You may be thinking “yeah, yeah. I already eat potatoes.” Once a month? A couple times a year?

If your goal is to incrementally improve your nutrition, this requires a mindset and a habit shift for most of us. Why not add potatoes to your weekly shopping list?

Potatoes are low effort, low cost AND they taste good!

🌱 Toppings matter. Experiment with healthy options.

Now on to the 5 reasons.

1. Potatoes are rich in nutrients

source

Stokes purple sweet potato from Whole Foods

2. Potatoes are easy to find

Magic Molly potatoes from the farmer’s market

3. Potatoes are inexpensive

Japanese sweet potatoes on sale at Whole Foods

4. Potatoes are versatile

5. Potatoes take little effort to prepare

Tips 🌱

Pressed for time? Eat potatoes plain or with a healthy sauce. I use the Primal Kitchen BBQ sauce* or unsweetened ketchup.
Want to make it a meal? Add black beans and salsa. Hungrier than that? Also add avocado or guacamole. OR top with a healthy packaged or homemade plant-based chili. Serve with a salad or your favorite cooked vegetable.
Keep cooked potatoes on-hand in the fridge for a healthy snack. Cooked, and then refrigerated, potatoes develop resistant starch. Resistant starch is a prebiotic. Prebiotics are beneficial to the gut microbiome [source]. Cooked potatoes last 3-4 days in the fridge.

*high in salt, use sparingly

How to Cook

Oven

Make several cuts on both sides of the potato with your knife or poke with a fork. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Bake for 60 minutes.

Instant Pot

Steam potatoes in the Instant Pot [directions].

Were you told potatoes are unhealthy? Too high in “carbs?” I was under that impression too at one time. Until I transitioned to whole food plant-based and added potatoes back into my diet.

Carbohydrates, a macronutrient, are not the enemy. Processed foods high in fat, salt, and/or sugar, stripped of fiber and micronutrients, are where things go awry. [related reading from Harvard Health; more related reading in my Groats 101 post).

There are a lot of diet recommendations out there and it’s worth ensuring the recommendations are evidence-based.

Are you a potato lover? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

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5 reasons to make potatoes a staple in your weekly meals