According to Julie Upton, MS, RD, and member of our Medical Expert Board, the healthiest way to eat your potatoes is to leave the skin on and bake them. "The healthiest way to eat a potato is baking it with the skin on," says Upton. "Baked potatoes add no additional calories like frying or roasting with oil."
In 100g of steamed potatoes, you'll find just 100 calories, no fat, no sodium, no cholesterol, and no gluten. Instead, you'll get nearly half your daily dose of vitamin C, more potassium than in a banana, and plenty of vitamin B6, fibre, magnesium, and antioxidants.
The reason steaming potatoes is not preferred as a cooking method for mashed potatoes is less starch is released, resulting in gluey mashed potatoes. Submerging the potatoes in water helps remove the excess starch from the potato.
Boiling potatoes causes water-soluble nutrients, such as vitamin C and potassium, to leach out ( 2 ). This results in slightly less nutritious potatoes. The longer you boil, the more nutrients are lost. Boiling potatoes in their skin helps to retain some of the water-soluble nutrients.
Red Desiree Potatoes are part of the Red Potato family and are considered to be the healthiest of all potatoes, as they contain the highest levels of vitamins, minerals and healthy phytochemicals.
Boiled potatoes are naturally rich in potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Being a good source of fibre, they are also suitable for managing your weight. In addition, they keep cholesterol and blood sugar levels in check.
Healthiest ways to cook potatoes
The next-healthiest way to cook a potato is through steaming, which causes less nutrient loss than boiling. Cooking a peeled potato in this way results in significant nutrient loss, as the water-soluble nutrients leach out into the water.
One disadvantage of steaming food is that it can take longer to cook than other cooking methods. This is because the water in the steam pot needs time to reach a boil and cook the food. Another one is that it can create moisture retention.
On the other hand, steam cooking has its detractors. Steam can cause serious burns, and because steam quickly dissipates from a container, those who are not careful may end up burning themselves while engaging in this type of cooking or removing food from a steamer.
Simply Recipes says that steaming potatoes is better than boiling them because the spuds aren't actually submerged in the water. This results in a more robust flavor because the spuds aren't absorbing water like they do when they boil.
Researchers found steaming kept the highest level of nutrients. “Boiling vegetables causes water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, B1 and folate to leach into the water,” Magee said.
Cook potatoes by boiling, steaming or microwaving them without adding other ingredients. Preparing potatoes in this manner will ensure that they are very low in salt, sugar and fat. 3. Another method of cooking potato the healthy way is to cook it with its skin this provides fiber to the body.
They can be prepared in many healthy ways including boiling, steaming and baking. However, frying is the worst way to cook them as this process may increase their calorie content drastically due to its contact with a lot of oil. It may help you lose weight curbing hunger pangs and cravings if eaten in correct way.
Fiber Content
The fiber in potatoes also promotes satiety and digestive regularity, which makes them good options as part of a diet for weight loss. White potatoes and red potatoes are the highest in fiber, which is important for digestive health and regularity.
Potatoes are low in calories and are a good source of fibre, resistant starch, potassium, vitamin C, and B-complex vitamins. The low calorie content and high fibre and resistant starch content, along with the presence of compounds that promote fullness, make potatoes a good addition to your weight loss diet.
No, you should not use steam on your face every single day. Although the benefits of steaming face are far too many, steaming everyday can prove to be slightly harsh as the pores will not have enough time to close. Therefore, limit the process to 10 minutes once a week for best results.
Steaming ensures that vitamins such as vitamin B, riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, biotin, B12, pantothenic acid and vitamin C, as well as minerals such as calcium, phosphorous, potassium, and zinc are retained.
Like we mentioned, steam cooking is an extremely healthy way to eat. Your vegetables, when steam cooked, stay as close to their natural state as possible while retaining all their natural vitamins and minerals that are oftentimes lost during conventional methods of cooking.
Steaming is one of the best cooking methods for preserving nutrients, including water-soluble vitamins, which are sensitive to heat and water ( 4 , 5, 6, 17 ). Researchers have found that steaming broccoli, spinach, and lettuce reduces their vitamin C content by only 9–15% (5).
Steaming uses indirect heat to cook the sweet potatoes gently. Texture: Boiling sweet potatoes causes them to absorb water, resulting in a slightly wetter texture and softened flavor expression. A perfectly steamed sweet potato should hold its shape but turn velvety soft once cut into, like baked sweet potatoes.
A quick rinse under cold water can wash away much of the surface starch. More starch is removed from a cut potato than a whole peeled potato, because a greater surface area is exposed on cut potatoes. Soak them in cold water for as long as a few hours to remove more starch than by rinsing alone.
Overall, potatoes contain more vitamins and nutrients than rice, but when you add toppings such as butter, sour cream, gravy, bacon bits and salt, the number of calories and fat grams in a baked potato increases significantly.
Yes. Eat the skin to capture all the russet potatoes nutrition. The potato skin has more nutrients than the interior of the potato. It has lots of fiber, about half of a medium potato's fiber is from the skin.
The information gathered leads us to a conclusion that rice, especially brown or parboiled kind (white one with added nutrients) is a better choice than potatoes thanks to its high vitamin content and low glycemic index.