Are you one of the many people that think potatoes are fattening and should be avoided at all cost? If you are, then this week’s blog post How to Lose Weight Eating the Humble, But Mighty Potato is for you.
If you want to lose weight do you automatically cut out eating potatoes, or cut out carbohydrates? If you do, then stop right now.
Good carbs and bad carbs
Potatoes are good crabs. They’re complex carbohydrates that power your body throughout the day. Good carbs are fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains like oats, barley, whole-grain couscous, brown rice, quinoa, millet, and sprouted whole-grain bread, starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, and yams, and legumes like black beans, peas, and pinto beans.
Good crabs are low in sodium, saturated fat and have very little, if any, cholesterol, and no trans fats. They’re also packed full of fiber, which helps to lower your blood sugar and insulin levels and helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer. You can find out more about fibre here.
The carbs you should cut out are those that your great-great grandmother wouldn’t have a clue about. These are curly fries, potato chips, Fruit Loops, pastries, white bread, white pasta and white rice to name a few. They provide you with little energy and cause major spikes in blood sugar levels, which leads to a subsequent crash that can trigger hunger and cravings for more bad carb foods, that lead to weight gain. You get into a spiral that you just can’t get out of.
That’s why good carbs, such as potatoes are great for weight loss. They’re packed full of nutrients and are so satisfying that they can help you to reduce binge-eating. They’ll also supply you with an essential source of fuel and energy, that’ll help you to think, walk, talk, run, digest your food and renew your cells.
Nutrient Packed
The humble potato is packed with all the nutrients you need. In their natural state, they’re ideal sources of energy, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. Their abundant proteins easily provide all of the essential amino acids required for healthy adults and children. Plus, they’re full of potassium which helps to decrease the loss of calcium from the body and increases the rate of bone building.
But potatoes are also great at helping you to avoid sodium, cholesterol, and fat. You won’t find any cholesterol in a potato and there’s insignificant amounts of cholesterol-raising saturated fats. Of the calories from potatoes, only 1% comes from fat, and these few fats are mostly the kind that we need, called essential fats.
They secret is to eat your potatoes boiled, mashed, roasted, microwaved or steamed, with the skins on. Never deep fry them, cook them in oil and never load them with fats such as cheese, beef chilli, sour cream, butter etc.
Cooking potatoes in oil increases the percentage of fat from 1% to 36% for French fries, and up to 58% for potato chips. Often the fats used for cooking the potatoes are the most damaging forms: saturated and hydrogenated fats that are linked closely with heart disease and cancer.
Potatoes are a natural weight loss food
Why?
Well, it’s virtually impossible to consume too many calories from potatoes. One five-ounce baked potato has 150 calories. You’d have to eat at least five to seven large potatoes per meal, assuming you have three meals per day, just to reach your daily energy needs. (A man needs around 10,500kJ (2,500Kcal) a day to maintain his weight. For a woman, that figure is around 8,400kJ (2,000Kcal) a day.)
Did you know that potatoes contain one calorie per gram? By comparison, sugar, cheese, and beef are about 4 calories per gram and vegetable oils are 9 calories per gram.
They’re only 1% fat, so are virtually fat free. By comparison beef and cheese can be 70% fat and butter is 100% fat.
Why potatoes will help to keep you feeling fuller for longer
You’re hungry, and you need to eat to get rid of those horrible hunger pangs, so what do you do?
The best way to satisfy your hunger is by eating unrefined carbohydrates. Potatoes top the carbohydrate list with about 90% of their calories from appetite-satisfying carbohydrates.
In an experiment, 38 separate foods were fed to subjects and a rating of their level of satisfaction (satiety index) was determined every 15 minutes for two hours after the meal. The highest satiety index was produced by boiled white potatoes, which was seven times higher than the lowest index of croissants.
Potatoes are five times more satisfying that a Mars Bar
Potatoes were almost five times more satisfying than a Mars bar and twice as satisfying as beef or cheese. The main reasons for this high level of satisfaction were:
- the low calorie density – only one calorie per gram
- the high carbohydrate, and
- the low fat contents of the potato. Carbohydrate satisfies your hunger, whereas fat offers almost no satisfaction.
So the next time you need to satisfy your hunger, don’t forget about the humble potato. Just remember not to slather it with butter, sour cream, or bacon!
5 Delicious Recipes Using Potatoes
How to Lose Weight Eating the Humble, But Mighty Potato. Here are five recipes that use potatoes that will help you to lose weight.
- Baked Potato with Veggie Chilli
- Plant-Based Tomato, Butterbean and Potato Stew
- Cauliflower, Potato and Lentil Curry
- Leek, Potato and Onion soup
- Plant-Based Adzuki Bean Burgers with Sweet Potato Chips
If losing weight for your summer holidays is one of your goals, then consider following a whole food, plant-based diet and you’ll not only be able to eat the humble, mighty potato, you’ll be able to lose weight too!
Ready to get started? Be one of the first to hear about my new, whole food, plant based weight loss course coming in the next few weeks. Click here to register.
I’d love to hear how you like this recipe.
Let me know in the comments section below. Thank you!
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