Can We Stop Saying Potatoes Are Unhealthy?
Potatoes have gained a reputation for being “unhealthy” and that’s not fair. A potato is just a clump of mostly starch (and a surprising amount of vitamin C) that grows in the ground. It’s as down to earth as a vegetable can be – literally. Sure, we can fry it in oil and call it a chip, but it’s hardly the potato’s fault. So why do so many of us think that potatoes are incompatible with a healthy diet?
How did we even begin to think of potatoes as a health hazard?
One of the saddest statistics from the USDA survey of our eating habits is that the potato is the most commonly consumed vegetable in America . It’s sad not because it’s a potato, but because many of us eat it in the form of potato chips and french fries , and don’t eat other vegetables . A diet devoid of green vegetables is a problem because it lacks green vegetables, not because it contains potatoes.
Plenty of observational studies have linked potato consumption to increased levels of type 2 diabetes and other health outcomes, but potatoes are more likely to be a sign of an unhealthy diet (such as signaling someone is eating a lot of fast food) than the problem itself. A recent study in Denmark that separated boiled from fried potatoes found that the former was not associated with diabetes risk. And while potatoes have a high glycemic index on paper, studies have shown that they do not raise blood glucose levels in the context of a regular meal .
French fries and chips also have a bad rap, dating back to the days when fats and oils were seen as the bogeyman of healthy eating. They are fried in fatty butter (or, in earlier times, beef tallow) and are therefore considered “unhealthy”. When it became fashionable to avoid carbohydrates, French fries and chips were still considered unhealthy, but this time because potatoes are high in carbohydrates.
Even though the low-carb craze has died down, potatoes are still considered a poor choice. Or people will eat sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, even if they don’t differ much in nutritional value . We need to get our understanding straight.
What is actually in potatoes in terms of nutrition
What’s wrong with potatoes? If you take a moment to consider them as vegetables, apart from their usual chips and fries, they are actually very good. Large Potato (284 calories) contains:
- 64 grams of carbohydrates is good, but stay with me.
- 8 grams of protein
- 8 grams of fiber
- less than 1 gram of fat
- 81% of the daily value of vitamin C (!)
- 64% of the daily value of vitamin B 6
- 33% DV Potassium
These numbers assume you are not skinning. The flesh of a potato still contains many of the above nutrients, but you get more of them if you add the skin. (I always leave the skin on when I’m mashing or frying potatoes.)
The numbers for protein, fat, and vitamins are pretty impressive for a vegetable, and even more if you think of them as a carbohydrate source: potatoes contain more fiber and protein than an equivalent serving of brown rice, and more fiber (but similar protein) compared to swan.
So stop mixing potatoes with white bread or other refined carb sources. They are more nutritionally similar to quinoa, brown rice, or other whole grains.