{"id":795924,"date":"2026-10-08T12:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795924\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T12:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:36:11","slug":"white-potatoes-are-not-empty-calories-theyre-actually-great-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795924\/","title":{"rendered":"White Potatoes Are Not Empty Calories. They\u2019re Actually Great for You"},"content":{"rendered":"

Healthy cooking doesn\u2019t have to be complicated. In fact, often the simpler it is, the better it tastes. In Good for You<\/a>, Test Kitchen editor Rebecca Firkser shares feel-good recipes for any day of the week.<\/p>\n

While you can\u2019t scroll through a healthy-recipe collection without seeing a sweet potato<\/a> or three, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find white potatoes like russets included on most lists. These spuds are often seen as bad for you, while their orange-hued brethren have taken on a health halo. But why? When you look at the nutrition facts, the two are nearly identical.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiets like keto and Atkins, and the recent TikTok protein craze can promote the idea that carbs drive weight gain or that they provide empty calories,\u201d says Hannah Sorrell, a registered dietitian at Alike Nutrition. \u201cHowever, carbohydrates are our brain and body\u2019s main fuel source.\u201d What\u2019s more, Sorrell notes that carbs are also the only macronutrient that contain fiber (a large russet brings about four grams if eaten skin-on).<\/p>\n

Energy-boosting carbohydrates like potatoes prove especially valuable to those who exercise vigorously. Ever sucked down a gel during a run or chugged coconut water after a tough workout? That boost of energy comes from carbs. While many active adults pat themselves on the back as they munch on a salad post\u2013Barry\u2019s Bootcamp, proper fuel and recovery can be much less green.<\/p>\n

My new recipe<\/a> is basically the opposite of a salad. It\u2019s a big fat potato, smothered in saucy, spicy ground beef. And yeah, it\u2019s for my column on healthy cooking.<\/p>\n

Especially for high-intensity workouts, \u201cfueling with carbs is the key to success,\u201d says Julie Jefferson, a Brooklyn-based trainer and HYROX coach. Jefferson\u2014who adds she\u2019s been known to eat a slice of pizza before a run\u2014says a big mistake she sees people make is underfueling. \u201cWhite potatoes provide an easy way to increase carb intake. And because they are also an easy food to digest, they can help training and recovery feel easier on our bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But carbs\u2014and protein and fat\u2014are necessary for moderately active folks as well. You don\u2019t need to be a marathoner to earn a filling dinner. You just need to be a human. That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

We can point a finger at diet culture and careful marketing for the way that a rotating cast of foods have been characterized as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d over the years. Like carbs, red meat has had its own contentious journey in the spotlight. One minute, it\u2019s an important source of protein, rich in iron, zinc, and vitamin B; the next, it\u2019s high in saturated fat that can increase risk of heart disease and cancer. Technically, all true!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Healthy cooking doesn\u2019t have to be complicated. In fact, often the simpler it is, the better it tastes.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[13111,261734,102,6636,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-cooking","tag-good-for-you","tag-health","tag-nutrition","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}