Potatoes Are a Vegetable, NOT “Darth Tater”

Here’s my second post to WebMD’s Real Life Nutrition blog. Enjoy!

By David Grotto, RD, LDN aka “The Guyatitian”

I love potatoes. My family loves potatoes. My patients love potatoes. But none of us have needed to enroll in a twelve-step program to free ourselves from a terrible potato addiction. So why am I professing my love for spuds? Well, the lowly potato is once again being demonized for its supposed contribution to the obesity epidemic that is facing our nation’s children. So as it stands right now, the USDA has proposed to drastically limit the serving size of potatoes and other starchy vegetables which also includes corn, lima beans and peas in the national school lunch program. Yes, I’ve got my undies in a bundle over this one, folks.

Show me the money. I can honestly say, after being an RD for nearly two decades and after seeing hundreds if not thousands of patients (including many children), I have yet met anyone who has become obese from eating “too many” potatoes, alone. We sure like to hang our hat on one single food as the cause of our obesity problem in this country but the truth is, obesity is a complex issue.

Click on WebMD to see the rest of the article…

And for your viewing pleasure, Barbie continues to set the record straight when it comes to the health value of potatoes!

Ask The Guyatitian

Dear Guyatitian:

Are brown rice cakes and puffed brown rice cereal considered whole grain?  They only have 1 gram of fiber, but their puffed so you eat more.  Just curious.

Annie from Chicago

 

Dear Annie

Puffed brown rice is a whole grain. However, the puffing process changes the rice in a few ways.

 “Glycemic index” is a method of determining the effect of a specifc food on blood glucose (sugar). The higher the number, the greater the effect (in theory). Cooked brown rice, for example, has a glycemic index(GI) of 55. Once the rice is puffed and turned into cereal or rice cakes, the GI shoots up to 78. So for those who may be more ‘carb sensitive’, puffed rice by itself may not be the best choice.

Though only 60 calories a cup, it’s pretty much void of nutrition. There’s a smidge of potassium, a sprinkle of iron and a few traces of b vitamins such as thiamin and niacin.

Apart from that, I think there isn’t much whole grain goodness to get excited about  after the rice has been puffed. And in my experience, my patients are often STARVING an hour later if that is all that they had to eat.

If you are going to eat them, I would strongly advise pairing up your puffs with milk (cow or soy have the most protein) and perhaps top with berries and nuts and have an egg on the side. That breakfast might stick to your ribs for a while and provide much need nutrition that the rice puffs alone don’t deliver. Enjoy!

Ciao and Chow

The Guyatitian

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