Photo: Keegan Evans

Is oatmeal healthier than potatoes?

Compare 100 calories of baked potato to 100 calories of oatmeal, and you find a bit less protein (3 grams vs. 4), a bit more starch (18 grams vs. 16) and a similar mineral profile (potatoes have more potassium, but oats have more selenium). But potatoes beat out oats in just about every vitamin, as well as fiber.

washingtonpost.com - Potatoes get a bad rap. They don't deserve it. - The Washington Post

What foods brings down blood sugar?

Best foods that help lower and control blood sugar Whole wheat bread. Fruits. Sweet potatoes and yams. Oatmeal and oat bran. Nuts. Legumes. Garlic....

Last updated Oct 26, 2021

Can you eat anything else on egg fast?

During an egg fast, the person eats only eggs, cheese, and healthy fats. An egg fast usually only lasts a few days. Scientists have not studied the...

Last updated Oct 20, 2019

Promotion

Potatoes get blamed for obesity and illness. Do they deserve the bad rap? (infrontphoto/iStock) In the two decades I’ve been writing about food and health, one piece of diet advice has remained consistent: Eat more whole plant foods. More vegetables and fruits, more legumes and grains, more tubers and roots. There has been, that I can recall, only one notable exception, and it is the beleaguered potato. Eat more plants! Just not potatoes.

Why? One word: starch.

Starch is made up of molecules of glucose, a simple sugar, which our cells can use as fuel with very little processing from our bodies. It goes right to the bloodstream, and the blood sugar spike prompts the pancreas to release insulin, which enables our body to either use or store that sugar. When that’s done, we’re hungry again. The quicker it happens, the sooner we start casing the kitchen, looking for our next meal, and the fatter we get. That’s the theory, at any rate, but there’s no potato consensus in the nutrition community. (Or the policy community, for that matter: Potatoes’ status in the school lunch program and the Women, Infants, and Children program has gone back and forth.) Marion Nestle says she doesn’t believe potatoes trigger all the health problems they’re getting blamed for. (Jeffrey MacMillan) Spearheading the anti-potato side is Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Potatoes don’t behave like most other vegetables,” he said when I spoke with him. “In study after study, potatoes do not seem to have the benefit of reducing cardiovascular disease, and they are related to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.” They’re also associated with weight gain and hypertension, he noted. But the key word there is “associated,” and Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, is unwilling to finger potatoes as the cause of that litany of health problems. “This is using one particular food or nutrient as a reductive explanation for diseases and problems that are very complicated and have multiple causes,” she says. “It’s nutritionism.” Because the association between potatoes and disease derives from research on people who are asked what they eat and then tracked until something bad either happens or doesn’t, it’s hard to conclude that potatoes cause the disease. For starters, accurate self-reported diet data is hard to get. To see just how hard, try filling out one of the questionnaires used by the researchers at Harvard. At Nestle’s suggestion, I did, and found it nigh-on impossible. I do most of the shopping and cooking at my house and seldom eat out, but I still hadn’t the foggiest idea how often I ate a half-cup serving of cabbage over the past year. Willett fully acknowledges the imperfections and says the surveys are most useful to compare people who seldom eat a particular food with people who eat it several times a week. (If you fall into one of those categories, you’re likely to be able to answer accurately.) Even so, a person who eats a lot of potatoes may be different from a person who eats no potatoes — and different in many non-potato-related ways — so it’s impossible to definitely blame that heart attack on those french fries. Is the association between potatoes and bad health outcomes a result of how people eat potatoes (often, fried, or with salt and plenty of sour cream)? Or is it because potato eating is part of a dietary or lifestyle pattern that could include, say, cheeseburgers and “Survivor” reruns, and it’s the pattern, not the potatoes, that does the damage? Or is it just because the data are unreliable? We don’t really know.

What to drink to protect kidneys?

Water: Water is simply the best drink you can have! Water is a zero-calorie, perfectly hydrating, cheap drink. If you are in the earlier stages of...

Last updated May 1, 2018

What foods spike insulin?

The following can cause a person's blood sugar and insulin levels to spike: sugary drinks, such as soda, juices, and sports drinks. processed foods...

Last updated May 4, 2022

Promotion

“Potatoes don’t behave like most other vegetables,” says Walter Willett, because they don’t confer cardiovascular benefits and are associated with Type 2 diabetes, weight gain and hypertension. (Mary Altaffer/Associated Press) “Potatoes have calories,” says Nestle, and she mentions that pesky word “moderation.” But she’s sure not giving them up, and she doesn’t think we have to, either. Alice H. Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, also finds reason to be skeptical about the potato’s bad reputation — in part, and a bit counterintuitively, because consumption has been tied to so many bad outcomes. “When it’s associated with everything, you have to suspect that there’s something else that is . . . accounting for it,” she says. “Rarely in the science of nutrition do we have any dietary factors that span all outcomes.” When you move on from population data to research in which people are fed potatoes in a lab, the picture changes a bit. The knock on potatoes is that the quick spike in blood sugar and subsequent insulin response leave people hungry, but when you feed people potatoes and then ask them how full they are a couple hours later, and track what they eat at the next meal, potatoes seem to be quite satiating. Back in 1995, a group of Australian researchers gave 240 calories’ worth of food to subjects who each ate one of 38 specific foods. They tracked how hungry the subjects got and developed a Satiety Index (using white bread as a benchmark, with a score of 100). The hands-down winner, with a Satiety Index of 323, was potatoes. In second place was fish (225), and oatmeal took third (209). Maybe one problem with potatoes comes when you regularly eat them deep-fried in fat or loaded up with sour cream. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) It’s an imperfect study, as it tracks hunger for only two hours, and few additional studies have compared satiety of potatoes vs. satiety of other foods (and some have been funded by the potato industry). Generally, there is enough disagreement over whether the speed of insulin response correlates with satiety that we shouldn’t be so hard on the potato. A food is undoubtedly more than its contribution to blood sugar, and it’s not unreasonable to believe that potatoes have other qualities (fiber, water, resistant starch) that could contribute to satiety. Part of the potato’s problem is simply its classification. When you call it a vegetable, you ask it to fight above its weight class. Compare potatoes with green vegetables, and you get more calories and less nutrition. But compare potatoes with whole grains, and you find surprising similarities, and even a case that potatoes are more nutritious. Compare 100 calories of baked potato to 100 calories of oatmeal, and you find a bit less protein (3 grams vs. 4), a bit more starch (18 grams vs. 16) and a similar mineral profile (potatoes have more potassium, but oats have more selenium). But potatoes beat out oats in just about every vitamin, as well as fiber. Both Willett and Lichtenstein say they think nutrition guidelines should classify potatoes with grains; Willett would group them with refined grains and Lichtenstein would position them between whole and refined grains.

Can I drink coffee on keto diet?

Coffee is another nearly calorie- and carb-free favorite that's safe for the keto diet. Like tea, it can be consumed hot or iced ( 5 ). Coffee...

Last updated Feb 10, 2018

Can keto make you look younger?

In addition to the weight loss benefits of the Ketogenic Diet, there is also evidence that people who eat the Keto Diet will eventually make their...

Last updated Feb 18, 2018

Promotion

Okay, so maybe potatoes should have a place at the table (although both frying and sour cream clearly have to be deployed with care). But if we’re going to eat responsibly, we have to look beyond our own health and try to assess the environmental impact of the choices we make. From that point of view, the potato is a contender. Because all crops confer calories, I like calories-per-acre as a starting point for environmental impact. When I use it, I hear from a few (sometimes quite a few) people suggesting (or insisting) that I need to take nutrients into account. Which is absolutely true; we need both calories and nutrients. So let’s look at the potato’s per-acre potential to deliver those nutrients vs. the potential of a nutrient powerhouse, broccoli. Sure, potatoes produce about 15 million calories per acre to broccoli’s 2 million, but how about individual vitamins and minerals? The potato still scores more wins than losses on nutrients. It yields about half the calcium and vitamin C of broccoli per acre and none of the vitamin A, but it has three times the iron, phosphorus and potassium. Here’s what it boils down to: Broccoli delivers nutrients without attendant starch calories, and potatoes deliver nutrients with them. If you’re a privileged American with a weight problem, broccoli’s a great choice. Green vegetables are, calorie for calorie, the most nutrient-rich foods we can put on our plate. But if we’re trying to feed a planet, we have to look at how to maximize both the calories and the nutrients we can grow on the land we have, and potatoes do that very well. Broccoli delivers a bounty of nutrients. But when you need to feed a planet, you also need to deliver calories, which is where potatoes come out ahead of green vegetables. (Shullye Serhiy/Istockphoto) Let me be clear: I am very pro-green-vegetable. I eat a lot of them, and I employ various strategies to get my husband to eat them, too. (If I hear “This is the food my food eats” one more time. . . .) Americans’ health clearly would benefit if we all ate more of them. But the problem isn’t just us. The problem is feeding the world, and we have to avoid crafting solutions in our own dinner’s image. Let’s hear it for the potato.

washingtonpost.com - Potatoes get a bad rap. They don't deserve it. - The Washington Post

Can I eat Greek yogurt on a keto diet?

Plain Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are nutritious, high protein foods. While they contain some carbs, you can eat them in moderation on keto.

Last updated Jul 10, 2018

When you feel hungry are you burning fat?

Hunger indicates that you are running low on nutrients and energy, not that your body is starting to burn fat storage. Furthermore, long-lasting...

Last updated Jun 28, 2022

Promotion

What should be avoided in dirty keto?

Dirty Keto Foods Processed cheese. Sugar-free sodas and other drinks. Bunless fast-food burgers. Pre-packaged meats. Pork rinds. Bacon made with...

Last updated Nov 2, 2022

Promotion

How do picky eaters get protein?

Salmon, fish sticks, eggs, turkey lunch meat, yogurt, or mozzarella string cheese. Beans and grains. Soy products like soy milk or tofu. (You can...

Last updated Jun 29, 2018