Recently I received a letter: “I am a potato fan… I don’t need sweet or starchy foods – only chips, fries, mashed potatoes and so on. I tried to allow myself to eat freely. And she ate for weeks, it was scary to stand on the scales. Could you write how our body reacts to potatoes? Maybe then it will be easier for me to eat it within reasonable limits? .. ”And I decided to devote a whole ode to potatoes.
Potatoes are the number two enemy of the overweight fighter. First, of course, is sugar. Any diets and nutrition systems primarily limit sugar and potatoes. “Potatoes are starch and empty calories.” “Don’t eat potatoes.”
Well, let’s figure out if these ill-fated potato calories are so empty.
I can honestly say that I don’t eat potatoes every day or every other day. My own need for potatoes ranges from once to three times a week. I really love baked sea bream with baked potato slices, for example. It never occurred to me to forbid myself from eating potatoes or cooking them without oil.
Let’s remember that throughout the Central European territory, potatoes, from the moment they were imported to Europe, were the main dish on the table – potatoes were respected, cooked and eaten by the Dutch, Belgians, Scandinavians … Of course, the use of potatoes in a cool climate is strongly associated with the fact that in this climate, tomatoes and eggplants grow gloomily. It’s good to be Italian – no potatoes for you, solid tomatoes, and a poor Briton or Fleming has had to make do with potatoes since the XNUMXth century.
So what are these really “empty calories”? And here it is not. By embarking on the tortuous path of “intuitive eating,” I allowed myself to eat whatever I needed—as much as I wanted, in the form I wanted. I quickly discovered that I like potatoes cooked in their skins the best. And, as it turned out, not by chance.
1. Potassium
This is an extremely important chemical element for our body, the need for which is quite high. A large potato tuber, cooked with the skin on, contains 1600 mg of potassium, about half the daily value for an adult.
Potassium plays an essential role in lowering blood pressure and in preventing cardiovascular disease and strokes.
Potassium is a key element that prevents dehydration and helps athletes achieve their athletic goals.
Some people eat bananas for this purpose, not suspecting that the average banana contains 4 times less potassium than potatoes.
Replenishing potassium reserves with multivitamins is also not the best idea: there is more and more evidence that complexes, especially with high dosages of vitamins and trace elements, can be extremely dangerous to health.
In addition, potassium plays an essential role in lowering blood pressure and in preventing cardiovascular disease and strokes.
2. Dietary fiber
Some nutritionists force their losing weight patients to eat bran. Tasteless, boring and disgusting, but due to the dietary fiber contained in the bran, the feeling of fullness lasts longer.
It works badly, like any snag – in addition to physiological satiety, the feeling of which dietary fibers provide and prolong, we need sensory-specific satisfaction – the feeling that we ate exactly what we wanted, which stimulates our appetite.
Show me a man whose appetite has been aroused by a grey, dry, unsightly pile of bran, like food for tame mice.
In a large potato tuber with a peel – a quarter of the daily dose of dietary fiber. Even if you are a victim of dietary recommendations about “proper nutrition” and obediently choke on bran, you can safely replace at least part of it with potatoes cooked in their skins.
Dietary fiber not only prolongs satiety, it improves digestion.
Dietary fiber not only prolongs satiety, it improves digestion by making the food bolus coarser in texture and beneficial to the intestines, lowers cholesterol, plays an important role in our longevity and helps prevent diabetes.
The daily norm of dietary fiber is about 25 g for a woman and 38 g for a man.
3. Vitamin C
I’m not much of a fan of the miraculous properties of vitamin C, which have been greatly exaggerated – it is unlikely to help you cope with the onset of a cold or flu.
However, vitamin C continues to be an antioxidant that prevents oxidative processes in the body (oxidation is a process that ultimately contributes to the development of inflammatory processes in the body, from which, from the point of view of modern science, most health problems occur).
Nevertheless, if you find yourself in a situation of severe vitamin C deficiency, then potatoes can be a lifesaver and health saver.
Here it is hard not to recall Jack London’s canonical story about scurvy from the Smoke Bellew collection, in which members of a totalitarian sect – not a dietary one, but a religious one – were completely stricken with scurvy, and a raw potato with a peel saved them.
The skin of a large potato will give you about 29 mg of vitamin C, which is almost half the daily value.
4. Manganese
One potato will give you 35% of your daily requirement for manganese. Why did he give up on you? Manganese is necessary for the processing of protein, carbohydrates and cholesterol, and is also involved in the formation of bones.
5. Vitamin B6
This vitamin, or rather, the substance pyridoxine, is involved in literally everything in the body – in the synthesis of proteins, neurotransmitters, regulation of the central and peripheral nervous system, helps to synthesize proteins, hemoglobin, prostaglandins, lowers cholesterol and improves lipid metabolism.
Experiencing Vitamin B Deficiency6, the body begins to suffer significantly on all fronts. In a large potato – about 46% of the daily value.
Well, were the Europeans fools who made potatoes the center of their menu?
In conclusion, I will mention that my favorite ways to cook potatoes are baked potato slices with skins with herbs: wash large tubers, dry, cut into 8-10 slices, not too thin, drizzle with olive oil, salt, add fresh or dried herbs – rosemary, thyme, dill, parsley, whatever comes into your head, and bake at a temperature of 200-210 degrees in the oven for about 30 minutes (and in the last 5 minutes turn on the grill and bring to a golden brown).
Do you want smaller? We prepare “bombs”: we select the smallest tubers, boil them in their skins until almost cooked, then cool them, put them on a baking sheet and gently crush each tuber with a pestle or the end of a large knife. The potato should not disperse at all, it is necessary that the tuber retains its shape. Salt, drizzle with olive oil and add a pinch of squeezed garlic on top. In the oven for 10-15 minutes, 200 degrees.
An amazingly delicious dish is ready! Bon appetit and don’t be afraid to eat!