There are limits to diet. In Eastern Europe people just eat potatoes with tons of fat and occasional piece of chicken, arguably the worst diet, and obesity is far lower than in the US.

It's all about quantity and calorie density. You'd have to eat 27 potatoes a day to get to 3k calories, which is on the low end for obese people. Unless they're eating every potatoe baked with heaps of cheese, sour cream and bacon bits then it's not that bad for your weight, at least

As a French Canadian, I can assure you that with the right toppings you can without a doubt eat enough potatoes to reach insane amounts of calories. Granted, we put gravy and cheese on top and consider it a base for the actual toppings.

https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2013/02/05/poutinevilles-heart-...

Thank you. Potatoes get such a bad reputation as a staple.

I think it has to do with the fact that there’s zero marketing budget for a food sold for $1/kg and, like anything else, can be prepared in a healthy way or horribly unhealthy way.

Well, I'd say it comes down to the fact that most potato preparations are horribly unhealthy.

Not the potato's fault, just the meals that surround it. Probably the only tradition potato prep that has a chance of being sort of healthy is mashed potatoes. Even then, those often get loaded up with milk, butter, and gravy.

Take rice on the opposite end. Just as unhealthy as potatoes yet a ton of traditional rice meals are super healthy.

Simple boiled potatoes, especially fresh ones, are delicious, with a little piece of butter. They have delicate flavor. However, nobody likes them in the US... potatos have to be at least deep fried and better yet dipped into some crap. Reminds me of when I was in Munich with some American friends and they thought pork (and potatoes etc.) were flavorless... it just had the flavor of pork :)

I feel like the worst parts of the US diet are not the staples or the meats or anything like that, it's all the additions - too much butter, ketchup, dressings, syrups, sauces, cheeses, added bread (crusts, buns and crumbs) etc. on everything. When your taste buds are nuked by this stuff all the time it's hard to appreciate subtle flavors.

I cube them, boil them, and eat them with mustard or hot sauce. Even with ketchup isn’t that bad. Or I toss them into a soup or stir fry.

Mash potatoes involve peeling them. That’s a waste of time and nutrients.

Call me crazy, I like the skin on in mashed potatoes. I think it adds to the flavor.

I think that depends on the potatoes. On some it'll feel like you're just chewing on and swallowing paper.

Not crazy at all because I also like the skin on a mashed potatoes

same. unfortunately my wife and now the kids do not :-(

Potatoes have among the highest possible satiety values.

If plane, you basically can’t over eat them. You be full quickly.

They are 60-80% starch (carbs) by dry weight. They have a bad reputation for a reason.

That’s right up there with anything plant based (e.g. broccoli, chickpeas or kale)

Unlike broccoli or kale, potatoes have way lower vitamin and fiber content. Unlike chickpeas, potatoes have way lower protein content.

I feel like I'm in some kind of twilight zone with fifteen HNers attacking me for saying a pretty much accepted truth about potatoes (that it is an extremely starch-rich vegetable that's fairly low in other nutrients). I don't understand the reason for this. Is everyone here on a potato diet?

I think it's more that we're talking about obesity. You might not be the most nourished person in the world but noone is obese from eating too many potatoes, you get obese eating pure sugars and modern engineered refined foods.

> noone is obese from eating too many potatoes

You get obese from eating too many calories, source is irrelevant. Sugars and refined foods are dangerous because they are particularly addictive. But if you crave carbs, and think potatoes are a "healthy" way to satisfy that craving, you're very wrong.

I mean, source kind of does matter, because potatoes are pretty filling. You would be hard pressed to eat enough potatoes to become obese at 110 calories a pop, unless you cover them in cheese and sour cream and meats, in which case it's not really the potatoes fault. I'm not saying they're a healthy diet option but you can't blame potatoes for someone being obese, which is what we're talking about.

Did a sweet potatoe diet For a month. Boiled or microwaved. Nothing added.

Felt Amazing after it. Was the most boring thing ever.

> which is on the low end for obese people

do obese people burn more calories just by being fat or are you assuming that they are still getting fatter?

Obese people do need higher calories to maintain their weight. Given that severity of obesity rates in increasing its also true that most fat people are only getting fatter though.

The worst diet is one abundant in ultra-refined packaged foods. At least chicken and potatoes have nutritional value, even if it's not complete.

But you have a point, there was a study revealing that the red meat and fat consumption in Hong Kong was relatively high, and yet longevity ranks among the top of the world. It is a very walkable city.

Diet isn't just types of food consumed but also the amount. Also fat isn't 'unhealthy' but that's a different misconception.

Fat is indeed quite healthy as long as its calorie count does not exceed daily recommended, which is extremely easy to do with fat as its energy rich.

I don't think being rich in energy has anything to do with how easy it is not to over-indulge in it. Plenty of fatty foods that people overeat very very easily.

I was saying exactly the opposite of what you thought I was saying! We agree!

Quantity. In the US, many actually eat meat with every dinner and much of fast food is way outside of safe quantities with ease. Once you get used to the large amounts it gets really easy to feel underfed at safe quantities.

Yes, but are they eating dried foods covered in salt out of foil-lined bags as an anxiety reflex, or are they eating at mealtimes when they're hungry?

Ultimately all causes of obesity must be mediated by changes in food consumption behavior or metabolic rate. Very few things alter the metabolic rate; it's relevant to many medical conditions and widely studied. So we're left with foods that affect food consumption patterns.

Really, when we talk about foods that cause obesity, we're talking about foods that undermine the normal psychological function of hunger, either by not making you full, making you eat when you're not hungry, or making you continue to eat beyond fullness. Many processed foods are specifically tested, re-tested and optimized to increase these kinds of effects because it generates profits and there's no law against it (yet). There are no traditional diets that can make people fat as effectively as Doritos, for basically the same reason that there are no traditional medicines that treat myelogenous leukemia as well as imatinib.

Potatoes have a decent amount of water and fibre (almost as much as apples). There's some dumb internet idea that the type of macros are what really matter, so potatoes are bad because they're all carbs (not protein). Really, if you want to lose weight than less quantity and less energy density (which means replacing macros with water and fibre) is going to matter a bit more than whether the macros are carbs or protein.

That said, yes they'll lack some nutrients if that's what you were getting at. Some mixed veg would be a good idea.

Ever done starch extraction experiment in middle school? Potatoes are almost pure starch.

No, they're not almost pure starch. They are about 17% carbs (including 2% dietary fibre and 1% sugar, the rest being digestible starch).

For context, corn chips are over 60% carbs. Vegetables (even "bad" ones with less protein and more carbs) are actually often kinda healthy.

You are looking at wet weight, which is highly misleading. You should be looking at dry weight.

> In general terms fresh potatoes contain ~20% dry matter (DM) of which 60–80% is starch

That's 60-80% by dry weight. I assure you that the types of potatoes eaten in Eastern Europe contain approximately 109% starch by dry weight.

They're high in starch, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Potatoes are a satiating food, and its starches can improve microbiota. However they're often consumed with excess fat which, on top of adding more calories quickly, can yield a higher insulin response. Potatoes themselves aren't low-GI foods either. Leptin resistance is often associated with weight gain. In general high fiber foods avoid those pitfalls.

Potatoes contain 60-80% starch. They are generally low in other nutrients, especially protein.

Then you say "however they're often consumed with excess fat" --- yes that's the only way they can be reasonably consumed because they taste like powdered chalk.

They're quite high in potassium, vitamin C, B6, niacin, folate, not to mention various minerals. To say it's low in other nutrients is just plain wrong.

When you say "quite rich," that means very little. Quite rich compared to what? Certainly not to any green leafy vegetable you find on a supermarket shelf.

Potatoes are typically boiled for a long time before eating. Boiling destroys vitamin C and many others as well. Now maybe boiling is not how you do consume potatoes but that's how most people consume them.

> Quite rich compared to what?

On par with meat, pulses, legumes, vegetables, fruit. Compare for yourself, it's not hard to find: https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetabl...

> Certainly not to any green leafy vegetable you find on a supermarket shelf.

Yes, those too. They all have different profiles. Generally leafy green vegetables are NOT high in everything at once. They're high in vitamin K and C. That's not terribly unique - many plant foods share this characteristic.

Add to the fact, green vegetables are not as satiating as potatoes. The soluble fiber tends to be fermented quickly. They fulfill a different purpose.

> Boiling destroys vitamin C and many others as well.

Huge overstatement. We generally cook our vegetables as well, a good portion of the vitamins stay intact. In fact cooking increases bio-availability. It doesn't really matter that there is some loss in the process.

> Now maybe boiling is not how you do consume potatoes but that's how most people consume them.

I don't know where you get this idea. I roast potatoes, but all the same cooking in hot water is a gentler cooking method.

All of which to say, discounting potatoes entirely owing to some notion of a poor nutrient profile is absurd.

What is up with potatoes? Within somewhat recent history, humans ate diets composed almost entirely of potatoes...it did not kill people in large numbers.

Obesity in the case of countries like the US is largely due to an excess of calories...maybe other stuff is bad for you but the evidence for that is kind of hard to demonstrate when there is so much obesity. I feel like this is kind of why there are problems with obesity. People lose their mind over stuff like bread and soda, and not overall calories.

In the US, many popular ingredients or basic food like canned tomatoes etc have lots of sugar added. Eliminate the additives and you'll quickly shed the excess weight. For example it's fairly hard in PL to find canned tomatoes with added sugar or passata. If one really needs to sweeten them, he can can add sugar by himself.

I am in the UK and Heinz puts a ton of sugar in the national staple: baked beans. I incline against blaming companies but additives is definitely an exception because those ingredients often aren't evident to consumers. We know soda has a ton of sugar but baked beans...most consumers don't know.

But it is also true that if you tried to sell those products in PL, consumers wouldn't have it. Eastern Europeans tend to be very knowledgeable about the origins of food in a way that UK or US consumers aren't. The difference between bread in PL and the West being the example I hear most about.

As Eastern European doctors will tell you, the traditional Eastern Europe diet is unhealthy. Yes, obesity is low, but heart disease is a problem. That the urban middle class now has access to new dining habits inspired from other cuisines or vegan fads, is considered a good thing.

Have you tried eating only potatoes for a longer period? Its basically impossible to eat too much.

Have you tried subsisting on potatoes? I literally grew up in EE and that was my food for breakfast, dinner, and supper. It's insane how many people in these comments are chiming in "OH ACTUALLY they are great food if consumed properly."

> It's insane how many people in these comments are chiming in "OH ACTUALLY they are great food if consumed properly."

Because maybe they have a different opinion than you? I grew up on potatoes (plain, cooked), too, but I like them a lot.

You have some weird unhealthy vendetta against potatoes going on here, judging by your other comments in this thread.

> You have some weird unhealthy vendetta against potatoes going on here

This is the funniest thing---I absolutely don't! I love mashed potatoes. I am just pointing out they are not the healthiest food. It's okay to like foods that are not healthy. I love cake for example. It's just weird to me how lots of people here seemingly convinced themselves that potatoes are super-healthy while the are actually carb bombs.

Nothing wrong with potatoes, or chicken for that matter. And yeah, tons of fat would be bad, but as you say yourself they are not terribly obese, so by definition the amount of fat (and anything else) can't be that huge.

You are inches away from grasping my point, which is that almost anything is a good diet as long as it is consumed in moderation and combined with regular exercise.

Stop talking sense.

For sure, I include how much you eat as a part of your diet. The vast majority of people could eat mcdonald's every day and be a healthy weight by just controlling quantity.

Potatoes+Meat/Dairy is one of the most well rounded diets you can get for only two components. Once you add animal products nutrition becomes incredibly simple.

And walking helps digestion too.