potatoes good or bad

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Replies

  • jalarson23
    jalarson23 Posts: 62 Member
    All potatoes are good, but my fav are the 'sunlite' variety. Got them because all the other kind at the stand had a green cast to them, and discovered they are lower-calorie gram for gram to most other varieties I've seen (and grown local!). The skin is delicate and delicious and the flesh is creamy and buttery before even adding anything. Had one for dinner tonight. Bake until the skin is crispy, just a little salt and garlic... no butter needed. Nom.

    That sounds amazing!
  • verapal
    verapal Posts: 38 Member
    Potatoes are good. Too much potatoes are bad
  • GlamourVintage
    GlamourVintage Posts: 60 Member
    I love potatoes. It's really filling. I eat them everyday. I always fit them in my daily calorie allowance/goal.
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
    GoGoMary4 wrote: »
    I use potatoes to get rid of leftovers. We have extra chili, veggies, beans, chicken etc. we toss it on a potato and you have lunch. With the focus on getting rid of leftovers we don't add cheese, bacon sour cream and all the usual potato toppings.

    Yep, we do the same at home. The loaded (with leftovers ;) ) potato IS the meal. So if it's 400-500 calories, well, that's a good meal number for me--plus it's very satiating. And loaded potato night is the best way to get my kids actually EXCITED about leftovers.
  • runner475
    runner475 Posts: 1,236 Member
    MrM27 wrote: »
    runner475 wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    potatoes good. what we put on them by the tablespoonfuls - bad bad bad.

    noooo .. the glycemic index of a baked potato is nearly 100. You can significantly reduce this by adding butter, cheese, bacon, and sour cream.

    ok lets do this guys suggestion., Homemade - Baked Potato, Fully Loaded W/Cheese, Bacon, Butter, Chives, Sour Cream, 1 potato 862 54 27 0 1,961 0

    862 calories for what he suggests we eat w the potato.

    If you think thats good have at it.

    Please define good, bad, healthy, and unhealthy. Thanks.

    For me, I would define an 862 calorie potato as bad. Very bad even.

    Perhaps, but we are looking at an arbitrary potato there. I have no doubt the poster who suggested it went fishing for an extreme example. There are no quantities for anything on there, so we don't really know anything about this potato and what's really on it.

    I do know that a medium russet potato, 1 oz cheddar, 2 T sour cream, 1 T butter, and 2 slices of bacon is 520 cal, not 862

    Besides calories do you care or watch for GI?

    Wondering b'coz if you are forget about calories Baked Russet Potato has GI of 111 for a serving size of 150 grams.

    Your best bets are to go for Yam GI of 54 for 150 gms of serving.

    If you don't care about GI then don't bother.

    You're forgetting to factor in the fact that the Russell Potato with a GI of 111 completely changes once you add the cheese, sour cream, bacon etc. GI rating is based on the ingestion of that solitary carb by itself. Once you add protein and/or fat it changes.

    I should have been more specific in my original post that my comment is meant for someone who has to watch their blood sugar. Actually I did "Besides calories do you care or watch for GI? " but I think you may have missed it.

    I'm very specifically targeting this post to get the attention of the audience who have to watch their blood sugar.

    YEAH!! sure I 100% agree to the bolded part but that holds true for folks with perfect endocrinology functioning. For those who don't their best bet would still be an option of yam/sweet potato instead.

    BTW I have no clue what's the difference between yam or sweet potato? They have different GI and calories and carbs for a serving size of 150 gms. Does anyone know? Please keep me posted. I'm interested.
  • Lisgetsfitter
    Lisgetsfitter Posts: 24 Member
    I like red potatoes roasted ...yum. I don't eat mashed potatoes (but I love them) I make mashed cauliflower in stead. Maybe two or three times per week would be fine.
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
    edited March 2015
    runner475 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    runner475 wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    potatoes good. what we put on them by the tablespoonfuls - bad bad bad.

    noooo .. the glycemic index of a baked potato is nearly 100. You can significantly reduce this by adding butter, cheese, bacon, and sour cream.

    ok lets do this guys suggestion., Homemade - Baked Potato, Fully Loaded W/Cheese, Bacon, Butter, Chives, Sour Cream, 1 potato 862 54 27 0 1,961 0

    862 calories for what he suggests we eat w the potato.

    If you think thats good have at it.

    Please define good, bad, healthy, and unhealthy. Thanks.

    For me, I would define an 862 calorie potato as bad. Very bad even.

    Perhaps, but we are looking at an arbitrary potato there. I have no doubt the poster who suggested it went fishing for an extreme example. There are no quantities for anything on there, so we don't really know anything about this potato and what's really on it.

    I do know that a medium russet potato, 1 oz cheddar, 2 T sour cream, 1 T butter, and 2 slices of bacon is 520 cal, not 862

    Besides calories do you care or watch for GI?

    Wondering b'coz if you are forget about calories Baked Russet Potato has GI of 111 for a serving size of 150 grams.

    Your best bets are to go for Yam GI of 54 for 150 gms of serving.

    If you don't care about GI then don't bother.

    You're forgetting to factor in the fact that the Russell Potato with a GI of 111 completely changes once you add the cheese, sour cream, bacon etc. GI rating is based on the ingestion of that solitary carb by itself. Once you add protein and/or fat it changes.

    I should have been more specific in my original post that my comment is meant for someone who has to watch their blood sugar. Actually I did "Besides calories do you care or watch for GI? " but I think you may have missed it.

    I'm very specifically targeting this post to get the attention of the audience who have to watch their blood sugar.

    YEAH!! sure I 100% agree to the bolded part but that holds true for folks with perfect endocrinology functioning. For those who don't their best bet would still be an option of yam/sweet potato instead.

    BTW I have no clue what's the difference between yam or sweet potato? They have different GI and calories and carbs for a serving size of 150 gms. Does anyone know? Please keep me posted. I'm interested.

    A proper yam is a starchy tuber popular in many tropical climates.

    A sweet potato is an orange tuber sometimes served coated with lots of sugar, etc, in a dish referred to erroneously as "yams" in some regions of the US.

    White Potatoes (or other tints, they are often yellow, purple, or even magenta-fleshed) are other veggies grown under ground. They are not "bad for you," no more than the sweet potato. One has more potassium and Vitamin C, the other has more Vitamin A. They are in no way equivalent in taste profile and I really wish the "have one instead of the other" train would stop, because it's just silly.

    Edited due to my own reading comprehension fail.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    EWJLang wrote: »
    White Potatoes (or other tints, they are often yellow, purple, or even magenta-fleshed) are other veggies grown under ground. They are not "bad for you," no more than the sweet potato. One has more potassium and Vitamin C, the other has more Vitamin A. They are in no way equivalent in taste profile and I really wish the "have one instead of the other" train would stop, because it's just silly.

    Standing ovation.

    I really don't get the obsession for picking out some "ideal" or "better" food and then making that the one thing you eat. Like the kale vs. spinach posts, or the recent broccoli vs. asparagus thread, or the past questions about whether quinoa should replace rice or cous cous, etc. Foods are different and have different strengths, which is why eating a diverse diet (potatoes AND sweet potatoes--probably not in the same meal, though, that might be overkill if not actually Thanksgiving) seems like the sensible thing to do, to me, unless you don't like something or find that you personally react badly to it. (I don't buy the GI thing, since no one eats potatoes alone--as has been pointed out, you'd have to run the GL of the meal, if you were someone who cared about such things.)
  • paulaviki
    paulaviki Posts: 678 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The idea of a sweetener on a sweet potato seems ick to me, but that's why taste is subjective. (Don't get me started on the unholy sweet potato/marshmallow thing.)

    Ditto this. I grew up thinking I hated sweet potatoes because no one I knew (literally no one) ever made them without added sugar or marshmallows.

    Being from the UK I can't even comprehend putting sugar or marshmallows on sweet potato. It sound so odd, when you roast them in a little oil they are so naturally sweet they don't need extra sugar! But then as I've never tasted them done that way I could be missing something delicious...
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
    edited March 2015
    paulaviki wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The idea of a sweetener on a sweet potato seems ick to me, but that's why taste is subjective. (Don't get me started on the unholy sweet potato/marshmallow thing.)

    Ditto this. I grew up thinking I hated sweet potatoes because no one I knew (literally no one) ever made them without added sugar or marshmallows.

    Being from the UK I can't even comprehend putting sugar or marshmallows on sweet potato. It sound so odd, when you roast them in a little oil they are so naturally sweet they don't need extra sugar! But then as I've never tasted them done that way I could be missing something delicious...

    One of my favorite Thankgsgiving dishes is my grandmother's sweet potato casserole. It's mashed sweet potatos, milk, egg and sugar baked ina casserole dish topped with a cooked mix of chopped marashino cherries, crushed pineapple, sugar and pecans thickened with corn starch. It's basically dessert disguised as a side dish. But it's so yummy.

    I agree with you about the marshmallows.

    I do love a good plain roasted sweet potato too though.
  • flumi_f
    flumi_f Posts: 1,888 Member
    MrCoolGrim wrote: »
    boAuvFW.gif

    I love potatoes. Potatoes are magical.

    Luv it! And yes they are magical.

    The potassium in them helps me get rid of retained water from grains or sodium..... Potatoes are my friends ;-) It's just a question of how you cook them.

    IMO there are no bad foods per se....eat varied and watch the cals. Avoid the foods you don't tolerate well. Other than that, enjoy your food.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Like Need2Exerc1se I grew up eating sweet potatoes only on Thanksgiving in a marshmallow covered concoction. As a long time marshmallow hater, I concluded from this that I disliked sweet potatoes (loved potatoes, though). As an adult, when I started hosting Thanksgiving I recreated some of my favorite traditional family dishes and eliminated or reinvented some others, and went on a quest to find some workable sweet potato dish. Tried different casseroles, gnocci (didn't work out), putting them in the stuffing, so on. Was a little embarrassed when I finally realized that the main way I like sweet potatoes is simply roasted with nothing but olive oil and salt. Now I have them all the time.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Potatoes are delicious! Just make 'em fit your calorie deficit and you're fine!
  • Eudoxy
    Eudoxy Posts: 391 Member
    Good
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,265 Member
    runner475 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    runner475 wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    sullus wrote: »
    laurielima wrote: »
    potatoes good. what we put on them by the tablespoonfuls - bad bad bad.

    noooo .. the glycemic index of a baked potato is nearly 100. You can significantly reduce this by adding butter, cheese, bacon, and sour cream.

    ok lets do this guys suggestion., Homemade - Baked Potato, Fully Loaded W/Cheese, Bacon, Butter, Chives, Sour Cream, 1 potato 862 54 27 0 1,961 0

    862 calories for what he suggests we eat w the potato.

    If you think thats good have at it.

    Please define good, bad, healthy, and unhealthy. Thanks.

    For me, I would define an 862 calorie potato as bad. Very bad even.

    Perhaps, but we are looking at an arbitrary potato there. I have no doubt the poster who suggested it went fishing for an extreme example. There are no quantities for anything on there, so we don't really know anything about this potato and what's really on it.

    I do know that a medium russet potato, 1 oz cheddar, 2 T sour cream, 1 T butter, and 2 slices of bacon is 520 cal, not 862

    Besides calories do you care or watch for GI?

    Wondering b'coz if you are forget about calories Baked Russet Potato has GI of 111 for a serving size of 150 grams.

    Your best bets are to go for Yam GI of 54 for 150 gms of serving.

    If you don't care about GI then don't bother.

    You're forgetting to factor in the fact that the Russell Potato with a GI of 111 completely changes once you add the cheese, sour cream, bacon etc. GI rating is based on the ingestion of that solitary carb by itself. Once you add protein and/or fat it changes.

    I should have been more specific in my original post that my comment is meant for someone who has to watch their blood sugar. Actually I did "Besides calories do you care or watch for GI? " but I think you may have missed it.

    I'm very specifically targeting this post to get the attention of the audience who have to watch their blood sugar.

    YEAH!! sure I 100% agree to the bolded part but that holds true for folks with perfect endocrinology functioning. For those who don't their best bet would still be an option of yam/sweet potato instead.

    BTW I have no clue what's the difference between yam or sweet potato? They have different GI and calories and carbs for a serving size of 150 gms. Does anyone know? Please keep me posted. I'm interested.
    You may want to venture out beyond the russet and look at the hundreds of other types, most of the waxy ones with GI's less than sweet potato.

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    These are what we know as yams in New Zealand. They are unbelievably delicious.

    p-yams.jpg

    http://www.vegetables.co.nz/select_a_vegetable/yams.asp

    And sweet potatoes are known by their Maori name - kumara. They are also delicious. Why anyone would 'candy' them and add marshmallows is a mystery to me though. Roasted or made into chips (fries) is the way to go.

    Likewise, potatoes are delicious.

    It is entirely possibly (and often done) to have all three at once as part of a roast meal :D
  • NewBeginningBren
    NewBeginningBren Posts: 36 Member
    I luv potatoes, but, I can't have them now because they're too high in carbs for me.
  • kampshoff
    kampshoff Posts: 133 Member
    What, seven pages on potatoes and no Samwise?

    DraOC1o.gif

  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    I love all the potatoes <3
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    paulaviki wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The idea of a sweetener on a sweet potato seems ick to me, but that's why taste is subjective. (Don't get me started on the unholy sweet potato/marshmallow thing.)

    Ditto this. I grew up thinking I hated sweet potatoes because no one I knew (literally no one) ever made them without added sugar or marshmallows.

    Being from the UK I can't even comprehend putting sugar or marshmallows on sweet potato. It sound so odd, when you roast them in a little oil they are so naturally sweet they don't need extra sugar! But then as I've never tasted them done that way I could be missing something delicious...

    No, you are not. It is very odd. I can't imagine who first saw marshmallows and thought "Oh, wouldn't these be good on a sweet potato", but I'll bet they were stoned.
  • MamaJ1974
    MamaJ1974 Posts: 443 Member
    I love potatoes! So versatile, and I find them very filling.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    edited March 2015
    paulaviki wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    The idea of a sweetener on a sweet potato seems ick to me, but that's why taste is subjective. (Don't get me started on the unholy sweet potato/marshmallow thing.)

    Ditto this. I grew up thinking I hated sweet potatoes because no one I knew (literally no one) ever made them without added sugar or marshmallows.

    Being from the UK I can't even comprehend putting sugar or marshmallows on sweet potato. It sound so odd, when you roast them in a little oil they are so naturally sweet they don't need extra sugar! But then as I've never tasted them done that way I could be missing something delicious...

    No, you are not. It is very odd. I can't imagine who first saw marshmallows and thought "Oh, wouldn't these be good on a sweet potato", but I'll bet they were stoned.

    with some brown sugar and a little cinnamon? damn right it's good...

    better with the topping of pecan pie though...
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
    jalarson23 wrote: »
    All potatoes are good, but my fav are the 'sunlite' variety. Got them because all the other kind at the stand had a green cast to them, and discovered they are lower-calorie gram for gram to most other varieties I've seen (and grown local!). The skin is delicate and delicious and the flesh is creamy and buttery before even adding anything. Had one for dinner tonight. Bake until the skin is crispy, just a little salt and garlic... no butter needed. Nom.

    That sounds amazing!

    They are! It's the best way to bake a potato anyway, but with their delicate skin and buttery taste they're just... I donno, so much better than a red-skin or russet.

    For sweet potatoes... I have no idea why so many think they need more sweet added. They're already sweet. Same with carrot and to some extent, pumpkin (pumpkin needs a little sugar added for me because I have that 'all gourds taste bitter' thing and just a little masks it. WAY more than needed is usually added though). Something to compliment the sweet - like cinnamon - sure. But adding sugar? Why?

    (and no I'm not afraid of sugar or anything stupid like that... just not into making a sweet thing sickeningly sweet, and recently figured out that's why I'd never liked sweet potatoes)
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    kampshoff wrote: »
    What, seven pages on potatoes and no Samwise?

    DraOC1o.gif

    I thought that around page 2, but never got around posting the gif..

    "Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew"
  • Canwehugnow
    Canwehugnow Posts: 218 Member
    Unless you're shoveling them down your throat from the moment you wake up to the moment you lay your head on your pillow, potatoes are simply delicious.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I had to look into this sweet potato and marshmallow thing a bit more, and found many interesting blog entries on the topic. Here are a couple:

    fourpoundsflour.com/origin-of-a-dish-sweet-potato-casserole-with-marshmallows-with-a-greatly-improved-recipe/

    and

    blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2010/11/a-sweet-potato-history/

    From the second:
    It is suggested that Henry VIII consumed massive amounts of sweet potatoes, especially spiced sweet potato pie

    (Not really relevant, just seemed funny.)

    and
    by 1880 Americans were enjoying some sort of variation of candied sweet potatoes. American cookbooks, such as the widely published 1893 Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer featured a recipe for glazed sweet potatoes...

    (I actually have a replica of that cookbook, so will have to look at it)
    By the 1910’s candied sweet potato recipes were wide-ranging in the United States, appearing in Martha McCulloch-Williams 1919 Dishes from the Old South and Florence Greenbaum’s 1919 International Jewish Cookbook....
    One of the earliest published recipes that uses marshmallows was in a 1919 booklet from the Barrett Company on Sweet Potato and Yams, which suggests adding marshmallows to candied yams.**(Nov. 2012 Update- Saveur Magazine, Oct. 2011, writes “ In 1917, the marketers of Angelus Marshmallows hired Janet McKenzie Hill, founder of the Boston Cooking School Magazine, to develop recipes for a booklet designed to encourage home cooks to embrace the candy as an everyday ingredient.” This booklet contained “the first documented appearance of mashed sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping.”) A decade later, Ida C. Bailey Allen’s Vital Vegetables (1928) gives readers a browned sweet potatoes with marshmallows recipe.
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
    I do admit that roasted sweet potatoes with a drizzle of maple syrup make a lovely dessert.


    But, serving them as a side dish is a bit akin to those "salad" recipes that are nothing but sweets. THESE ARE DESSERTS, PEOPLE, NOT SIDE DISHES.
  • jcook0716
    jcook0716 Posts: 65 Member
    One of my splurges is to cut a raw potato into wedges, toss in extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic, no salt seasoning, garlic powder and cracked black pepper (maybe even some cajun seasoning) and bake at 425 degrees for about 25-35 mins until golden and slightly crispy edges. OMG. yum.
  • NikonPal
    NikonPal Posts: 1,346 Member
    Potatoes are delicious! They're a great source of vitamin C and B6 and also potassium. If you don't choose overly large potatoes, they don't have a lot of calories. You just need to watch what you top them with, because traditional additions like butter and sour cream have a lot of calories which add up quickly. A small 5 gram pat of butter only has about 40 calories, though.

    2nd time today have come across one of your posts that is "right on"

    I choose not to eat many and often stick with just the skin for the added flavor to the meal I am eating. I sometimes stuff the skin with the vegetable I am eating....OK...what I really "want" is a twice-baked potato with crispy exterior etc LOL

    http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-fresh-or-dried-vegetables-potato-skin-only-baked_f-ZmlkPTEyMzMxMQ.html
  • urloved33
    urloved33 Posts: 3,323 Member
    <3 the potato thread and salad thread should marry
This discussion has been closed.