Red Potatoes Or Sweet Potatoes

[TomCollins0307]

This has been on my mind for a long time. Way back in the day I used to eat regular brown russet potatoes. Then I heard that they are high on the GI. Someone told me Red Potatoes are what I need to eat, so I've been eating red potatoes ever since. Now I hear Sweet Potatoes are what I should be eating. I'm confused, whats the best for my bodybuilding goals? How should I cook them?

[Contract Killer]

peel a sweet potatoe and throw in the microwave for about 6 minutes, it cooks better if it's diced. It's such a good carb source, you don't need butter, salt or anything, it's the most delicious vegetable you'll eat.

[Undermod]

peel a sweet potatoe and throw in the microwave for about 6 minutes, it cooks better if it's diced. It's such a good carb source, you don't need butter, salt or anything, it's the most delicious vegetable you'll eat.

Amen.

[madman911]

This has been on my mind for a long time. Way back in the day I used to eat regular brown russet potatoes. Then I heard that they are high on the GI. Someone told me Red Potatoes are what I need to eat, so I've been eating red potatoes ever since. Now I hear Sweet Potatoes are what I should be eating. I'm confused, whats the best for my bodybuilding goals? How should I cook them?

Eat whatever kind of potato you like best. The GI is basically bull****. The effects on blood sugar established in the GI are based on eating that particular food on an empty stomach and by itself. The GI of a white potato changes drastically if you eat it with protein, lipids, and fibrous carbs. As part of a well rounded meal a russet potato is just fine and won't spike your blood sugar.

[kg303]

Eat whatever kind of potato you like best. The GI is basically bull****. The effects on blood sugar established in the GI are based on eating that particular food on an empty stomach and by itself. The GI of a white potato changes drastically if you eat it with protein, lipids, and fibrous carbs. As part of a well rounded meal a russet potato is just fine and won't spike your blood sugar.

true

[BioHazardF5]

Eat whatever kind of potato you like best. The GI is basically bull****. The effects on blood sugar established in the GI are based on eating that particular food on an empty stomach and by itself. The GI of a white potato changes drastically if you eat it with protein, lipids, and fibrous carbs. As part of a well rounded meal a russet potato is just fine and won't spike your blood sugar.

no.

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how fast a food or ingredient triggers a rise in circulating blood glucose; the higher the GI, the greater the blood sugar response. Recent scientific evidence shows that a low GI diet promotes better heart health and speeds fat loss. This study is the first to definitively identify the GI as the active factor that improved insulin metabolism to provide better fat loss.

The results of this tightly controlled study by U.S. scientists showed that mammals fed a low-GI diet demonstrated reduced body fat, and reduction in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In this study, the animals (rodents) were fed the same diet with identical nutrients, except for the type of carbohydrate. Both groups were fed a diet containing 70% carbohydrates, but one group was fed high-GI carbohydrates and the other, low-GI carbs. Food portions were controlled to maintain the same average body weight in the two groups. Results showed that the high-GI group had 71% more body fat and 8% less lean body mass than the low-GI group, despite very similar body weights. The fat in the high-GI group was concentrated in the trunk area, a clear indicator of cardiovascular disease. The high-GI group also showed poor insulin metabolism and higher blood fat levels.

People that want to get lean and stay lean should understand that the low-GI eating approach should be followed at all times other than the immediate 3-hour post workout phase. The low-GI eating approach is perfect for health-conscious people such as bodybuilders because a wide array of foods can be consumed. This allows for a nutrient-rich but low-calorie eating approach. It also helps to prevent the diet from becoming boring as well as promoting better cardiovascular health. from ast-ss.com

[BioHazardF5]

info about potatos.
An important aspect that governs digestion and assimilation of a carbohydrate food is its starch. Most carbohydrate foods contain a ratio of two different types of starches; amylose and amylopectin. Different kinds of potato possess different ratios of these starches, and this influences their GI tremendously.

Amylopectin molecules are larger, more open and easier to digest. Thus, carbohydrate foods that have little amylose and plenty of amylopectin within their carbohydrate will be more rapidly digested and absorbed into the blood stream and will possess a higher GI number. They will create a more rapid increase in blood sugar levels.

The plain white potato is a carbohydrate that has a high amylopectin to amylose ratio. Thus, it has a high GI rating of 90. This potato is best used in the post-workout period to restore insulin levels and accelerate glycogen accumulation within muscle. On the other hand, a Pontiac (or Red potato) possesses a starch ratio that is just the opposite (it has more amylose than amylopectin). Thus, this potato’s GI rating is 50, much lower than the similar looking and tasting white potato. from ast-ss.com

so yes red potatos are fine. but sweet potatos are better

[madman911]

no.

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how fast a food or ingredient triggers a rise in circulating blood glucose; the higher the GI, the greater the blood sugar response. Recent scientific evidence shows that a low GI diet promotes better heart health and speeds fat loss. This study is the first to definitively identify the GI as the active factor that improved insulin metabolism to provide better fat loss.

The results of this tightly controlled study by U.S. scientists showed that mammals fed a low-GI diet demonstrated reduced body fat, and reduction in risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In this study, the animals (rodents) were fed the same diet with identical nutrients, except for the type of carbohydrate. Both groups were fed a diet containing 70% carbohydrates, but one group was fed high-GI carbohydrates and the other, low-GI carbs. Food portions were controlled to maintain the same average body weight in the two groups. Results showed that the high-GI group had 71% more body fat and 8% less lean body mass than the low-GI group, despite very similar body weights. The fat in the high-GI group was concentrated in the trunk area, a clear indicator of cardiovascular disease. The high-GI group also showed poor insulin metabolism and higher blood fat levels.

People that want to get lean and stay lean should understand that the low-GI eating approach should be followed at all times other than the immediate 3-hour post workout phase. The low-GI eating approach is perfect for health-conscious people such as bodybuilders because a wide array of foods can be consumed. This allows for a nutrient-rich but low-calorie eating approach. It also helps to prevent the diet from becoming boring as well as promoting better cardiovascular health. from ast-ss.com

For one, mice and rats are far removed from human beings and 70% carbs is a much higher percentage of carbs than any bodybuilder is eating. I mean, think about it, eating one white potato a day doesn't come anywhere close to 70% of your calories coming from high-GI carbs. That makes the study unconvincing to me. It's a very extreme study design. Just to let you know, I work in preclinical research so I know firsthand how rare it is for an effect in rodents to translate into the same or even a similar effect in humans.

Part of this is just common sense. I mean, do you honestly think the type of potato you eat is going to make a big difference in how your body stores fat? As long as you aren't eating 70% carbs in the form of Russet potatoes (or sweet potatoes for that matter) on the daily, I think you're gonna be okay. If you want to worry about the difference a sweet potato or a white potato is going to make to your body composition, you're wasting your energy. I do believe staying away from processed carbs like white flour, sugar and white rice is a good idea and it makes a big difference. But something 100% natural and unprocessed like a potato is okay.

[madman911]

I just found this interesting tid-bit online:

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts found that men who added two full-body weight workouts a week to their existing aerobic exercise program had insulin levels that were 25 percent lower after a meal that was high in carbohydrates than the levels of men who performed the same aerobic exercise program but didn't lift weights.

I'm going to try and find the paper or at least an abstract if I can. I don't think this puts sugar and white flour back on the menu, but it certainly supports my "white potatoes aren't bad for you" stance. My point is that you shouldn't treat the GI as a bible for choosing your carb sources because it is flawed.

[n2d]

http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...full/103/3/e26
"Voluntary energy intake after the high-GI meal (5.8 megajoule [mJ]) was 53% greater than after the medium-GI meal (3.8 mJ), and 81% greater than after the low-GI meal (3.2 mJ)"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
"OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a 5-week low-glycemic index (LGI) diet versus a high-glycemic index (HGI) diet can modify glucose and lipid metabolism as well as total fat mass in nondiabetic men. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In this study, 11 healthy men were randomly allocated to 5 weeks of an LGI or HGI diet separated by a 5-week washout interval in a crossover design. RESULTS: The LGI diet resulted in lower postprandial plasma glucose and insulin profiles and areas under the curve (AUCs) than the HGI diet. A 5-week period of the LGI diet lowered plasma triacylglycerol excursion after lunch (AUC, P < 0.05 LGI vs. HGI). These modifications were associated with a decrease in the total fat mass by approximately 700 g (P < 0.05) and a tendency to increase lean body mass (P < 0.07) without any change in body weight. This decrease in fat mass was accompanied by a decrease in leptin, lipoprotein lipase, and hormone-sensitive lipase RNAm quantities in the subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that 5 weeks of an LGI diet ameliorates some plasma lipid parameters, decreases total fat mass, and tends to increase lean body mass without changing body weight. These changes were accompanied by a decrease in the expression of some genes implicated in lipid metabolism. Such a diet could be of benefit to healthy, slightly overweight subjects and might play a role in the prevention of metabolic diseases and their cardiovascular complications."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Citation
"To see if both the amount and source of carbohydrate consumed determined postprandial glucose and insulin responses of mixed meals, eight nondiabetic subjects took five different mixed meals containing variable energy (1650-2550 kJ), fat (8-24 g), protein (12-25 g) carbohydrate (38-104 g) and glycemic index (43-99). Incremental glucose and insulin responses for the five meals varied over a 2.3-fold range. Amount of carbohydrate alone was not significantly related to the mean glucose and insulin responses. However, using previously derived equations, amount of carbohydrate and glycemic index explained approximately 90% of the variability of the observed mean glucose and insulin responses (P = 0.01). We conclude that both amount and source of carbohydrate determine the glucose and insulin responses of lean, young, nondiabetic subjects after different mixed meals with variable glycemic index. Variation in protein and fat intake, over the range tested here, appears to have a negligible effect on postprandial glucose and insulin."
Conclusion: High GI makes you more likely to overeat, and fatter even if you don't, and stays even when eating mixed meals.
But I am biased, I hate potatoes.