Are potatoes a good helper for weight loss? The key is the cooking method

Potatoes, a food that is most often mistaken for a vegetable, are the most commonly eaten "vegetable" by American teenagers. 31.2% of the most common vegetables eaten by teenagers every day are potato products and related products (including French fries and potato chips). This was found in a dietary survey conducted by Louisiana State University on teenagers aged 13-18.

Another survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture also showed that potatoes are the most consumed vegetable by Americans, and lettuce ranks second.

Although potatoes do not account for a high proportion of the diet in Taiwan, where rice and noodles are the staple foods, many people still mistakenly believe that they are vegetables, or think that they should be a very healthy food (after all, they don’t taste very sweet). As a result, more and more potato-related products are appearing on the market, from the popular three French fry brothers, the French fries that are must-sees in fast food restaurants, to the baked potatoes at night markets.

What kind of food is potato? Is the nutritional value good? Is it suitable for weight loss? Now let’s discuss the food that looks the longest like sweet potato and has a similar name in English as Sweet Potato - Potato!

[Decoding] How much do you know about the nutritional value of potatoes?

1. Potatoes are staple (starch) foods, not vegetables!

The nutritional information of every 100 grams of potato is as follows. Basically, the classification of a food into staple food, meat, fruit, vegetable or fat is mainly judged by the main nutrients it contains. If the food contains more sugar, it is a staple food, and if it contains higher protein, it is meat, and so on.

Among the three main nutrients, protein, fat and carbohydrates, potatoes contain the highest amount of starch, so potatoes should be a staple food rather than a vegetable. (Note: Every 100 grams of vegetables contains 1 gram of protein and 5 grams of carbohydrates. Obviously, potatoes are not vegetables.)

2. Nutritional analysis of potatoes

Judging from the basic nutrients, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, calories, etc., the biggest highlight of potatoes is that they are low in calories!

There are 81 calories per 100 grams, which is relatively low among starchy foods. 100 grams of sweet potato has 124 calories, and 50 grams of rice or noodles has the calories of a staple food (70 calories). Potatoes contain more protein than sweet potatoes, but only about 2/3 of the fiber content of sweet potatoes.

From a vitamin point of view, there is nothing remarkable about potatoes!

Although some people say that it is rich in vitamin C, it does contain 25 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams, which is low among fruits but high among starches. But potatoes must be cooked, and vitamin C is a nutrient that is easily destroyed by heat and is soluble in water. Therefore, Stella believes that potatoes are not a good source of vitamin C.

Judging from the color of potatoes, we can also find that they should not contain phytonutrients such as anthocyanins (purple fruits and vegetables), carotenoids (orange/yellow), and eggplant red (red).

From a mineral perspective, potatoes are a good source of potassium!

It contains 300 mg of potassium per 100 grams, which is even higher than sweet potato. The zinc content is also not low, but the rest is just average. However, because it is a good source of potassium, it is considered a good food for heart health [the American Heart Association lists potatoes as a heart-healthy food].

To sum up the above, from a nutritional point of view, potatoes are low-calorie, non-refined starchy foods and a good source of potassium. Compared with starchy foods such as rice, noodles, bread, toast, etc. that we eat every day, potatoes also contain vitamins C and B and minerals such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc. Therefore, they can be said to be a good choice of starchy foods!

[Decoding] Is potato the number one killer of obesity, or a good helper for weight loss?

Previously, Harvard University conducted a study on potatoes in the American diet, and the results of the survey found that "Americans' number one enemy of obesity is not cake, soda or double bacon cheeseburgers, but the simplest potato!" In this study of the diet of modern Americans, scientists found that people who ate an extra serving of French fries a day gained an average of 3.4 pounds over a four-year period.

Overall, one extra potato, no matter how it was cooked, added an average of 1.3 pounds of weight over four years. In fact, the problem is not with the potatoes, but with the potatoes that have been added.

Unlike sweet potatoes which are sweet in nature, potatoes themselves have no taste, so ingredients are usually added to enhance their flavor during the cooking process, from adding butter to the simplest baked potatoes, or frying them directly in oil; to adding cream to mashed potatoes, and adding a lot of salad dressing when eating them as salad; to deep-fried French fries; and now it is even very popular to add a lot of cheese sauce, ham, tuna and other sauces after baking (some potatoes that are claimed to be edible even with the skin are actually fried), so the key factor lies in how you cook the potatoes.

If potatoes are cooked with a lot of ingredients or fat, they will become obesity killers. However, if they are just used to make soup or roasted, they can be considered a weight loss helper.

This article comes from: Nutritionist Stella's Weight Loss & Nutrition Blog

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