HomeLifestyleHealth & FitnessToo many potatoes can raise your risk of three serious health conditions

Too many potatoes can raise your risk of three serious health conditions

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When it comes to vegetables, potatoes are a nutrient-rich option that often appears on dinner plates. However, despite the fact that root vegetables are versatile and healthy, consuming them may pose a number of hidden health concerns. The carbohydrate content of the veggie is the root of the issue.

As detailed by the researchers of Harvard Health, “they are high in the type of carbohydrate that the body digests rapidly, causing blood sugar and insulin to surge and then dip”.

In technical words, this implies that the root vegetable has a high glycaemic index, which indicates that it has a high sugar content (GI).

The glycemic index (GI) of carbohydrates is a grading system that indicates how fast each meal affects your blood sugar (glucose) level when that food is consumed on its own.

The greater the speed with which a meal is broken down into glucose in the bloodstream, the greater the effect on blood sugar levels, which may increase your chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

And there is more, “the roller-coaster-like effect of a high dietary glycemic load can result in people feeling hungry again soon after eating, which may then lead to overeating”, warn the researchers.

“Over the long term, diets high in potatoes and similarly rapidly-digested, high carbohydrate foods can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.”

According to research, weight increase is a specific source of worry.

In the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, 120,000 men and women were followed for up to 20 years tracking their food and lifestyle patterns.

In their study, they discovered that individuals who increased their intake of French fries and baked or mashed potatoes acquired more weight over time, gaining an additional 3.42 and 1.3 pounds per four years, respectively.

Furthermore, individuals who reduced their consumption of these items, as well as those who increased their intake of other veggies, acquired less weight.

Potatoes may increase the risk of developing heart disease because of their connection with high blood pressure, which is a precursor to cardiovascular issues.

In three major American studies, researchers from Harvard Medical School looked at more than 187,000 men and women.

They compared individuals who ate less than one serving of baked, mashed, or boiled potatoes, chips, or crisps per month to people who ate four or more servings per week of these carbohydrates.

According to the findings, participants who consumed four or more servings of baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes per week had an 11 percent higher risk of high blood pressure, and those who consumed four or more servings of French fries (chips) per month had a 17 percent higher risk of high blood pressure.

The study discovered that increasing the amount of crisps consumed did not raise the risk.

However, since the quantity of crisps in the research was much lower in weight than the other types of potato (28g/1oz of crisps compared with 4oz/113g of French fries), it’s possible that the lesser amount of potatoes had an impact on the findings of the study.

The research concluded that changing a piece of potatoes for a portion of vegetables may lower the chance of developing high blood pressure, which further supported the connection between the two.

However, there are some limitations to the study.

“This type of study can only show an association, not cause and effect. So we can’t conclude that potatoes cause high blood pressure and we cannot explain the cause of the results seen in the study,” noted Victoria Taylor, Senior Dietitian at the British Heart Foundation.

“It is also important to note this is a study from the US where dietary guidance and recommendations vary from the UK.”

Image Credit: Getty

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