Can Potatoes Help With Weight Loss? Scientists Reveal Surprising Benefits

Scitech Daily ^ | May 01, 2025 | Pennington Biomedical Research Center

[Skywise]

So… you’re saying French fries are healthy? ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

My list of ‘The Most Useful Things In Life:’

Chickens
Potatoes
A Mule (fertilizer)
Mason Jars
A Spouse who is on the same page with you!

[Red Badger]

The potato is, the oil isn’t..................

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Lime and lots of it...

Are you saying to add lime to the soil? Because that would make it even more alkaline.

[real saxophonist]

My girlfriend at the time was, shall we say, a “big girl”. So while I was at Boot Camp on Parris Island, she went on this potato diet. When I finally saw her again, we had both lost a bunch of weight.

[Red Badger]

I actually GAINED WEIGHT at Parris Island!................I was about 120-125 when I enlisted and weighed 150 at graduation and stayed at that level for my entire four years....My mother noticed it immediately at graduation...........

[dfwgator]

Love me some taters

[Red Badger]

Yes, sorry I was thinking Sulphur................

[MayflowerMadam]

I can get on board with a potato diet. My favorite food.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake - Shake it off! Shake it off! :)

[MtnClimber]

I have grown potatoes successfully in Colorado and Florida. The pH is important and I use sulfur or iron sulfate in the planting trench. But the biggest thing is that potatoes need high phosphorus for root development. Too much nitrogen makes the plant put all the energy into leaf growth. The fertilizer numbers are “N-P-K”, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. I use bone meal (calcium and phosphorus) in the planting trench at planting time and use a water soluble 10-30-20 fertilizer out of a watering bucket sprinkler over the leaves and ground about every two weeks, especially around when flowers develop on the plants because that is the time the plant is putting energy into the potatoes before the vine and leaves turn yellow and die back. I wait until the plant dies back before digging up the potatoes.

[Red Badger]

“I wait until the plant dies back before digging up the potatoes.” <———IMPORTANT!

[MayflowerMadam]

I’m thinking that potato salad (boiled potatoes with skins on, then cooled for 24 hours) is maybe the best way to eat taters. Depends on the dressing, of course.

[MayflowerMadam]

“Uncle Vodka”. Cute.

[sjmjax]

You mean Cheese, Bacon, Butter and Sour cream?

Yes! Potatoes are merely a delivery vehicle for all the above!

[real saxophonist]

I’ve known some people who did that. I wasn’t one of them.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Thanks for the info. As I recall, I was using some general-purpose fertilizer on everything in the garden, so probably not the best mixture for potatoes.

Maybe I’ll try them again one of these years, though it gets really hot out here west of Tucson.

[Skywise]

But if I use the government approved vegetable oil?! ;)

Honestly though - I wonder if frying in beef tallow might actually be “healthy”

(After it was banned because “fats bad” they discovered that it wasn’t fats per say but the hydrogenization of the fats - like Crisco and shortening that was the real culprit because the processing of the fat changed its structure making it easier to get into the blood stream. Unprocessed fats and natural fat oils (bacon grease) maintain their structure and don’t get into the bloodstream until naturally broken down by digestive processes)

[MtnClimber]

I am currently harvesting Russet potatoes that I planted in Central Florida around late December. I also have Russet potatoes I planted about 2 months later that are flowering right now. In between these plantings I planted Red Pontiac, Purple Majesty and Yukon Gold potatoes. The varieties have varying maturity times (early, main crop, Late) is the seasonal descriptions I have seen used which corresponds to about 85, 100, and 130 days to harvest. If you plant in late winter/early spring at about the last freeze date, or slightly before, you want the harvest date to be before temperatures get too hot. Or if you plant in late summer to early fall you want to harvest before the first hard freeze. Here are the maturity times on my plantings:

Early:

Yukon Gold

Main:

Red Pontiac and

Purple Majesty

Late:

Russet

In Florida I can get two plantings. In Colorado (high in the Rockies) I could only get one planting.