Potatoes, Glycemic Index, and "White Foods" - Friend or Foe for a Lean-Body?
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
There is something I would like to discuss about today... particularly on "white foods" as well as the humble potatoes.one reason I wanted to mention this is because so many health experts and fitness professionals are talking trash about potatoes being a bad carbohydrate choice because of its high glycemic index. Some would even say ridiculous things such as "avoid any and all white carbohydrates".
While many nutritionists will agree that white braid and refined white sugar up two of the worst things we can be feeding our bodies, I 100% don't agree with avoiding any and all "white carbohydrates". Just because of the buzz lately about coloring foods and protective antioxidants they contain. Just to play safe, they tell you to focus on colors and stay away from white.
It is true that coupled foods are great, but it is a big mistake to avoid white foods altogether! All around nature, there are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to be found elsewhere. Below are some examples...
Onions & Garlic
What so great about onions and garlic? Even though both are white and full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals that are easy to be found in your local restaurant... you chose such as allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), chromium, and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.
Garlic has long been used medicinally, most recently for its cardiovascular, antineoplastic, and antimicrobial properties. Sulfur compounds, including allicin, appear to be the active components in the root bulb of the garlic plant. Garlic mustard is also allelopathic, producing chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants and mychorrizal fungi needed for healthy tree growth and tree seedling survival.
Cauliflower
Another wonderful piece of nature that's white is your cauliflower. Cauliflower is loaded with vitamin C, fiber, folate, complex carbohydrates, minerals, and special compounds such as glucosinolates and thiocyanates, which are specifically abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. And a little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables help to combat other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess belly fat. So eat up on that cauliflower!
Cauliflower, like broccoli and cabbage, is a member of the healthful cruciferous vegetable family. Usually white to pale yellow in color, it's comprised of florets in stalks that come together to form a rounded head shape. In contrast, proved ideal for plant tissue culture, because it is readily-available, robust enough to withstand the rigors of being handled by students and grows rapidly. Growth can be seen after 10 days and plantlets ready for transplantation are formed within 12 weeks. It is also a cruciferous vegetable being studied for its role in reducing cancer risk.
Mushrooms
Not many people realize this, but surprisingly, even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. White mushrooms are high in a couple types of antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine.
Mushrooms are valuable health food - low in calories, high in vegetable proteins, iron, zinc, chitin, chiton, fiber, vitamins & minerals. Mushrooms also have a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine to promote good health and vitality, boost immunity and increasing your body's adaptive abilities. Mushrooms sprout in 6-10 days. Harvest 2-4 days later. Mushrooms, though perhaps to a lesser degree than LSD, can precipitate strong, temporary changes in an individual's experience of life and reality. It can be a powerful psychoactive experience, especially at higher doses, which is significantly affected by experiences, set and setting.
Potatoes
Now that also leads us to another example - white potatoes (which by the way, can also be found in red, yellow, purple varieties, etc). Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. First of all, if you've read my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, then you understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.
While the general idea is that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you with your weight loss than high glycemic index choices, it is all not that high up as it is used to be. Many other factors are poured into the mix of determining how your body will react any process that carbohydrates you digest, such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.
When using glycemic load as our example, research has shown that watermelon has a high glycemic index. However, the glycemic load of a portion of normal servings is just far too low for your body to start packing on body fat just because you ate some fruit with a high glycemic index. You would have to eat enormous quantities of watermelon just to squeeze enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, thus proving that it is just nonsense!
What's been failed to be mentioned too is that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, lycopene. It'll be silly just to avoid it simply because it has a high GI. My point is... candy bars, cupcakes, and donuts make you fat... NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes.
Also as mentioned, food combinations are highly important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin responses you'll get. For example, if you mix a high glycemic index carbohydrate with an extra source of fiber, healthy fats, or even certain proteins, most times the blood sugar and glycemic responses will be slowed down greatly by the way you combine your food. Again, I speak in details about this entire topic in my Truth about Six Pack Abs book.
Summing it all up about white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form... with the skin intact and please don't ruin their nutritional values by deep frying them into freedom fries either! Freedom fries (or french fries) are one of the most evil things ever invested for your health, but only because spoil them totally by soaking them in burning fire baths of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils.
Potatoes contain so many vitamins and minerals that the list is way too long to even try. The humble potatoes' skin will give you a decent amount of fiber too!
At the conclusion of the study, the potato eaters had actually consistently lost weight! I'd venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those damn potatoes, that they actually consumed less calories than normal! An average sized potato only has about 100-120 calories, and I can surely imagine you'd be full constantly from eating 7-9 potatoes each day. This is a great time to be a couch potato ;)
Now I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to hurt your efforts to get lean, especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables and maybe a healthy fat and some protein. On that note, I have one of my favorite recipes for you, using potatoes.
Geary's Lean-Body Potato Side Dish
- Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store... it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 1 yellow pepper
- 1 or 2 onions
- a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)
Cut the baby potatoes into slightly smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Stir it all together and serve. This is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.
I hope you've enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my killer potato recipe idea!
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