Can Potatoes Help You Lose Weight? Science Says Yes—The Wonder Carb!

[Chonebox]

Do you skip potatoes because you’ve heard they’re fattening or not good for you? Then prepare to have your mind blown. A massive new study just found that people who eat 14 or more spuds a week live longer, healthier lives than those who eat six or fewer. On top of that, fairly recent research in the journal Nutrients showed that dieters given two sweet-potato-based meals a day lost double the body fat and over 10 times more fat from their hips than a no-potato group. No wonder WeightWatchers just made potatoes zero-point foods.
Can Potatoes Help You Lose Weight? Science Says Yes—The Wonder Carb!

 

[tree]

"...dieters given two sweet-potato-based meals a day lost double the body fat and over 10 times more fat from their hips than a no-potato group."

Sweet potatoes and the root vegetable referred to as a 'potato'/Irish potato are from different families.

Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and Yams: What’s the Difference?

 

[Masked Man]

Nothing wrong with potatoes by themselves, it is largely how they are prepared. Baked potatoes eaten by themselves will have a much lower calorie content than sliced potatoes fried in oil, for example. Additionally, if one is consuming potatoes daily at dinner, you might assume they are also eating other vegetables along with it.

I think I would also take any study done with an exclusively Norwegian population, or any other Nordic population for that matter, with a large grain of salt due to the increased social safety nets that are part of the Scandinavian part of the world. The US, for example, has abysmal population health due to our many lacking social services and large wealth disparity.

Bottom line: potatoes are fine for you, as long as you don't eat them fried all the time and smother them in calorie and fat rich toppings (bacon, sour cream, cheese, etc.)

And yes, as Tree mentioned, sweet potatoes are not the same thing as potatoes.

 

[tree]

@Masked Man "...sweet potatoes are not the same thing as potatoes."

If they were, I wouldn't be able to eat them, as
I am allergic to nightshades.

 

[Chonebox]

@Masked Man "...sweet potatoes are not the same thing as potatoes."

If they were, I wouldn't be able to eat them, as
I am allergic to nightshades.

That sucks. I lost weight on the potato diet.

 

[Metalhead]

Thread 'Potato poll.'

May 1, 2025

How do you like your potatoes?

• Metalhead
• Replies: 58
• Forum: Off Topic

• 

 

[Chonebox]

Thread 'Potato poll.'

May 1, 2025

How do you like your potatoes?

• Metalhead
• Replies: 58
• Forum: Off Topic

• 

This is about weight loss though.

 

[Hypnalis]

@Masked Man "...sweet potatoes are not the same thing as potatoes."

If they were, I wouldn't be able to eat them, as
I am allergic to nightshades.

Off topic, but as it happens I have a relative who is very allergic to nightshades (with the small upside that when we have lunch together that she always gets to choose the restaurant and food we eat

It's unusual where she lives because there are no local edible nightshades (if any), so getting her original diagnosis was quite difficult.

Do you have any links on the allergy and/or treatment and mitigation strategies?

(answer via convo if you like - I'll just forward them anyway)

 

[Hypnalis]

Aren't potatoes just "slow release" carbs with a different/better range of micro-nutrients than (most) grains?

Both potatoes and sweet potatoes definitely count as food (as opposed to e.g. modern white bread , which is mostly "empty calories"), but they're not magic.

Most people who damage their bodies with food take the simple route: too many calories, way too much rapid absorption sugar, no exercise. Addressing the sugar and the exercise is their best strategy by far.

Then when they've spent six months resolving the ongoing campaign of destroying their health, being selective about other foods starts making sense.

PS:
There are no wonder foods. Unsurprisingly, eating more and more "good foods" runs into "Diminishing Returns" quite fast. You don't get much (if any) healthier by striving to achieve a 100% super-food diet.

Getting rid of poisons is a very good idea OFC, but we're literally evolved to be quite good at extracting nutrition from a wide range of sources, not all of them perfect sources of nutrition.
Most problems in the "Western world" are self-indulgent self-harm rather than availability.

 

[Ken]

@Masked Man "...sweet potatoes are not the same thing as potatoes."

If they were, I wouldn't be able to eat them, as
I am allergic to nightshades.

I am a type 1 diabetic, I have crohn's disease and celiac disease. All are autoimmune diseases, and they have triggers - that sometimes change. Russet potatoes used to be a mainstay of my diet for very successfully managing all of my diseases. Then suddenly a trigger change; nightshades or Solanaceae created a crohn's reaction that was near fatal.

I didn't want to loose the benefit of the Russets for the T1D, so I found that sweet potatoes filled that gap perfectly. Hannah potatoes and Japanese sweet potatoes are my favorite.