Potatoes have a high Glycemic Index (GI), meaning that your blood glucose level will increase quite rapidly after eating it. Due to this, some people have suggested that it should be avoided when on a diet. But does it have to be?
A paper published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition calls this thinking into question. The researchers took a group of 90 overweight men and women and split them into 3 groups. Groups 1 and 2 were counselled on how to reduce their calorie intake by 500 kcal/day (4187 joules/day) and were told to eat diets of food that was predominantly high on the GI or low. The third group were used as a control. All groups were told to eat 5-7 servings of potato per week.
After 12 weeks, there were no significant differences between the weight loss of the 3 groups. In fact, all 3 groups showed modest weight loss during the time which probably had something to do with keeping a food diary and being conscious of their eating habits. The researchers conclude that potato, as part of a high GI or low GI diet did not cause weight gain.
Which I have to say I am glad to hear as I’ve seen jacket potato make up the main part of a meal in many a weight loss diet.
Click here to go to the free to view paper on the Taylor Francis Online website.