Potatoes are one of the most commonly eaten side dishes around the world. People love to eat tomatoes in different forms, such as fried potatoes, potato salad, and mashed potatoes. Any variation of tomato is popular among people. Because potatoes are so versatile, this high-starch food is almost never boring. But if you love potatoes and are looking to start a ketogenic diet, you may be wondering, “Are potatoes suitable for a keto diet?”
If you want a short answer to this question, it’s “no.” Potatoes are not suitable for a ketogenic diet, so you cannot consume potatoes while on a ketogenic diet. According to nutritionists and keto diet experts, you can’t eat even one potato a day while on the keto diet. Why aren’t potatoes suitable for keto? We’ll explain more about it below.
Potatoes are not a keto-friendly food because they are high in carbohydrates (sugar). Due to their high carbohydrate concentration, potatoes are not low-carbohydrate foods and cannot be used on a ketogenic diet for this reason. Potatoes rank very high on the glycemic index, a tool for measuring the impact of foods on overall blood sugar levels. The glycemic index scale is from 0 to 100. One boiled potato has a glycemic index of 78, which is too high to be used on a ketogenic diet. According to keto diet experts, your blood sugar levels will spike faster after eating a single potato than eating bread. With this fact, it’s easy to see why potatoes aren’t suitable for keto.
How much sugar is in potatoes?
Potatoes are a carbohydrate-rich food. Even a medium-sized potato has 37 grams of total carbohydrates, which is more than your daily carbohydrate intake on a ketogenic diet (30 grams). It contains only 4.5 grams of dietary fiber. This means you’re consuming about 33 grams of net carbohydrates. This high concentration of carbohydrates makes potatoes an unsuitable food for the keto diet. Potatoes are not only high in carbohydrates, but also low in fat. A medium-sized potato contains only 1 gram of fat and 4 grams of protein, which is not enough to make potatoes a keto-friendly food.
Therefore, eating potatoes while on a keto diet will prevent your body from reaching the ketosis state quickly and will not have the desired effect. For this reason, experts do not recommend eating potatoes while on a keto diet.
Botanically speaking, potatoes are tubers and starchy vegetables. It grows below the ground and is rich in carbohydrates. Potatoes come in many varieties, including red, russet, and sweet. All of these types have different concentrations of macronutrients and micronutrients. This section will mainly focus on sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes can be used in place of white potatoes. You’re probably wondering why this is the case. Well, it is due to many reasons such as:
Sweet potatoes have fewer carbohydrates than white potatoes
The main problem with white potatoes that make them unsuitable for a keto diet is their high carbohydrate concentration. However, sweet potatoes can be used as a substitute for white potatoes as they have fewer carbohydrates than white potatoes. According to the nutritional profile of white potatoes, one medium-sized white potato contains approximately 23.6 grams of carbohydrates and 3.8 grams of fiber. This means you can get 20 grams of net carbs from one medium-sized sweet potato, which is almost 12.5 grams less than a white potato. For this reason, sweet potatoes can be used as a substitute for white potatoes.
This opinion is supported by the fact that sweet potatoes have a glycemic index of 63 (15 points lower than white potatoes).
Vitamin concentration is higher in sweet potatoes than white potatoes
This is another fact about sweet potatoes that helps you to use sweet potatoes as a substitute for white potatoes. Sweet potatoes contain much more vitamins. According to the nutritional profile of sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes contain over 400% of your daily requirement for vitamin A, 16% for vitamin B6, and 37% for vitamin C. White potatoes, on the other hand, contain 0% vitamin A and 27% vitamin B6. Contains 28% vitamin B6 and vitamin C.
Sweet potatoes have less resistant starch than white potatoes
Resistant starch is a starch that is difficult for the body to digest. It is not completely digested by the body’s normal metabolic processes. Resistant starch goes directly into the small or large intestine without being digested, causing complications. White potatoes are more tolerant than sweet potatoes and are not suitable for eating on a keto diet.
Sweet potatoes have many health benefits
Beyond their low-carb nature, sweet potatoes have several important health benefits. For example, sweet potatoes are involved in improving bone health by providing the body with iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. Sweet potatoes help strengthen overall bone strength and structure. Due to its ability to widen blood vessels, it also improves blood pressure. One whole sweet potato contains 1600mg of potassium. Potassium plays a very important role in dilating blood vessels. If you want to learn more about potassium, we recommend checking out potassium in our keto guide.
Sweet potatoes are very helpful in fighting inflammation in all parts of the body. They are a powerful source of choline (a medium-sized sweet potato contains 57 mg of choline). Choline helps fight inflammation and maintain the structure of cell membranes.
As mentioned earlier, you can use sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. However, if you’re looking for a more keto-friendly potato alternative than sweet potatoes, you can use the following foods:
cauliflower
celery root
Japanese white radish
Rutabaga
turnip
kohlrabi
