Sweet potatoes broke my heart

Options
CattOfTheGarage
CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I thought they were low in calories. Everyone talks about them like they're low in calories, but they're just the same as regular potatoes. I spent time learning to like them cos I thought they would save me calories, but they were lying to me the whole time.

But I've added another vegetable to my repertoire, so that's something. They're very nice baked.

Anyone else been disillusioned by the fashion foods of the moment? I thought I was too wordly-wise to fall victim to "superfood" marketing, but apparently not. Every day's a school day.
«1345

Replies

  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
    Options
    Ha, yes they taste great but are calorie dense. Especially when you sprinkle cinnamon sugar on them and then dip them in regular ranch like I do lol.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Options
    I am not, generally, a big nut eater and have only since losing weight become a (smooth) nut butter fan. Saddest day ever when I weighed it and realised I'd been had all along in thinking it was a great "diet friendly" food. I still eat it but I just never stopped to consider the calories before.

    I never really thought about sweet potato! Do they have fewer carbs perhaps and that's where they get their reputation? I don't eat much of either type of potato (no reason, just 'cos).
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    Options
    I've never seen or heard it implied that they were low calorie.

    That being said I think of potatoes and sweet potatoes as low calorie.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Options
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    They are definitely a fashion food here in the UK, it's all sweet potato mash and sweet potato fries everywhere you look. They don't grow here easily so they've never been a traditional food, they're a bit "exotic" and seem to have got themselves a bit of a health halo. Maybe if we baked them with marshmallows we'd see them differently...
    For me that's more yams than sweet potatoes, but close enough.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Options
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    All potatoes are low in calories, really. Sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index and glycemic load than regular potatoes, which is, in part why I choose them. I also think they taste MUCH better. I don't know that I'd consider a good ole sweet potato "fashion food" though.
    Enjoy your root vegetables.

    You need to hang out with Paleo folk more often :wink:

    Speaking of glycemic index, you may find this interesting:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25514303

    The low glycemic index diet did not show better results than the high glycemic diet, and in the case of high carb it also decreased insulin sensitivity. Not what you would expect, but only reinforces the idea that making choices based on a single construct may not yield the expected results because the diet needs to be seen as a whole.

    I don't like sweet potatoes and I don't think regular potatoes are that high in calories for how satiating they are, so I personally did not fall for the hype, but I thought they were lower in calories too which would explain why dieting people pick them over regular potatoes. Interesting!
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
    Options
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    It was logging sweet potatoes by weight the first time that broke my heart. Let's just say that MFP and I have very different ideas about what qualifies as a "medium" sweet potato.

    Yeah, the ones I eat are usually large-I can easily clock in 500 calories with the potato and the things I eat with it. Not bad for a lunch, but I don't eat them as a side. If someone is eating a smaller one with no toppings then they're pretty low calorie, but I don't like them plain.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited December 2016
    Options
    Hornsby wrote: »
    I've never seen or heard it implied that they were low calorie.

    That being said I think of potatoes and sweet potatoes as low calorie.

    This, or medium calorie, I guess, with non-starchy veg being low calorie. (I also don't really think of them as being "vegetables," although of course they are, since when I was growing up they weren't the vegetable course, but the starch course.) Anyway, I like them and potatoes both and eat both, and see no nutritional reason to prefer one or the other (plus I think variety is nutritionally a positive thing).

    I guess I was a little disappointed in quinoa since people made it sound like it had tons of protein and it doesn't, it isn't that different from other similar foods. Tastes pretty good, though. I at one point expected whole grains to have fewer calories than white, and they don't (often more), although I usually go with whole grains. Parsnips had more calories than I expected.

    Can't really think of anything I was hugely surprised by, though. I was somewhat positively surprised by shrimp and other shellfish.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
    edited December 2016
    Options
    I mean, it's all good, I'm not going to stop eating them any more than I'm going to stop eating regular potatoes. They just aren't the calorie hack I thought they were.

    I suspect they may be even better than normal potatoes when baked and topped with haggis. I have yet to try that, though.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,750 Member
    Options
    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
    They are definitely a fashion food here in the UK, it's all sweet potato mash and sweet potato fries everywhere you look. They don't grow here easily so they've never been a traditional food, they're a bit "exotic" and seem to have got themselves a bit of a health halo. Maybe if we baked them with marshmallows we'd see them differently...
    For me that's more yams than sweet potatoes, but close enough.

    According to all the food blogs, podcasts etc, "candied yams" is a misnomer, they're actually sweet potatoes. True yams are not related.

Categories