White, White, White

Sweet Potatoes or White Potatoes?  Which do you choose based on Flavor? Nutrients? Versatility? Convenience?

 

Lately, I have heard claims that potatoes should be banned from school food service and restaurants due to their "white" color.  Potatoes are instantly thrown into the collection of white foods that are bad for us just as white rice, white pasta and white flour.

Should white potatoes be outlawed?!

A Potato out of the ground versus a potato that has been dug up, shipped to a factory, peeled, sliced, diced, flash "fried," breaded, flash fried again, frozen, put into plastic bags, sealed, shipped to a distribution center to sit on a shelf until your grocery store orders the potatoes, then shipped to your grocery store freezer where it waits for you to purchase the potato, moves from the grocery store shelf to your freezer shelf until you "brown" the potatoes in butter, cook them in cheese or deep fry those tator tots...at the end of the day (processing), maybe these potatoes should be outlawed.

But where do all potatoes begin? As a potato in the ground! A perfectly healthy vegetable with plenty of fiber and minerals from the earth. Plus, all of that "white" starch is actually a complex carbohydrate which is much healthier for us than the simple carbohydrates we find in the jello salad on the buffet!

Stick to potatoes in their natural form. Bake them and eat them. Slice them up and cook on the grill. Make a healthy potato salad.  Add whole potatoes to your crockpot meal. Just avoid frying those potatoes....especially French Fries and other processed packaged potatoes if you are really concerned. Keep the skins on and those potatoes will be brown...not white!

Remember....when baking your potatoes, keep the skin on to benefit from the nutrients and fiber. Learn more about Nutrition in Potatoes from Kids Eat Right Tips.