Are There Carbs In Potatoes?
Carbohydrates are the main source of glucose (sugar) in the body. Your body uses glucose for energy. But if you have diabetes, prediabetes, or are just keeping a close eye on your blood sugar, it’s important to be mindful of your carbohydrate intake: Carbs increase your blood sugar. If blood sugar isn’t controlled, it can cause different problems, like blurry vision, headaches, and fatigue. Despite the energy boost you may receive from potatoes, they contain a lot of starch, a type of carbohydrate. It’s important to portion control your intake. Recognizing the different types of carbs and how potatoes affect your blood sugar can help you avoid blood sugar spikes. Carbohydrates are your body and brain’s main source of energy. Carbs are broken into three categories: fiber, starch, and sugar. When some people resolve to lose weight, they often cut carbohydrates from their diet. But all carbs are not created equal. A study on mice even found that a low-carb, high-fat diet led to weight gain in the mice and uncontrolled blood sugar. Whether you want to lose weight or watch your blood sugar, it’s important to understand the different types of carbohydrates and how to portion them correctly. This will not only have a positive impact on your health, but will create a long-term and sustainable approach to reaching your health goals. Starch and fiber are complex carbohydrates. Starchy carbohydrates are digested while fiber isn’t. Because of this, high-fiber foods can create satiation and help deter overeating. Complex carbs include unrefined grains, beans, and starchy and non-starchy vegetables. Some examples include: whole wheat bread and pasta beans squash cucumber broccoli spinach celery chickpeas oatmeal Simple carbohydrates are found in fruits, dairy, and sweeten Continue reading >>
10 Worst Foods For Your Blood Sugar
Certain foods can send your blood sugar level on a roller coaster, with insulin rushing to keep up. The good news is, while there are some surprises, most of these foods fall under the same category: processed food, such as white flour and sugar. "Refined flours and sugar cause huge spikes in insulin and get absorbed quickly, which causes problems," says Mark Hyman,… Continue reading >>
Glucose & Potatoes
Potatoes are most nutritious with their skins on, providing you with significant amounts of vitamin C, fiber and potassium. Leaving the skins on may also lower the effect of potatoes on your blood glucose levels, since fiber slows down the emptying of your stomach and thus lessens any after-meal rise in blood glucose levels. Baked Russet potatoes are made up of about 21 percent carbohydrates. Each medium potato contains 4.6 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat and 37 grams of carbohydrates, including 4 grams of fiber. Only 1.9 grams of the carbohydrates in potatoes comes from sugars, including 0.6 gram of glucose, with another 30.2 grams coming from starch. Glycemic Index The glycemic index measures the effect of carbohydrate-containing foods on blood glucose levels; foods with a high glycemic index often cause spikes in blood glucose levels after you eat them. The glycemic index of potatoes can vary widely, ranging from a relatively low average score of 50 for boiled white potatoes to a high average score of 85 for instant mashed potatoes and baked Russet potatoes. The type of potato, method of preparation and whether you leave the skin on can all affect the glycemic index of potatoes. Minimizing Effect on Blood Glucose You can minimize the effect of potatoes on blood glucose levels by pairing them with foods that contain little carbohydrates, such as meat, or those that are low on the glycemic index, including beans, peas and most other vegetables. Eat a small serving of potatoes along with lean meat and a salad and the overall effect on your blood sugar levels will be relatively low. However, if you eat a large plate of french fries, skip the salad and add a slice of apple pie, your meal is likely to cause a large spike in your blood sugar levels. Considerations For diab Continue reading >>
Don't Drop The Potato
Don't Drop the Potato by Berkeley Wellness Many people fear that potatoes will make them fat or cause other health problems. Are potatoes really such villains? Are they any better or worse than bread, rice, or other starchy grains? A half-baked myth Potatoes have a bad reputation, in part, because they have a high glycemic index (GI), meaning that their carbohydrates are quickly broken down into sugar, causing blood sugar and insulin levels to rise rapidly. This, in turn, increases fat storage and the risk of obesity and diabetes—at least in theory. A few studies have implicated potatoes in weight gain and diabetes. For instance, a 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found a link between potato consumption and waist circumference in women (but not men). Earlier data from the Nurses’ Health Study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2006, linked potato intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes in obese women—especially when potatoes were eaten in place of whole grains. But there are plenty of caveats to consider before you drop the potato. For one, not all studies support the idea that high-GI diets—let alone potatoes, in particular—have such adverse effects. Several have found no relationship between high-GI diets and body fat or diabetes. In any case, the GI of potatoes and other foods depends on many factors, including how they’re cooked and what they’re eaten with. And not all varieties have such a high GI. Russet potatoes do, for example, but red potatoes rank moderately. Moreover, it’s hard to separate the effects of potatoes from those of other foods in a typical Western diet. That is, the undesirable associations seen in some studies could be due to the meat, refined grains, sugars and trans Continue reading >>
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Which Potatoes Are Really Healthier?
It’s an age-old debate: the sweet vs. the regular potato. Which should you be eating for maximum health? Well, in today’s article, we’ll look to the research and crown an undisputed champion. We also created a cool visual guide. Check out the infographic here… Why’s there a debate in the first place? In recent years, the sweet potato (but not the regular potato) has enjoyed “superfood” status among healthy eaters and regular exercisers. Some researchers have suggested that potatoes might carry harmful anti-nutrients. Others that their glycemic index (GI) is too high. As a result, the humble spud has taken a mashing in the recent low-carb years. But, here’s the thing. Both regular potatoes and sweet potatoes are healthy, awesome, and delicious heritage foods. You can eat and enjoy both, regardless of your goals. With that in mind, let’s dig up the truth about our tuberous friends. You say potato, I say potahto. But they’re not the same They’re both called “potatoes”. They’re both nutritious, energy-rich tubers and ancient, honored foods whose cultivation stretches back thousands of years. They both originated in Central and South America and have since spread throughout the world. They both taste great and make a fine side dish. Yet, botanically, potatoes and sweet potatoes are completely unrelated. Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) are in the Solanaceae family, related to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant along with deadly nightshade. Plants in this family produce solanine, which is poisonous. So don’t eat the leaves or stems of any plant in this group, or potatoes that have gone green. Solanum phureja is a rarer, more wild-type species of potato cultivated in South America. Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are in the Convolvulaceae family with fl Continue reading >>
Potato Nutrition 5 Common Potato Myths Debunked
Potato Nutrition 5 Common Potato Myths Debunked If you're like most people, you may be on the fence about whether potatoes are actually good for you. Understanding potato nutrition has become overly complex, and unfortunately the truth about these starchy vegetables has become overly complicated. Riddled with such claims as potatoes are too high in carbohydrate or potatoes have a high glycemic index, it has become downright confusing to determine whether potatoes are worth keeping in your diet, or whether they belong in your trash can. In this post, well address 5 common potato myths and get to the bottom of potato nutrition so that you know the truth. Spoiler alert: potatoes are extremely good for you. Myth #1: Potatoes Are High in Carbohydrates and Will Spike Your Blood Glucose If you believe any of these statements, then its not your fault. Since the advent of the Atkins diet, America has been fed a host of anti-carbohydrate propaganda. Carbohydrates are a fuel for all tissues in your body Your brain runs off of glucose for 99.99% of your life Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your muscles, for use during exercise Carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your liver, to provide your brain with a drip-feed of glucose 24 hours a day Carbohydrates are converted into fat, but at a terribly slow and inefficient pace in the human body (2) Take a look at the nutrition facts label shown here for a medium white potato (3): A single medium white potato contains about 150 calories A single medium white potato contains about 40g of carbohydrate A single medium white potato contains about 5 grams of protein A single medium white potato contains almost no fat Many people with diabetes will pass up white potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams because they are high in carbohydrates, Continue reading >>
Potato: A Diabetic’s True Friend
Diabetes is the new age epidemic. An increasing number of people are suffering from this disease and its related complications. Here, it is essential to understand that only medications are not enough to manage this menace. In fact, a modification in lifestyle and diet is a must in the management protocol of diabetes. This fundamental fact opens a door to the term ‘diabetes meal plan.’ Diabetes meal plan ‘Diabetes meal plan’ is a comprehensive guide on what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat for diabetics. It is a plan based on Glycemic Index (GI) of foods, carbohydrate count (carb count) and the plate method. Ideally, this is formatted for a diabetic individual by a trained and a qualified dietician or nutritionist. It is different for different individuals, depending on the blood sugar levels,activity levels and overall diabetes control. Generally, a good thumb rule to follow is not to exceed more than 15 grams of carbohydrates in a snack, lunch and dinner, however, can be 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates for women and 30 to 45 grams of carbohydrates for men. Of note, food items with high GI are to be avoided, as the higher the GI of a food, the more increase in the blood sugar and insulin levels.After this bird's eye view of the diabetic meal plan, let us look into some facts of potatoes. The Potato fact file Potato is a cheap and easily available vegetable and a kind of staple food for many. It is full of starch that breaks down into sugar; may be this is a fact that makes us doubt its place in a diabetic meal plan. We should not forget that potato is also rich in dietary fibre, vitamin C, B6 and potassium. Above all,it is free of fat and cholesterol.One small potato of 150 grams has about 110 calories, which is around 25 grams of carbohydrates. Accordin Continue reading >>
11 Superfoods For Your Diabetes Diet
Getty Images What to Eat to Beat Type 2 Diabetes What makes a food “super”? When it comes to type 2 diabetes, it’s not just about foods that pack lots of nutrients. For a diabetes-friendly diet, you also need foods that will help keep your blood sugar levels in check. “Look for items that contain healthy fats and are high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber,” says Sue McLaughlin, RD, a certified diabetes educator at Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Iowa. It’s also crucial to eat a wide variety of foods to make sure you’re getting a healthy mix of phytochemicals and essential fatty acids. Add these 11 superfoods to your grocery cart to keep your diet diabetes-friendly. Continue reading >>
Can Baked Potatoes Spike My Blood Sugar?
Baked potatoes are known to send your blood sugar into an uproar because of their high carbohydrate content. But not all potatoes have that effect. Some baked spuds are low on the glycemic index, causing minimal glucose elevations. Whether or not you eat your steamy side with the skin on makes a difference. Peeling your potato makes it digest quicker, causing a bigger effect on your blood sugar. Video of the Day The glycemic index, or GI, is a scoring system for foods containing carbohydrates. High-GI foods, with a score high than 70, cause your blood sugar to spike quickly. Medium-glycemic foods rank at 55 to 70 on the scale and have modest effects on blood sugar. Ideally, the majority of the foods you eat should be low on the glycemic index and have a rate of less than 55. These low-GI foods raise your blood sugar slightly over a longer period of time. Russet and White Potatoes Russet potatoes are some of the worst offenders when it comes to upping your blood sugar. A baked russet has an average GI rank of 85. If you eat the skin, it falls a bit lower, whereas peeling the skin away makes it as high as 111. Baked white potatoes tend to fall at around 50 on the glycemic scale, although you have to leave the skin on when you eat them. Otherwise your low-glycemic baked tater can be closer to 100, making it highly likely to make your blood sugar surge. Rather than your usual starchy spud, opt for a baked sweet potato. A cooked sweet potato can be as low as 44 on the scale. Although if you don’t eat the skin, that low-GI sweet potato is more likely to elevate your blood sugar, because the score can go up to 78. Or you can opt for a yam instead. Yams have an average GI of just 37, with the skin on or off, meaning they’ll have little effect on blood sugar. Most of the ing Continue reading >>
Should People Suffering From Diabetes Eat Potatoes?
Potatoes are a controversial food for diabetics. Most believe that eating potatoes in any form – boiled, baked, fried or in a vegetable preparation can make their glucose levels soar. However, this isn’t completely false. Potatoes can mess with a diabetic’s meal plan. Being a nutrient dense food, high in complex carbohydrates and dietary fibre, they are high on the glycemic index. The glycemic index (GI) is an indicator of how fast the carbohydrates present in your food will raise your blood glucose levels. Foods with high GI will raise the levels quickly as compared to food with low GI value. Here is a sample diabetic meal plan for you to follow. In the case of potatoes, all the starch and carbohydrate present in it breaks down into glucose and raises your blood sugar level after consumption. The GI of a boiled white potato is 85, which is quite high. Here are eight healthy foods that are bad for diabetics. What you can do? That said you don’t have to say no to potatoes completely. If you are cautious about your diet and exercise regularly, then probably you can include potatoes in your meal. Remember, even if you are diabetic your body will still need carbohydrates for energy. So, first consider what your carbohydrate requirement is and how much do you need. Here are seven fruits that are good for diabetics. If you are a diabetic your goal should be to limit your carbohydrate consumption to 45 to 65 percent of your total caloric intake, which means if your consume 2200 calories of food in a day around 1450 calories should come from carbohydrates. This indicates that if you include one small bowl (katori) of potato in one of your main meals you can still be safe. The idea is not to overdo food. Too much aloo ka sabzi can definitely wreck havoc on your glucose l Continue reading >>
5 Surprising Foods That Have Little Impact On Blood Sugar
What is the most important information I should know about TREMFYA®? TREMFYA® may cause serious side effects, including infections. TREMFYA® is a prescription medicine that may lower the ability of your immune system to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. Your healthcare provider should check you for infections and tuberculosis (TB) before starting treatment with TREMFYA® and may treat you for TB before you begin treatment with TREMFYA® if you have a history of TB or have active TB. Your healthcare provider should watch you closely for signs and symptoms of TB during and after treatment with TREMFYA®. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you have an infection or have symptoms of an infection, including: warm, red, or painful skin or sores on your body different from your psoriasis diarrhea or stomach pain shortness of breath have any of the conditions or symptoms listed in the section “What is the most important information I should know about TREMFYA®?” have recently received or are scheduled to receive an immunization (vaccine). You should avoid receiving live vaccines during treatment with TREMFYA®. Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. What are the possible side effects of TREMFYA®? TREMFYA® may cause serious side effects. See “What is the most important information I should know about TREMFYA®?” The most common side effects of TREMFYA® include: upper respiratory infections, headache, injection site reactions, joint pain (arthralgia), diarrhea, stomach flu (gastroenteritis), fungal skin infections, and herpes simplex infections. These are not all the possible side effects of TREMFYA®. Call your doctor f Continue reading >>
The Big Secret About Sweet Potatoes That Nobody Wants You To Know
You and I have been lied to. I don’t know why, and I don’t even know if it’s on purpose, but it pisses me off. And here’s why I’m annoyed… As of 2014, 29 MILLION people in the US had Diabetes (type 2), and 86 MILLION people were pre-diabetic. That’s over 105 MILLION people who have problems with insulin sensitivity and blood sugar. And my dad and my mother-in-law fall into those categories – my dad’s been type 2 diabetic for over a decade, and my mother-in-law has been pre-diabetic for about the same amount of time. So this particular issue hits very close to home (literally) for me – and presumably for almost anybody in the US, since you almost certainly know a few people who are at least pre-diabetic. The Myth About Sweet Potatoes… Everyone (from doctors, to medical researchers, to even the American Diabetes Association) seems to unanimously state that sweet potatoes are unequivocally great for diabetics (please note that when I mention diabetes in this article, I’m referring to type 2 diabetes). If you don’t believe me, here are just a few examples: And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Even on websites that supposedly pay attention to blood-sugar and glycemic load issues, sweet potatoes are almost always classified as a “better” food than things like white potatoes. Unfortunately…It’s All Completely Untrue! Listen. I’m not bashing sweet potatoes. Entire cultures have lived very healthily on sweet potatoes. I eat sweet potatoes myself. But I also have pretty good insulin sensitivity. It’s like this. Fish is pretty darn nutritious, and almost everybody agrees. But if you’re allergic to fish, you shouldn’t be eating it. It’s pretty simple. So the question is whether sweet potatoes are a problem for people with blood sugar Continue reading >>
Do Potatoes Raise Blood Glucose Level More Than Sugar?
Short Summary Potatoes contain mostly glucose while table sugar (sucrose) contains half glucose and half fructose. Glucose derived from diet has the highest impact on the rise of blood glucose, while fructose has only a negligible effect. Therefore, considering “standard” servings, potatoes have a higher impact on blood glucose than table sugar. Note, however, that the extent a given carbohydrate raises our blood glucose level depends on what is considered as “standard” serving size on an individual basis. For a quick answer click here. Explanation There are two alternative ways to measure how carbohydrates raise blood glucose: Glycemic Index (GI): measures how blood glucose rises after ingesting carbohydrate-containing foods; Glycemic Load (GL): is a more precise and realistic measurement since it also considers the common serving size. The glucose component of dietary carbohydrate has the greatest effect on the blood glucose and is used as the benchmark for testing other foods. GI set to 100 represents the standard for pure glucose. Fructose, on the other hand, has very little impact on blood glucose increase. The following table shows the comparison of the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load for both glucose and fructose. Table sugar consists 100% of a disaccharide called sucrose, which is half glucose and half fructose. The breakdown process of sucrose into glucose and fructose and the subsequent absorption of these monosaccharides into the bloodstream is very rapid. Potatoes, on the other hand, consist mainly of starch which is glucose molecules joined together in chains of hundreds or thousands (hence they don’t taste sweet but don’t let it fool you – if we had taste buds in the intestine we would taste sugar after eating potato). Besides starch and a v Continue reading >>
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Do Potatoes Turn To Sugar When Digested?
Written by Melodie Anne ; Updated November 28, 2017 Potatoes eventually break down into sugar. Potatoes are a starchy type of vegetable, meaning they are full of starch carbohydrates. After a long digestive process, starches eventually convert into glucose. Potatoes also have a small amount of naturally occurring sugar, which converts to glucose in a different manner. Your system uses glucose to fuel every cell, so having a lot of carbohydrates in your diet is important. Your body turns starchy foods such as potatoes into glucose, a simple sugar which in turn fuels your body and its cellular functions. A medium-sized, 4-ounce potato has about 2 grams of natural sugar, a type of simple carbohydrate. In your digestive tract, sugar metabolizes more quickly than any other macronutrient. Once sugar hits your small intestine, enzymes that are secreted by intestinal walls trap sugar molecules. The enzymes rapidly break down sugar into glucose, which is the smallest, simplest type of sugar. Your bloodstream picks up glucose as it absorbs through intestinal walls. Once in your bloodstream, glucose enters cells with the help of the hormone insulin. The same 4-ounce potato has approximately 23 grams of starch, which is a complex carb. Starch starts breaking down in your mouth. As you chew, more saliva is secreted. Saliva clings to starch and begins deconstructing these large, branched compounds. Starch converts into maltose, a smaller, simpler carbohydrate, right in your mouth. Maltose heads down to your small intestine, where it converts to glucose and is free to enter your bloodstream to fuel cells. Because potatoes are comprised of more than 92 percent carbohydrates -- in the form of sugar and starch -- they are relatively high on the glycemic-index scale. The glycemic index r Continue reading >>
Potatoes: Good Or Bad?
Potatoes have long been considered the most basic of basic foods, a no-frills staple for the everyman or everywoman. One reason potatoes have earned this distinction is, no doubt, their low cost, but another may be their basic nutritional qualities: They are fat-, sodium-, and cholesterol-free, and a medium-size potato contains just 110 calories. Nevertheless, the reputation of potatoes has taken a hit lately due to their relatively high glycemic index, which means that the carbohydrate in them is quickly converted to glucose when digested. Many people with diabetes take glycemic index into account when deciding what foods to incorporate into their diet. So how good or bad are potatoes when it comes to weight control and glucose tolerance? A study examining these topics was published earlier this month by the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. According to an article on the study in the Daily Mail, the effect of potatoes on weight control may be modestly positive. Researchers assigned 90 overweight participants to one of three groups. Two of these groups were taught how to reduce their daily caloric intake by 500 calories, but one group was taught how to do this by eating mostly high-glycemic-index foods, and the other by eating mostly low-glycemic-index foods. The third group was not told to change anything about the caloric or glycemic-index composition of their diet. All three groups were told, however, to consume 5–7 servings of potatoes per week. After 12 weeks of following their prescribed diets, there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of weight loss or body composition changes. All three groups, however, experienced modest weight loss and improvements in body composition. Since the only dietary change that all three groups h Continue reading >>
