{"id":18537,"date":"2021-12-27T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=18537"},"modified":"2021-12-21T11:05:46","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:05:46","slug":"potatoes-good-bad-or-somewhere-in-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/27\/potatoes-good-bad-or-somewhere-in-between\/","title":{"rendered":"Potatoes: Good, Bad, or Somewhere In Between"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was growing up, I couldn\u2019t understand why my mother\ndisdained white potatoes. She strongly preferred the taste of sweet potatoes\nand would only occasionally make baked potatoes or use a package of instant\nmashed potatoes. In contrast, I was a white potato fan, although I never cared\nfor instant mashed potatoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of the potato debate of my childhood when I\nstarted reading about the \u201cHealthful Plant-Based Diet Index,\u201c which is used in\nepidemiology research. The creators of this index classify sweet potatoes as\nhealthy plant foods and potatoes as less healthy plant foods (1). The less\nhealthy plant foods group also includes fruit juice, refined grains,\nsugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, and desserts \u2013 not exactly illustrious\ncompany. I wondered if their categorization of potatoes as less healthy plant\nfoods was based on fried potatoes. Indeed, French fries and potato chips are\nincluded in the potato category but so are baked and mashed potatoes (1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are potatoes truly a \u201cless healthy plant food\u201d? The answer\nseems to depend on what they are being compared to and, to some extent, on how\nthey are prepared. Several studies find that higher consumption of \u201cpotatoes,\u201d\nwhich includes both baked and fried potatoes, is associated with greater\nlong-term weight gain (2) and a modest increase in risk of type 2 diabetes (3)\nand hypertension (4). In all of these studies, French fries had a greater\neffect on risk than did mashed or baked potatoes. There was still a\nstatistically significant higher risk of health effects in those eating more\nmashed or baked potatoes compared to those who ate less (2-4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, other studies do not find an association\nbetween the amount of potatoes that people eat and their risk of heart disease\n(5), hypertension (6), or mortality (7). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potatoes are known to have a high glycemic Index which means\nthat they are more likely to lead to increased blood glucose levels.  They are often eaten fried or with butter or\nsour cream. On the positive side, they are a good source of potassium and of\nvitamin C and are a low-fat food if eaten unadorned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on what I\u2019ve read about potatoes, there\u2019s no reason to\navoid eating them. Eat reasonable amounts, mix it up so that sometimes you eat\npotatoes and sometimes whole grains or other carb sources including sweet\npotatoes, choose baked or mashed potatoes over fries, and think about what\nyou\u2019re putting on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, my mother was on the right track \u2013 sweet potatoes are<\/strong> nutritional superheroes providing\nlots of beta-carotene, vitamin C, and potassium. I\u2019ve grown to appreciate them.\nStill, when I want a comfort food, I turn to a baked potato with a little vegan\nbutter and nutritional yeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For recipes using potatoes and sweet potatoes see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potato Power<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Oil\nMashed Potatoes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweet and Savory\nSweet Potatoes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Satija A, Bhupathiraju SN, Rimm EB, et al. Plant-based\ndietary patterns and incidence of type 2 diabetes in US men and women: Results\nfrom three prospective cohort studies. PLoS Med<\/em>. 2016;13(6):e1002039. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Mozaffarian D, Hao T, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Hu FB. Changes\nin diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men. N Engl J\nMed<\/em>. 2011;364:2392-2404.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Halton TL, Willett WC, Liu S, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Hu\nFB. Potato and french fry consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Am\nJ Clin Nutr<\/em>. 2006;83:284-290.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Borgi L, Rimm EB, Willett WC, Forman JP. Potato intake\nand incidence of hypertension: results from three prospective US cohort\nstudies. BMJ<\/em>. 2016;353:i2351.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Larsson SC, Wolk A. Potato consumption and risk of\ncardiovascular disease: 2 prospective cohort studies. Am J Clin Nutr<\/em>.\n2016;104:1245-1252.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Hu EA, Mart\u00ednez-Gonz\u00e1lez MA, Salas-Salvad\u00f3 J, et al.\nPotato consumption does not increase blood pressure or incident hypertension in\n2 cohorts of Spanish adults. J Nutr<\/em>. 2017;147:2272-2281.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Hashemian M, Murphy G, Etemadi A, et al. Potato\nconsumption and the risk of overall and cause specific mortality in the\nNIH-AARP study. PLoS One<\/em>. 2019;14(5):e0216348<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD When I was growing up, I couldn\u2019t understand why my mother disdained white potatoes. She strongly preferred the taste of sweet potatoes and would only occasionally make baked potatoes or use a package of instant mashed potatoes. In contrast, I was a white potato fan, although I never cared for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18539,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537\/revisions\/18539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}