more index" that tells you how many pounds of food it would take to give you a day's calories for an average person. For the most part you can only eat about 4 pounds of food in a day (based on stomach volume, etc.)

For example, the eat more index for potatoes is 9.5, which means it takes 9.5 lb of potatoes to make up the average person's daily calories. You couldn't eat that much in a day, therefore if you ate only potatoes, you couldn't get fat. That's why I have a hard time believing that potatoes eaten in any amount are what is making someone fat. It just can't happen. The EMI for oranges is 15.6, green beans is 21.8. You can eat any of these foods in any combination and not get fat. The EMI for bread is 4.7, so even if you ate only bread, you wouldn't get fat.

It's foods with EMIs less than 4 that can make you fat. Butter is .76, mayo is .77, cheddar cheese is 1.37, fried chicken is 2.23. So if you only eat these foods, you will get fat because you'd want to eat more than that many pounds of food, and thus you would get more than the calories you needed.

Obviously most people eat a combination of foods with high EMIs and low EMIs. But in any case, it's impossible to get fat on just potatoes.