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Thursday 12 May 2016 3:52pm

Professor Jim Mann, director of Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research, has been interviewed by Listener nutrition writer Jennifer Bowden about potatoes.

Whole potatoes are a source of many nutrients, but they do have a form of carbohydrate that is not good for us in large quantities.

“Potato [contains] a rapidly digested starch, and rapidly digested starches are the kind of things we shouldn't have too much of.”

Healthier carbohydrate options include wholegrain breads and pasta, along with legumes such as chickpeas and lentils.

If you can't do without your potatoes, then the healthiest way to eat them is cold. When cooked potato cools, it gelatinises, forming a structure that is more slowly digested.  This has less of an effect on your blood-glucose levels.

Healthier ways to eat potatoes:

  • Cool baked potato (minus the butter and cream).
  • Choose new potatoes - they are more slowly digested than older potatoes.
  • Cold potato salad is a good option.
  • Use a vinaigrette in your potato salad, rather than mayonnaise. The acid in the vinaigrette slows stomach emptying.

Read the NZ Listener article

The healthiest way to cook potatoes, NZ Listener website, 20 May, 2016

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