Eating potatoes on a diet: good or even make you fat?

Potatoes are a source of carbohydrates, so they are widely used as a substitute for rice for many people who are on a diet. It tastes good, can be processed into anything, and can be combined with various other types of food, making potatoes one of the menu choices when on a diet. Many people have taken advantage of potatoes for weight loss diets. But, is it true that potatoes can help or vice versa?

Eating potatoes for a diet can help you lose weight

Potatoes are one of the delicious foods and contain many important nutrients that the body needs. Potatoes contain potassium which is even higher than bananas, vitamin C, vitamin B6, iron, calcium, and many more.

So, it's not wrong if many people use potatoes for diets. Some of the reasons why potatoes can help you control your weight are:

Potatoes can give you high satisfaction after eating it. This certainly makes you full longer and has more control over your appetite. Potatoes also contain proteinase inhibitors that can suppress your appetite.
Potato contains fiber. Fiber is believed to keep you full longer, so that your appetite is better controlled and your food intake is less. In addition, the fiber content in potatoes can also help improve digestion and prevent constipation.

However, potatoes have a high glycemic index

Although potatoes contain many nutrients, they also have a high glycemic index. This makes potatoes considered a bad food. The high glycemic index causes the carbohydrates in potatoes to be broken down into sugar quickly, so your blood sugar will rise faster. This certainly has a bad impact on those of you who have diabetes. Also, it can increase fat storage and the risk of obesity (obesity).

However, foods with a high glycemic index are not necessarily associated with diabetes and obesity. How the high glycemic index in potatoes affects your blood sugar depends on many factors, such as how the potatoes are cooked and how you eat them.

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2014 has proven that consumption of potatoes does not lead to weight gain. This means that even though potatoes have a high glycemic index, it is not necessarily that potatoes can cause obesity. This study compared weight loss in people who followed a low-calorie diet with eating potatoes and without eating potatoes.

How to cook and eat potatoes greatly affect body weight

As previously explained, the consumption of potatoes for a diet depends on how the potatoes are processed and eaten. If you process potatoes by frying them and eating them warm and accompanied by high-fat foods, this can actually make you gain weight.

There are several ways to process potatoes so that the glycemic index is lower so that you can use them for your diet, namely:

Eat with the skin. If you want to eat potatoes as a source of carbohydrates in your weight loss diet, it's best to eat potatoes with the skins on. Don't peel the potato skins because in the potato skins there is fiber which helps you control your appetite and improve digestion.
Eat cold potatoes. Potatoes eaten hot have a higher glycemic index than potatoes that have been cold. Thus, chilling potatoes before you eat them, such as a potato salad dish, can help lower the glycemic index of potatoes.
Eat potatoes with a source of protein and healthy fats. Eating potatoes with a source of protein (such as fish) and healthy fats (such as olive oil) can slow down the absorption of carbohydrates in potatoes. So, this can slow down the effects of the glycemic index of food in the body.