Health Benefits of Potatoes | Health and Nutrition Benefits of Potatoes - Food and Health

Health Benefits of Potatoes

The health benefits of white potatoes they come from the plant solanum tuberosum they're starchy tuber is plant meaning a storage source of nutrition for the plant during winter months there are more than hundred varieties of potatoes but I'm going to focus on the common white potato they're the fourth highest consumed crop in the world behind rice wheat and corn in the United States it is a number-one vegetable in terms of sales production and consumption potatoes are relatively inexpensive to grow and are adaptable to a wide variety of climates and the ease of production and storage contributes to their global increase in demand consumption of the white potato in the US has declined in the last 50 years this is likely in part due to the misconception that they're linked to obesity and diabetes this concern can be linked to how the food is prepared there's been a 2/3 increase in processed potato including products like Pitta chips and french fries over the last 50 years some nutritional contents so per 100 grams of white potato there are 94 calories surprisingly this is less than white or wheat pasta white or brown rice soy beans or yams and about the same as sweet potatoes per 100 grams there are 2 grams of protein 0 grams of fat 21 grams of carbohydrates and 2.1 grams of dietary fiber it is a concentrated source of vitamin C and potassium it's also high in the minerals magnesium phosphorus iron zinc and copper as well as the vitamins b3 b5 and b6 they are also high in the federal chemicals and phytonutrients many of which function as antioxidants active phytochemicals include carotenoids flavonoids and capric acid as well as a unique to bitch storage protein called patan although there's no good research looking specifically at potatoes these chemicals are thought to help with digestion heart health blood pressure and possibly cancer prevention the key to eating potatoes is in how they are prepared they get a bad reputation because they're often consumed as fried foods like french fries

Potato chips as I mentioned or baked and loaded with butter cream cheese and and prepped in this fashion you're stripping away the nutritional benefits and also adding more unhealthy fats so this is not a healthy way to consume them the potato skin is concentrated with dietary fiber so I would recommend that you clean the potato off but I do not peel away the skin regardless of how you're going to consume it when cooking try to avoid cooking it in any fat of any kind instead use boiling water or pan-seared this will help retain the nutritional quality of the potato without adding those unhealthy fats and then another point some people argue that potatoes are vegetable and you can make that case based on some of the nutritional content but they're high in carbohydrates so you should think of them more as a carbohydrate they should not replace green food in your diet and like any other food consumption and moderation is also important...