For potatoes to be a healthier food for you, do the following here:
1. Mash them with skim or 1% milk, not whole milk with all of the fat.
2. Bake them and eat them plain with a bit of low-fat butter. Don’t stuff them full of cheeses and everything else. When you stuff them full of everything else, you are making a fattening meal!
3. Eat plain baked potatoes with the skin. The nutrition is even better in potato skins! The skins provide you with a fiber source.
A one cup serving of potato will provide you with vitamin B6. You’ll receive 20 percent of your daily requirement. Vitamin B6 is a very beneficial vitamin in a multitude of ways. The B6 helps relieve swelling due to retaining water, helps various types of neuropathies, and also arthritis of the rheumatoid types. Not to mention, B6, works together with various enzymes improving cardiovascular health. This vitamin is also good if you tend toward iron-deficiency anemia in that it stimulates production of red blood cells. And one other great thing I’d also like to mention on B6 is that, like Vitamin A, it too helps your immunity.
Your potato also delivers potassium. Potassium is very very important, and you will get about 15 percent by eating your cup serving. Potassium plays a big role in keeping our body alive by regulation of our cardiovascular system and keeping blood pressure steady. It also has a lot to do with the balance of electrolytes. Potassium is actually an electrolyte, and regulates all of our metabolic balances. Potassium also benefits us by keeping the fluid balances in the body regulated, and also plays a role in recovery from illness, and in wound healing.
Potatoes offer a great source of copper. Copper is a mineral used by the body for maintaing your organ health. What this mineral does is help you to maintain your bone health, as well as cardiac health, your connective tissue health, and also brain functions. Copper is also one of those minerals that help a person to fight off dangerous free radicals. Oxygen to your body cells is also another role that copper plays along with the proper blood clotting formation needed. Your serving of potato will give you nearly 18 percent of what you need daily for this mineral.
Vitamin C is a strong vitamin in the potato. Your vitamin C daily fights off infections and helps to fight off more serious diseases such as certain cancers. Through one cup of potato, you will receive at least 25 percent of your daily requirement of Vitamin C.
Potatoes offer another great compound known as kukoamines. This is a phytochemical which is a naturally occurring substance in the red potato. This substance has been found to lower blood pressure through regular potato consumption a few times weekly.
A type of amino acid, tryptophan is another essential amino acid found in the potato. This amino acid that works by calming and relaxing the body. Serotonin levels are stimulated by tryptophan in the body. And serotonin is actually the neurotransmitter that does a lot of things such as help moods, stress levels, regulates sleeping patterns, and instigates our appetite. Potatoes offer us at least 15 percent of our daily requirement for this amino acid that is very essential.
Manganese is another mineral of which the potato in one serving offers you 15 percent of your daily requirement. This mineral in our body helps red blood cell growth, bones, and also helps you process essential nutrients such as fatty acids.
So in conclusion here, by eating potatoes in healthy ways, the spud will indeed keep you healthier in more ones than one!
