The Potato – To eat or not to eat


IMG_0701 Friday January 20, 2012

The potato is probably the most important vegetable in the world and it forms the staple food for some populations.

Potatoes are a good source of starchy carbohydrate, vitamin C and dietary fibre, and supply small amounts of vitamins and minerals. The fact that they are eaten so frequently makes them are significant source of many nutrients in the human diet. Their reputation as being “fattening” is undeserved, although the fat that is added or used to cooking potatoes may deserve that tag.

An average-sized potato (150g) has 390kJ (95Cals). It would be difficult to gain weight by eating potatoes – more than 80 would be required to increase weight by just 1kg. However potatoes absorb fat readily so hot chips generally have three times as many kilojoules as straight potatoes.

The smaller the chip the higher its fat content. 100g of fine cut chips has over 20g of fat, about twice as much as thick hot chips or wedges, with just under 10g per 100g.

Remember that our dinner plates have increased in diameter over the past decade and so too has our waisteline, so when we are serving up our lunch and dinner plates with lots of NUTRITOUS foods, it is important to remember that it is the total energy amount (kJ) of what’s on the plate that matters, not that small serving of potato that is within it.

Happy Eating :0