Just how evil are potatoes, anyways?

[hedgehog]

Last edited Wed Feb 11, 2015, 08:58 AM - Edit history (1)

They are the food of my people; I was 58 years old before I realized that potatoes weren't the default carb at supper for the rest of the world. ( I knew Italians ate lots of pasta, but I thought they were the exception!)

So now, I see potatoes listed with white rice and white bread as being full of bad calories. I wonder how much of this is due to how potatoes are prepared. For example, I loved boiled potatoes with a little butter, and increasingly leave the skins on. I love baked potatoes, and will often eat the skins as well. Mashed potatoes are for special occasions. (and I leave the skins on and serve smashed potatoes instead!)

Processed french fries sprayed with all kinds of preservatives are not my idea of a potato.

I think before potatoes are condemned, we need to look at how they are actually served. As I noted above, i generally eat potatoes with a little added fat. That has to be taken into account with considering how the meal is digested. They are also excellent sources of potassium, B6, fiber and an outstanding source of Vitamin C.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2546/2

[MADem]

1. Many Irish people came to live on them and died without them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29#Potato_dependency

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Nothing wrong with potatoes, except...

they are a high carb food and diabetics steer clear of them.

And, yeah, chips and fries and skins stuffed with strange stuff are not the best ways to eat them. Tasty, yes, but hardly healthy.

[hedgehog]

3. People in my family tend to live healthy lives into their 90's as long

as they stick to potatoes and stay off the booze.

[Ilsa]

4. I enjoy a thick mash of potatoes, not much

milk or butter, a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. A simple baked potato with a little butter, salt and pepper, is a treat!

Another food to eat in moderation.

[DetlefK]

5. The only evil potatoes are fried potatoes, because too much fat and salt.

1. As long as you add only a little bit of fat, they are perfectly fine.
2. Starch is starch. It doesn't matter whether you eat grains or potatoes.

[tridim]

11. Use real fat and fried potatoes are healthy.

Why don't people understand that FAT IS GOOD FOR YOU?

[Brainstormy]

13. Exactly!

It's not the fact that potatoes are fried, but what they're fried in.

[auntAgonist]

15. I like my potatoes parboiled and then fried in bacon grease.

Not a lot of grease but enough for browning. Seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper and a few onion bits sauteed in with them.

It's not the potato it's what we put in and on it that's bad.


aA

[hedgehog]

18. I'll have to try that!

[pansypoo53219]

6. i make an old vinegar sweet + sour potato salad. we call it german, but a dane i know says she never

my brother has type 2 and it did not make his sugar level spike. also a lot of bacon. makes it a dinner dish.

[hedgehog]

7. I'm getting hooked on a German potato salad that seems to involve

yogurt. If I read the label correctly, there is also canola oil, sour cream (or the German version thereof), sugar and vinegar.

[Dorian Gray]

8. I eat a Dr. Praeger's

vegetable pancake (broccoli and potato or spinach and potato) almost every morning with an egg scrabled with other veggies.

they are fine in healthy forms and in moderation. [

[rogerashton]

9. As me late brither-in-laa said,

if y'want a mashed potatah, use yer fark.

[tridim]

10. Potatoes are amazing

I cut my carbs in half recently but still eat potatoes with the skin for the nutrition. It's my main starch now.

And then there is resistant starch (potato starch) which does wonders for the beneficial bacteria in the colon.

[Kilgore]

12. Here is one evil potato!

https://m.

[Silent3]

14. 6.2 n/t

[HereSince1628]

16. Evil? Not. Challenging (along with bananas and breads) to diabetics? Yes.

My physiology doesn't make something outside me good or bad.

Things outside me can work against my regulation of my physiology.

[SheilaT]

17. Potatoes are one of God's perfect foods.

Along with red wine, orange juice, and champagne.

Keep in mind that the Irish lived almost exclusively on potatoes until the Famine totally destroyed the potato crop, forcing a couple of million Irish to immigrate to the U.S., lucky us.

One of the things that makes me crazy about our culture is the tendency to demonize certain foods. Potatoes are evil! Eggs will kill you! And so on. In truth, no one food is poison (unless you happen to be allergic) and no one food is magic. Moderation in all things.

Personally, I love to make homemade french fries. Nothing better It's often my lunch or dinner.

And a glass or three of red wine isn't so bad, either.

[libdem4life]

19. I love the Golden potatoes..dice, boil or bake and dice... meanwhile prepare a bowl of sour cream,

some shredded cheese, a little butter, milk and a clove of garlic or some green onion...warm in microwave. Drain potatoes, mix, smash, stir...Heaven. Takes about 10 minutes. It's a meal for me.