Nutritional Benefits | Health Benefits | Eating a Potato Daily?
Nutritional Benefits:
Just 110 calories | No fat, sodium or cholesterol | Nearly half your daily value of vitamin C | More potassium than a banana | A good source of vitamin B6 | Fiber, magnesium and antioxidants | Resistant starch.
Health Benefits:
The potato's fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 content, coupled with its lack of cholesterol, all support heart health. Potatoes contain significant amounts of fiber. Fiber helps lower the total amount of cholesterol in the blood, thereby decreasing the risk of heart disease.
Is that OK to eat potatoes every day?
Potatoes are the most commonly consumed vegetable in the U.S., yet they often get a bad rap. Most are eaten the form of fries or chips, so many people consider them an unhealthy food.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Eating one medium-size potato a day can be part of a healthy diet and doesn’t increase cardio metabolic risk — the chances of having diabetes, heart disease or stroke — as long as the potato is steamed or baked, and prepared without adding too much salt or saturated fat, a study by nutritionists at The Pennsylvania State University found.
Consuming non-fried potatoes also led to higher potassium and fiber intake compared to eating refined grains, like white rice, white bread or pasta, they noted. The results were published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
“Certainly eating chips or french fries should be discouraged, but there are healthy ways to prepare potatoes, so I do think that lumping them all together is a little bit unfair to the poor potato,” Emily Johnston, study co-author and a doctoral student in the department of nutritional sciences at Penn State, told TODAY.
“We don’t want people to fear the potato, but we want to make sure that they eat it in a healthful way and in a controlled portion size.”
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