Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the United States.
If there’s one food you should be eating more of today, it’s probably potatoes. The simple potato is the original superfood, and you should consider eating more potatoes after Thanksgiving. This week’s 2% newsletter explains why.
A Danish physician named Mikael Hinderhede proved in the early 1900s that you could survive on potatoes alone. He fed three laborers nothing but a drop of margarine for 309 days.
Five doctors later examined the men and determined that they were all in excellent health. was a participant Described as “a strong, solid, athletic-looking figure”Whose all muscles are well developed, and without excess fat.
Hinday’s work provided scientific validity to what other cultures had long known: eating mostly potatoes would keep a person strong and healthy. The Incas foresaw this fact thousands of years ago, Irish farmers experienced this in the 1800sa fresh Study in the journal nutrition discovered that the Aymara people of the Andes and Altiplano had a ten times lower incidence of pre-diabetes than Americans.
“Potatoes are a surprisingly nutritionally dense food,” nutrition researcher Stephane Guenet, Ph.D., told me. USDA One medium-sized potato reports that one medium-sized potato has about 170 calories, 5 grams of protein, 39 grams of carbs, and almost every vitamin and mineral your body needs. Potatoes have twice the potassium of a medium banana and a quarter of the vitamin C of an orange.
“The important thing is that they have complete proteins, with a distribution of essential amino acids that is similar to animal proteins,” Guinet said. We don’t consider potatoes “high protein.” But you can only eat potatoes and get Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) Of protein.
Potatoes contain more calories than other vegetables. But this is actually a feature rather than a bug.
They’re in a sweet spot where they can give us enough calories to survive (try surviving on broccoli and lettuce alone) but not so many that we overeat.
Potatoes have long been associated with fullness, and scientific data supports that observation. a search In European Journal of Clinical Nutrition compared the satiety index – which measures how full a food makes you feel – to common foods and discovered that plain potatoes reigned supreme. They recorded 50 percent more filling than their nearest competitor, fish, and seven times more filling than croissants, which ranked last. This study shows that you would have to eat seven croissants – about 1200 calories – to experience the same fullness you get from one potato.
This quality, combined with their sweet-spot calorie concentration, makes potatoes an ideal weight loss food. You’ll feel full with fewer calories, Guinet told me, making you less likely to overeat. You can also save money if you start eating more potatoes: it is the cheapest vegetable.
If you’ve heard that potatoes are unhealthy, keep in mind that the problem isn’t the potatoes. The problem is us and what we do with them. We cut them into little sticks or paper-thin wafers, then bathe them in 365-degree oil (one third of America’s potatoes Become French Fries). We boil them, then mash them with lots of butter and cream. (For the record, I agree 100% with too much butter and cream on Thanksgiving…but consider cutting back on that thing after the holidays.)
“If you look at non-industrial agricultural societies around the world, people who are lean and don’t have metabolic or cardiovascular disease, they don’t fry or pump up their carbs like potatoes with fat,” Guinet said. “Most of their plate is plain starch—whether it’s potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, or cassava—and the rest is small amounts of something more exciting, like meat with sauces and vegetables.”
If you’re worried about all those carbs, don’t be. importance of scientific evidence Suggests that carbs don’t make you fat. This is caused by eating too much of them. And, as the Food Satiety Index study showed, it’s hard to do that with plain old potatoes.
Potatoes are a strange-but-good choice for fitness. This is thanks to their relatively high carb content, mineral and amino acid profile. In the 2% newsletter from two weeks ago, I described how I once talked to a professional ultrarunner who ran with a plastic bag of salty mashed potatoes. When he needs fuel in between, he will cut a corner off the bag and pop the potato in his mouth. They’re packed with naturally occurring electrolytes and definitely beat some sour-apple-flavored sugar goo.
Enjoy your potatoes today. And hopefully there will be more days this year. And they don’t need to be boring to be healthy. It is possible to survive on white potatoes alone, but this is not optimal in the long run. Potatoes are deficient in two vitamins: A and B12. That’s why that Dutch researcher in the 1800s gave margarine with potatoes to five people. This is why most potato-dependent cultures eat them with a little green vegetables or carrots and small amounts of animal products, such as butter, milk, eggs or meat. So feel free to add a little butter or sour cream.
Growing up, I always heard about basic, unmotivated men who were referred to as the “meat and potatoes’ type of guy.” But the more I learn about potatoes, the more I agree with that designation. Because if I add some greens or carrots to the mix, I’ll be perfect.
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My two favorite things this week…
I’m looking for a Sitka Ambient jacket (here’s one). men’s linkhere is one women’s linkSitka started as a company that made high-performance hunting gear. They are now making all of their pieces in solid colors (ie, not camouflage, I think they are producing the best gear in the outdoors right now. This jacket is my newest favorite for fall recs, hikes, and walking around town. It is water resistant as well as comfortable and somehow always keeps me at the right temperature.
i posted This quick breakdown About the six key differences between rack vs weight vest. People found it useful. Maybe you too.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week,
michael
When I decided to accept sponsorship for this newsletter, Goruk It was a natural fit. This includes not only the company’s story comfort crisisBut I’ve been using GORUCK’s gear since the brand’s inception. seriously. They’ve been around for ~12 years and I still use their 11 year old pack regularly. Their gear is made in the United States by former Special Forces soldiers. They make my favorite racking setup: A rucker And rook plate,
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