Why are potatoes an ideal food for people who want to lose weight?

    Some people say that the potato is a food with very complete nutrition, and that as long as you eat enough potatoes and milk, you can meet all of your body's nutritional needs - though this claim is a bit exaggerated, it is enough to prove that the potato is a good thing. No wonder Shakespeare once had one of his characters shout: “Let it rain potatoes!”

But others say that eating potatoes makes you fat easily. So people shy away from potatoes. Is that really true?

Many people believe that potatoes have too high a starch content and easily lead to weight gain. In fact, the potato is a very ideal food for controlling body weight.

The potato's starch content is not high, only about 20%. The most economical and most direct source of energy for the human body is carbohydrates. For people who want to lose weight, 50%-60% of the calories in food should come from carbohydrates, and most of that should be complex carbohydrates, meaning they contain large amounts of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals - and this is exactly the greatest characteristic of the potato.

The potato is not only a low-calorie food, but also extremely low in fat, the lowest among all foods that fill you up, which is very beneficial for controlling the total fat intake in your daily diet. Moreover, the potato has a very high water content, as high as 78.6 grams per 100 grams, and together with dietary fiber, it makes you feel full after eating, which can prevent overeating - this is a key element in controlling body weight.

If potatoes are stir-fried in oil or deep-fried, the starch in the potato will congeal in the body, and combined with the effect of vegetable oil or animal fat, this easily promotes weight gain. Therefore, it is best to eat potatoes boiled, steamed, stewed or baked, so that the starch particles contained in the potato's fiber are broken down and will not seep into the human body. If oil or fat is added when cooking potatoes, you must cut back on other foods rich in fat to ensure that the total fat for the day does not exceed the limit.

Potato chips are the typical representative of potato snacks. At home, the cooking and heating temperature will not exceed 120°C, so steamed, boiled, stewed or stir-fried potatoes can be enjoyed without worry. But the temperature of industrial food processing exceeds 120°C, and potatoes subjected to high-temperature deep-frying produce a toxic substance called “acrylamide”, and potato chips are the food with the highest content of this toxin. Therefore, when you normally eat potato snacks such as fried crisps, you must keep the amount moderate.

The potato is the highest-calorie vegetable, because it contains starch. However, its water content is as high as more than 76%, its actual starch content is less than 20%, and it also contains “dietary fiber” that can produce a “feeling of fullness”, so using them to replace staple food has a weight-loss effect.

So why is the potato still regarded by many people as a food that makes you fat?

First:

Because people cook them improperly, turning perfectly good potatoes into French fries and potato chips. Anyone who has made “potato braised pork” knows that potatoes have a very strong ability to absorb oil. According to measurements, a medium-sized oil-free “baked potato” contains only about 90 kilocalories, while the same potato made into French fries contains more than 200 kilocalories of energy. It can be seen that what makes you fat is not the potato itself, but the oil and fat it absorbs.

Second:

Because people do not use potatoes to replace staple food, but treat them as a dish. The potato contains fewer calories than staple food, but more than ordinary vegetables. If potatoes are eaten as a dish, the amount of staple food should be appropriately reduced. If the staple food is not reduced, the result is - eating potato dishes makes you gain weight more easily than eating green vegetables.

In fact, from the perspective of nutritional value, the potato is also an excellent staple food.

   First, its potassium and magnesium content is higher than that of polished white rice and polished white flour, making it an alkaline-forming food. All polished white rice and flour, by contrast, make the body more acidic. Second, the potato's protein quality is high. Although the protein content is only 2%, it is rich in lysine, and as long as you eat enough of it, you can obtain all the amino acids your body needs. Third, the potato contains vitamin C, which is a good thing that polished rice and white flour do not have. Fourth, the potato contains dietary fiber, while polished rice and white flour have very little fiber. The potato's fiber is soft in texture and will not irritate the stomach and intestines, so everyone can eat it. People with stomach ulcers or enteritis can also eat potatoes without worry.

Heating potatoes at high temperatures produces a certain toxicity

However, from the perspective of food safety, the potato is not a good snack. It turns out that after potatoes are heated at high temperatures, they are especially prone to forming toxic substances of the “acrylamide” type, so potato chips are the food with the highest content of this toxin, and French fries have this problem too. Therefore, when eating potato snacks such as crisps, fried slices and French fries, you must be especially careful and eat no more than 25 grams per day.

Fortunately, the heating temperature of home-style steaming, boiling, stewing and stir-frying does not exceed 120°C and will not produce any harmful substances. Stewed potatoes, stir-fried potatoes, steamed potatoes and the like can all be eaten without worry; just note that after eating them you must correspondingly reduce your staple food.