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Feb 20
2012
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Potatoes seem to be a particular culprit for weight gain and diabetes. A recent study from Harvard School of Public Health that tracked the diet and lifestyle habits of 120,000 men and women for up to 20 years looked at how small food-choice changes contributed to weight gain over time. People who increased their consumption of french fries gained an extra 3.4 pounds every four years and those who ate more baked or mashed potatoes gained 1.3 pounds. People who decreased their intake of these foods gained less weight, as did people who increased their intake of other vegetables. Potatoes don't count as a vegetable on Harvard's new Healthy Eating Plate, and with good reason: They are very high in the kind of carbohydrate that the body digests rapidly, causing blood sugar and insulin to surge and then dip. The scientific term for this is that they have a high glycemic load.
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