White potatoes are mostly starch, so nutritionally speaking they have gotten a bad rap. Enter the slightly less starchy sweet potato — and the beginnings of a myth that sweet potatoes are better for you.
Photo by thebittenword.com.
The truth, as Alan Aragon explains at Men’s Health, is that the potato and sweet potato each have their pros and cons. Sweet potatoes have more fibre and vitamin A, but white potatoes have iron, magnesium and potassium in their corner.
White potatoes do have a higher glycemic index, meaning they are so starch-heavy they spike your blood sugar more quickly than sweet potatoes do. But it’s more important to look at the glycemic load of your whole meal, not just one component.
Fibre, fat, and protein all lower glycemic load, so if you’re covering your potato in sour cream and bacon (and if you’re eating the skin, which is where most of the fibre is), that part of your meal is pretty friendly to your blood sugar. Likewise with the sweet potato: it all comes down to what you’re eating it with. (Brown sugar and marshmallows? Not your best bet.)
Read the full article at Men’s Health for other food myths you may have fallen for.
5 Food Myths [Men’s Health]
Comments
2 responses to “Sweet Potatoes Aren’t Necessarily Healthier Than White Potatoes”
Similar to salt. It’s not good or bad, but because so many people have too much of it, it’s usually considered bad by default. But if you’re low on salt, cutting it out of your diet can actually be MORE harmful than a salt binge.
Balance and moderation people, most vegetables, fruits etc have good qualities. Too much of anything is going to be bad. Totally agree with Transientmind…