Gaining weight? Beware potatoes?baked, fried, or in chips

[David Baxter PhD]

Gaining weight? Beware potatoes?baked, fried, or in chips
by P.J. Skerrett, Editor, Harvard Heart Letter
June 24, 2011

Without meaning to, you?ve gained a few pounds over the last few years. How did that happen? Certain foods, especially the humble potato, may be partly to blame.

In a fascinating study of 120,000 healthy, non-obese women and men taking part in long-term studies of diet and health, the participants gained an average of 3.3 pounds every four years over a 13-year period. When the researchers tallied up the foods that contributed most to this weight gain, potatoes topped the list?twice:

• potato chips
• potatoes
• sugar-sweetened beverages
• red meat
• processed meats

Other contributors to weight gain included sleeping less than six hours a night or more than eight hours, drinking alcohol, and watching television. The results were just published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study offered some good news and tips for losing weight, too. Foods and lifestyle choices associated with losing weight included

• yogurt
• nuts
• fruits
• whole grains
• vegetables
• physical activity

Walter C. Willett, who chairs the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, has been warning us about potatoes for years. Here?s what he says in his book, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. (Full disclosure: I co-authored this book.) ?Nutritionists and diet books alike often call potatoes a ?perfect food.? But while eating potatoes on a daily basis may be fine for lean people who exercise a lot or who do regular manual labor, for everyone else potatoes should be an occasional food consumed in modest amounts, not a daily vegetable. The venerable baked potato increases levels of blood sugar and insulin more quickly and to higher levels than an equal amount of calories from pure table sugar.? French fries do the same thing, but with an added blast of fat.

In the Healthy Eating Pyramid that Willett and his colleagues devised, they plucked potatoes from the fruits and vegetables category and put them in the ?Use Sparingly? category at the very top of the pyramid.

The new study, which came from Willett?s group at the Harvard School of Public Health, corroborates the notion that we should view potatoes as a starch?and a fattening one at that?not as a vegetable.

 

[Daniel E.]

Regarding their food pyramid, they seem to vilify white rice as well -- which is a healthy staple of the Japanese diet.

---------- Post added at 08:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------

Rice is a staple in Japan. So why is its population so much slimmer than we low-carb-crazed Americans are?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Regarding their food pyramid, they seem to vilify white rice as well -- which is a healthy staple of the Japanese diet.

Rice is a staple in Japan. So why is its population so much slimmer than we low-carb-crazed Americans are?

They don't vilify rice per se. They vilify the heavily processed white rice (like Minute Rice) and recommend that you eat whole grain rice (the kind that takes 20 - 45 minutes to cook rather than 5 minutes).

Basically, most processed foods are less nutritious and more fattening than their original unprocessed equivalents.

 

[Yuray]

Life expectancy is roughly 81 yrs of age in Canada now, and remember, that is an average. Many more live much longer. Life expectancy In Ireland, where potatoes in decades past have been a staple, is 80 years. The humble potatoe which has served so many for so long, so well, has finally fallen prey to hand wringing nitpicking attention grabbing new wave statiticians. What next? Diet water?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

On one of the channel islands during World War II, cut off from England by the German U-boats, some people survived for something like 2 years almost exclusively on potatoes.

But it's not that potatoes are unhealthy. It's that they really aren't terrific if you are trying to lose or moderate your weight, especially when nthey are made into potato chips and french fries, or eaten with lots of butter and gravy, which is the way most north Americans eat them.

Boiled potatoes, plain with a bit of salt and pepper, aren't bad at all but how many of us eat potatoes that way?

 

[Daniel E.]

60-day potato diet leaves advocate 21 lbs. lighter

Harvard study causes tuber turmoil - seattlepi.com

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Harvard study causes tuber turmoil - seattlepi.com

From that article:

But why did potatoes come out so badly?

This is what Time reported:

Maybe because they're generally eaten in large quantities, Mozaffarian says, or possibly because, as some previous research has shown, they are the type of food that causes big spikes in blood sugar and insulin, which tends to make people hungrier and overeat at their next meal. Other starches and refined carbohydrates like white bread, white rice, low-fiber breakfast cereal, candy and desserts may affect the body the same way, he says. (On average, the study showed that foods that fell into the "refined grains" and "sweets and desserts" categories were associated with just under a half-pound of weight gain.)

​

An expert who wasn't involved in the study says that the results may mean that people who eat chips and fries eat other types of food not considered healthy while people who eat, say, lots of fruits and vegetables tend to eat other healthy food.
It's also been noted that potatoes, unlike many other vegetables, are eaten cooked, not raw. That means "it's easier [for the body] to transform the starch to glucose," another study author told The Los Angeles Times.

 

[Daniel E.]

Boiled potatoes, plain with a bit of salt and pepper, aren't bad at all but how many of us eat potatoes that way?

Similarly, more pro-potato content:

Slim-Down Effect
Form resistant starch, a fiber that burns fat

These veggies may be one of our most misunderstood foods. Fried or doused in sour cream, they're not going to help you lose weight. But when boiled or baked, a potato's starch absorbs water and swells. Once chilled, portions of the starch crystallize into a form that resists digestion--resistant starch. Unlike other types of fiber, resistant starch gets fermented in the large intestine, creating fatty acids that may block the body's ability to burn carbohydrates. In their place, you burn fat.
A healthy potato serving is about the size of a fist.

Forbidden Diet Foods You Should Be Eating

 

[Daniel E.]

In defense of French fries - Harvard Health Blog
Feb. 6, 2019

Must you swear off French fries forever? I say no. Here's why:

• The higher risk of death was noted among those who ate French fries more than twice a week. Eating them once a week or less would likely have a negligible effect on your health.
• Portion size matters. This study didn't provide details of how many fries study subjects ate at one sitting, but an "official" serving is just 10 to 15 individual fries (130–150 calories). Most fast food establishments serve three to four times that amount! Stick with one serving, or share a restaurant serving with a couple of meal mates.
• Homemade "baked fries" using minimal olive or canola oil aren't French fries, but they're close… and much healthier.