Potatoes – The Misunderstood Starchy Vegetable
A new report was released, showing that if you cube or shred potatoes before boiling, you can lose as much as 75% of the potassium in an average potato! Now, this is great news for people who undergo kidney dialysis, but for the rest of us, the more potassium we can get in our diets, the better!
People on some of the still-popular fad diets still believe that the poor potato is responsible for obesity in the US. Never mind all the bags of chips and crackers and double cheeseburgers or FRIED potatoes that people eat! However, the potato is still considered America’s most popular vegetable, with the average American eating 130 pounds of potatoes a year!
But what makes a potato so good? First of all, an average potato is low in calories, providing only 100 calories per potato. This means you could bake a potato, you could cut it up and oven fry them, or you could mash it up and it would STILL be less than 12 potato CHIPS. Second, 45% of your daily need for vitamin C can be supplied by just one potato, and that potato also provides as much potassium as a banana. And there’s fiber in a potato, too! One potato, with the skin, will provide 3 grams of fiber, which is as much as some ‘high fiber’ cereals.
So how can you incorporate potatoes into a healthy diet? Easy! Add a baked potato to your lunch, topped by either bean chili or steamed broccoli. A good topping for a baked potato is non-fat sour cream. Don’t squint your nose until you’ve tried it! A popular addition to dinner is to cut up a washed potato into ‘fat fries’, rub them with a little bit of olive oil, shake them in a bag of seasonings, and lay them out on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes, checking for the doneness you prefer. You actually have a low fat potato dish!
One of my favorite dinners is home-made potato soup. I cut up washed potatoes (with skins), boil them in chicken broth, add sautéed onions, and cook until the potatoes are tender. I then blend some of the cooked potatoes with added non-fat milk to create the desired thickness. Add seasonings and heat up. I love adding shredded cheddar cheese to my soup, but you don’t have to. Serve with some whole wheat roles and a green salad and you have an excellent and complete meal.
For more on potatoes, check out the Washington Potato Commission website at; http://www.potatoes.com/
People on some of the still-popular fad diets still believe that the poor potato is responsible for obesity in the US. Never mind all the bags of chips and crackers and double cheeseburgers or FRIED potatoes that people eat! However, the potato is still considered America’s most popular vegetable, with the average American eating 130 pounds of potatoes a year!
But what makes a potato so good? First of all, an average potato is low in calories, providing only 100 calories per potato. This means you could bake a potato, you could cut it up and oven fry them, or you could mash it up and it would STILL be less than 12 potato CHIPS. Second, 45% of your daily need for vitamin C can be supplied by just one potato, and that potato also provides as much potassium as a banana. And there’s fiber in a potato, too! One potato, with the skin, will provide 3 grams of fiber, which is as much as some ‘high fiber’ cereals.
So how can you incorporate potatoes into a healthy diet? Easy! Add a baked potato to your lunch, topped by either bean chili or steamed broccoli. A good topping for a baked potato is non-fat sour cream. Don’t squint your nose until you’ve tried it! A popular addition to dinner is to cut up a washed potato into ‘fat fries’, rub them with a little bit of olive oil, shake them in a bag of seasonings, and lay them out on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes, checking for the doneness you prefer. You actually have a low fat potato dish!
One of my favorite dinners is home-made potato soup. I cut up washed potatoes (with skins), boil them in chicken broth, add sautéed onions, and cook until the potatoes are tender. I then blend some of the cooked potatoes with added non-fat milk to create the desired thickness. Add seasonings and heat up. I love adding shredded cheddar cheese to my soup, but you don’t have to. Serve with some whole wheat roles and a green salad and you have an excellent and complete meal.
For more on potatoes, check out the Washington Potato Commission website at; http://www.potatoes.com/
posted by Margie Geiser, MBA, RD, NSCA-CPT at
5:54 AM
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