Potatoes Are Good For You!
Potatoes, along with other carbohydrates, are often one of the first foods to be eliminated by dieters, but cutting out a food groups cuts out important vitamins and minerals which are vital for a healthy body.
Recent research has shown that eating 6 to 8 golf ball sized purple potatoes with the skins twice a day as part of a normal diet for 4-weeks lowered blood pressure in overweight/obese people with high blood pressure.
Although the researchers used purple potatoes, they believe similar effects would be seen with white and red skinned potatoes.
The way you prepare your potatoes will make a difference to how healthful they are.
When simply boiled, baked, or microwaved, without any additions when cooking or serving, potatoes are low in fat, and are a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
As the Daily Mail reported, eating the potatoes did not result in weight gain. This is probably because adding the potatoes to the diet didn’t alter the total calorie intake of the participants in the study. The potatoes either replaced something else in the meals, or the participants adjusted their calorie intake for the rest of the day and achieved ‘energy balance’; the key to weight management.
So, you can include potatoes in your weight loss diet and gain the health benefits. If you want to lose weight the total number of calories you consume each day needs to be less than the number of calories you burn. Logging your meals in the Activity manager will help you keep track of not only the number of calories you are consuming every day, but also the amount of protein, fat, carbohydrate. Your KiFit armband will accurately measure your calories burned 24/7 to allow you to achieve your calorie deficit goal everyday.
