Yahoo Lifestyle Potatoes are even better for you than "superfoods"
Cheap, easy to cook, and tasty. Potatoes have a number of good qualities, but they are often avoided for their connotation with being unhealthy. Turns out, eating more servings of potato can also boost your health.
There may no longer be so many reasons to avoid the common spud. One study has found that eating a portion of potato twice a day can lower blood pressure without making you put on weight. Another study found that potatoes make a more significant contribution to the diet than “superfoods” like bananas and contain more of the mineral selenium than the average child gets from the seeds and nuts they consume.
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When you’re in the supermarket looking for some “superfoods” to boost your health, you’ll often look for the top five: bananas, broccoli, beetroot, nuts and avocado.
Not only are potatoes generally cheaper than all of the above, they’re actually better for you than those options.
A jacket potato has five and a half times as much fiber as the average banana and more vitamin C than three avocados, according to the Daily Express.
The best way to prepare potatoes, to maximize health benefits, is to microwave them without any butter or oil. Baked and boiled potatoes will also work though you will lose a few nutrients that way. Make sure to keep the skin on since that’s where most of the chemicals that lower blood pressure are found.
A study was done last year to test potatoes effect on lowering blood pressure. Lead researcher Dr Joe Vinson, from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, US, presented his research, saying, “In reality, when prepared without frying and served without butter, margarine or sour cream, one potato has only 110 calories (460 kilojoules) and dozens of healthful phytochemicals and vitamins.”
A new mobile app, produced by the Potato Council, allows people to compare how good potatoes are with traditional “superfoods”. You can now learn on the go and keep your diet varied by selecting all the best foods for your body.
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