Potatoe, friend or villain?

silverharp

The last time I had potatoes was Christmas day on the basis that its a high carb starchy veg so not to be eaten on a regular basis. Yet have come across other opinions that this is "unfair" and that even if potatoes have a high GI , if you eat them with a healthy meal say with a good portion of green veg then the GI is less important?

or does the answer depend if someone is in weight loss mode or maintenance?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i cut them out because they're so high in calorie and they go soooooo well with butter which is also quite high in calories


i don't think they're unhealthy at all though

--edit
and surely just about any high GI food is ok if you eat it with other bulkier/low gi foods

Precious flower

God, I love potatoes! Couldn't give them up personally! Really, I don't think there as bad as some people seem to say. I mean we were eating them for long enough as a nation (albeit we were doing more physically demanding labour) but really I don't think I'll kill you if you are reasonably active. Plus, there full of all kinds of good nutrients. Is it not true that they provide you were almost all of the nutrients your body needs, bar one or two things which? I suppose you could eat sweet potatoes instead if you were worried about the regular potatoes not being so great.

sea_monkey

Great food. Full of vitamins and low in calories.

IlmoNT4

Friend...Natural food that contains nutrients. I'd take potatoes over rice or other carbohydrate foods. Baked potatoes with avocado and salad is a really great dinner...No harm eating with butter either

Total Fat 0.1 g 0%
Saturated fat 0 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 6 mg 0%
Potassium 421 mg 12%
Total Carbohydrate 17 g 5%
Dietary fiber 2.2 g 8%
Sugar 0.8 g
Protein 2 g 4%
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 32%
Calcium 1% Iron 4%
Vitamin D 0% Vitamin B-6 15%
Vitamin B-12 0% Magnesium 5%

Precious flower

loulou2009 wrote: »

Friend...Natural food that contains nutrients. I'd take potatoes over rice or other carbohydrate foods. Baked potatoes with avocado and salad is a really great dinner...No harm eating with butter either

Total Fat 0.1 g 0%
Saturated fat 0 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 6 mg 0%
Potassium 421 mg 12%
Total Carbohydrate 17 g 5%
Dietary fiber 2.2 g 8%
Sugar 0.8 g
Protein 2 g 4%
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 32%
Calcium 1% Iron 4%
Vitamin D 0% Vitamin B-6 15%
Vitamin B-12 0% Magnesium 5%

I agree, I always find rice seems stodgy to me in my stomach after I eat it, that it just doesn't feel 'right' whereas I find potatoes cause me no problems whatsoever.:)

CeannRua

silverharp wrote: »

The last time I had potatoes was Christmas day on the basis that its a high carb starchy veg so not to be eaten on a regular basis. Yet have come across other opinions that this is "unfair" and that even if potatoes have a high GI , if you eat them with a healthy meal say with a good portion of green veg then the GI is less important?

or does the answer depend if someone is in weight loss mode or maintenance?

The answer is to limit portion size! A lot of people just have a tendency to eat too many potatoes.

Alf Veedersane

If you eat your weight in potatoes on a daily basis: foe.

If you eat a proper portion: friend.

j@utis

Potatoes are fine if eaten on their own but they taste much better when cooked in fat or topped with it It always surprises me when people start blaming potatoes for the weight gain when it's actually they way they're eaten is the real culprit. Potatoes aren't high in calories but make them into potato mash with cream and butter and presto! you have a calorie bomb and we all know that carbs&fat eaten together is fastest way to gain weight. I like potatoes a lot but I try to eat them with low fat seasonings; I love butter and double cream too and I eat those with non-starchy veg.
It's the same with the bread too. Bread gets a lot of bashing these days but you rarely see a person eating a plain slice of bread; same as plain boiled potato doesn't appeal to most of us.

thegreatiam

Potatoes and butter are fine to eat. In fact you should eat veg (not necessarily potatoes) with fat as a lot of vitamins are fat soluble and this is how they are absorbed into your body. Cooking in fat or butter helps this absorption.

It's too many potatoes and too much fat that is the problem. Learn to control your food portions. Too much of any one thing is going to be bad even if it's the healthiest food in the world.

It's not the combination of fat and carbs that will get you its the amounts you eat.

People don't get fat cos of the way they mix food they get fat cos they eat too much of it.

Mars Bar

Nothing worse than a dry potato IMO.
I could easily and happily live the rest of my life without ever eating another potato in that form.

Alf Veedersane

Mars Bar wrote: »

Nothing worse than a dry potato IMO.
I could easily and happily live the rest of my life without ever eating another potato in that form.

Maybe switch to cheese 'n' onion.

Mr. CooL ICE

Crispy roast potatoes cooked in olive oil and goose fat. Nom nom nom

ford2600

A discussion on potatoes and no mention of variety; amateur hour:D

Eat high fat low carb myself but the spuds weren't completely cut

occasional boiled Golden Wonder, Rooster part boiled and roast in goose fat, boiled Kerr Pink or two with bacon and cabbage and copious amounts of olive oil and butter...

El_Dangeroso

Potatoes are almost a perfect food.

You can live off a diet of 90% potato and be perfectly healthy.

They are also really filling per calorie so are the perfect addition to a weight loss plan in my opinion.

Chips and crisps however are pretty much the most unhealthy things you can eat.

silverharp

thegreatiam wrote: »

Potatoes and butter are fine to eat. In fact you should eat veg (not necessarily potatoes) with fat as a lot of vitamins are fat soluble and this is how they are absorbed into your body. Cooking in fat or butter helps this absorption.

It's too many potatoes and too much fat that is the problem. Learn to control your food portions. Too much of any one thing is going to be bad even if it's the healthiest food in the world.

It's not the combination of fat and carbs that will get you its the amounts you eat.

People don't get fat cos of the way they mix food they get fat cos they eat too much of it.

thanks, that squares off some of the comments here. I like butter , coconut oil etc.

Happy enough with portion control , I might have rice a a few times a week but keep the portions on the small side , so good to know I could alternate with potatoes.

Davei141

I got into the best shape of my life eating a kilo of spuds a day, felt fantastic too. That is the equivalent in calories to 250 grams of rice. I know what I find much more satiating on a calorie restricted diet. I find nothing really beats the potato for satiety carbwise.

hardCopy

Mars Bar wrote: »

Nothing worse than a dry potato IMO.
I could easily and happily live the rest of my life without ever eating another potato in that form.

Baby new potatoes, skins on, cut in half and boiled.

Very tasty with a pinch of salt.

Mars Bar

I do like baby potatoes alright!

rubadub

Precious flower wrote: »

I suppose you could eat sweet potatoes instead if you were worried about the regular potatoes not being so great.

I have changed to sweet potatoes as I believe regular potatoes are causing skin problems. And I read sweet potatoes are not just an alternative but good for the skin. I have been off them over 2 months now
and have seen improvements.

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Chips and crisps however are pretty much the most unhealthy things you can eat.

What is so bad about chips? Is there any way to reduce any bad effects?

I make sweet potato chips with coconut oil in an air fryer. I was reading a book which first mentioned the potatoes/skin condition link and he warned against fried food, but had no issue with baked foods, which made me question what is so bad about frying. If its temperature then they could be fried at a lower temp, and baked stuff could be at a higher temp and so possibly be worse.

Caliden

I cut them out of my diet mainly because my girlfriend is intolerant to them (as shown by a recent test) and she would just be bent over in discomfort after she ate them.

Since giving them up I've been having trouble making up for the shortfall in calories.

I think it's time to bring back the potato as I'm just not seeing the gains I would like and it's mainly due to a calorie deficit for my requirements.

GuyFawkes

Potato - friend.

Sweet potato - lover.

Amirani

Few potatoes par-boiled, then roasted and seasoned with a small bit of salt, some black pepper and some paprika. Deadly.

MadYaker

Our entire nation survived on very little other than potatoes for hundreds of years. I wouldn't recommend that though. They are like most things, consume in moderation and be careful what you season them with. Be grand.

jane82

Heat some butter with chopped garlic and sieve it into the mash. Topp with grated cheese. Make sure there is so much meat and veg on the plate you can only have about a quater left for the mash. Never did me any bother.

Essien

Home made hash brown is the business with fried egg and bacon. Well I use sweet potato and it's unfecking real, I'm sure regular spuds would do the trick too though.

I never really understood the bad name they got.

El_Dangeroso

rubadub wrote: »

What is so bad about chips? Is there any way to reduce any bad effects?

I make sweet potato chips with coconut oil in an air fryer. I was reading a book which first mentioned the potatoes/skin condition link and he warned against fried food, but had no issue with baked foods, which made me question what is so bad about frying. If its temperature then they could be fried at a lower temp, and baked stuff could be at a higher temp and so possibly be worse.

Just that they are a really high-reward food, very high in calories per the satiety that they provide.

You can then get into things like acrylamide, which I don't think the science is too certain of at the moment.

I think the main thing is that they are usually fried in crappy oil and are ridiculously easy to overeat.

Precious flower

I have a feeling the only nutrient the potato lacks in is vitamin A! History fact coming at ya: ''A working man would eat 14lb (6.5kg) of potatoes a day!!:eek: A family with 4 children would consume 5 tons of potatoes per annum with any excess going to the pigs or chickens.''

jane82

Precious flower wrote: »

I have a feeling the only nutrient the potato lacks in is vitamin A! History fact coming at ya: ''A working man would eat 14lb (6.5kg) of potatoes a day!!:eek: A family with 4 children would consume 5 tons of potatoes per annum with any excess going to the pigs or chickens.''

Is that historical like the bible was historical?

Mellor

Precious flower wrote: »

I have a feeling the only nutrient the potato lacks in is vitamin A! History fact coming at ya: ''A working man would eat 14lb (6.5kg) of potatoes a day!!:eek: A family with 4 children would consume 5 tons of potatoes per annum with any excess going to the pigs or chickens.''

It's a fact that a person once made the above claim, but it's not necessarily a fact that he was right.

Sir Chops

silverharp wrote: »

The last time I had potatoes was Christmas day on the basis that its a high carb starchy veg so not to be eaten on a regular basis. Yet have come across other opinions that this is "unfair" and that even if potatoes have a high GI , if you eat them with a healthy meal say with a good portion of green veg then the GI is less important?

or does the answer depend if someone is in weight loss mode or maintenance?

Nah potatoes are essential. Love them. Fave would be chips with a good southern fried dinner box. Can't beat it with lashings o salt and viniger washed down with a couple of cans of coke ! Mmmmm that's me din din decided for tonite !!!

silverharp

Sir Chops wrote: »

Nah potatoes are essential. Love them. Fave would be chips with a good southern fried dinner box. Can't beat it with lashings o salt and viniger washed down with a couple of cans of coke ! Mmmmm that's me din din decided for tonite !!!

eh no, dumbest post ive seen here in a while

Sir Chops

silverharp wrote: »

eh no, dumbest post ive seen here in a while

Not sure what your problem is? Veg, protein, carbs and essential minerals all included in a tasty and moreish meal and a price that ensures good value to my pocket

silverharp

Sir Chops wrote: »

Not sure what your problem is? Veg, protein, carbs and essential minerals all included in a tasty and meal and a price that ensures good value to my pocket

you suggest drinking 2 cans of coke and a junk food meal on a nutrition forum, whats right about it?

Sir Chops

silverharp wrote: »

you suggest drinking 2 cans of coke and a junk food meal on a nutrition forum, whats right about it?

That's in your opinion though

truedoom

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

they're so high in calories

sea_monkey wrote: »

and low in calories.

lads come on, who's lying here?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

well after another ten people chimed in thast they were low calorie I just decided to shut up

they're like 100 cal per spud though aren't they? hardly what I'd call a diet option although that might just be becase I can't have less than 3 at a time

jane82

They are good as a bread replacement bad as carrot replacement.
It gets a bit hardcore in here at times. Very few people are really going to live on chicken and broccoli alone.
Dowseing them in butter and gravy is to be avoided.
The thing is if potatoes are bad and chips are bad Id choose chips everytime.
Potatoes are great once you take it handy with them and dont eat potato and gravy sambos. If you are trying to lose the last inch of bellyfat you could replace with broccoli but if you are starting out ditch the bread and eat potatoes in smallish doses.

cruizer101

MMMM Potatoes, surprised hasn't been mentioned already but far healthier to eat with the skin. As far as I'm aware most of the vitamins and other nutrients are in or very close to the skin as well as it providing most of the fibre.

Like to lash one in the microwave for few minutes chop into slices and fry it off, nom nom nom

Mellor

silverharp wrote: »

you suggest drinking 2 cans of coke and a junk food meal on a nutrition forum, whats right about it?

Not everyone nutrition goal is aiming to lose weight. People on a bulk diet are in the minority, but they aren't barred from posting.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

they're like 100 cal per spud though aren't they? hardly what I'd call a diet option although that might just be becase I can't have less than 3 at a time

That portion control isn't diet friendly, not the spuds

nearlythereacca

'Potatoes are almost a perfect food.

You can live off a diet of 90% potato and be perfectly healthy'

Sorry, but this statement is simply not true.

El_Dangeroso

nearlythereacca wrote: »

'Potatoes are almost a perfect food.

You can live off a diet of 90% potato and be perfectly healthy'

Sorry, but this statement is simply not true.

Go ask 300 years of Irish history. mostly potato, small amounts of milk, oats and meat. Before the famine Irish people were observed to be 'very fair', good bone structure and lack of crowded teeth is indicative of good nutritive status.

Or go ask the highlanders of Papua New Guinea, whose diet is 90% sweet potato:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ie/2010/05/sweet-potatoes.html

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Washed baby potatoes with the skins left on, boiled from cold in lightly salted water with 5/6 peeled garlic cloves, drain off when cooked, the garlic will go lovely and mushy when take it out, fork it into a paste, add pepper to this paste, and add it back into your baby potatoes, loads of freshly chopped chive and/or parsley and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Optionally you can add some butter, scallions and half a chilli (or powder).

As nice as potatoes get in my opinion and you don't have to have them with any butter or the oil if you'e so inclined.

Typer Monkey

I've nothing to add to the potato debate other than they're delicious. I just wanted to comment to get that massive username off the main forum page..it's messing up the layout! Sorry OCD has kicked in

Swarlez

Essien wrote: »

Home made hash brown is the business with fried egg and bacon. Well I use sweet potato and it's unfecking real, I'm sure regular spuds would do the trick too though.

I never really understood the bad name they got.

could you post up your recipe for this? Sounds really nice!

Essien

Swarlez wrote: »

could you post up your recipe for this? Sounds really nice!

Not much of a recipe but...

Peel and roughly grate some sweet potato.

Finely chop some onion. I use about 4 grams of sweet potato to 1 gram of onion.

Mix it up and season it with pepper and whatever else you fancy, I usually put in a little bit of salt and garlic.

You can mix it with olive oil at that stage or just put some in the pan when you fry it, whatever suits really.

Like I said, it's not much of a recipe, just something that's pretty simple and tastes the business. I used to try make them into little shaped hash browns using egg and flour and stuff but it just wasn't worth the bother.

I'd have this with grilled bacon, cherry tomatoes and egg fairly regularly and it's just one of those thing I'll never get sick of.

El_Dangeroso

My favourite potato recipe at the moment is potato rosti.

Grate a potato, squeeze out as much excess liquid as you can.

Place in frying pan on a high-ish heat with a mix of butter and coconut oil in one of these rings to keep the shape.

Fry 5 mins a side, done.

rubadub

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Place in frying pan on a high-ish heat with a mix of butter and coconut oil in one of these rings to keep the shape.

My mother has metal pastry cutting rings that could be used, though most of todays are probably plastic.

You could possible form rings by getting stiff aluminium foil, like chinese takeaway trays and folding it over and rolling around a tin can or rolling pin to form the shape. A tin can or coke can is usually plastic lined so would not really work well.

I have done rosti type things in the oven, no rings, just blob it down.

El_Dangeroso

rubadub wrote: »

My mother has metal pastry cutting rings that could be used, though most of todays are probably plastic.

You could possible form rings by getting stiff aluminium foil, like chinese takeaway trays and folding it over and rolling around a tin can or rolling pin to form the shape. A tin can or coke can is usually plastic lined so would not really work well.

I have done rosti type things in the oven, no rings, just blob it down.

Blobbing it on works fine too! I just like pretty circles. Pop a poached egg and some chopped chives on top and it looks like something out of masterchef :pac:

Caliden

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Go ask 300 years of Irish history. mostly potato, small amounts of milk, oats and meat. Before the famine Irish people were observed to be 'very fair', good bone structure and lack of crowded teeth is indicative of good nutritive status.

Or go ask the highlanders of Papua New Guinea, whose diet is 90% sweet potato:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ie/2010/05/sweet-potatoes.html

Sweet potato is about as similar to potatoes as chicken is to a battered sausage

El_Dangeroso

Caliden wrote: »

Sweet potato is about as similar to potatoes as chicken is to a battered sausage

Well, no, on a genetic basis their as similar as one breed of chicken is to another breed of chicken.

White potato has a bit more protein, and sweet potato has beta carotene and a bit more potassium, that's it really.