5 Myths About Potatoes

For several years, the potato has been under fire for allegedly providing “empty calories” and causing weight gain.

This has led to some persistent myths about the health benefits of potatoes, which the facts below examine closely and debunk.

We hope that, as a food professional, you can use these facts in your daily work preparing delicious, healthy food and in your conversations with your guests.

Myth 1

“Potatoes are empty calories”

No, potatoes actually contain a wide range of important nutrients. In addition to carbohydrates in the form of starch, which provide the body with energy, potatoes also provide vitamins and minerals. In particular, their vitamin C, B6, and potassium content is high enough to make a significant contribution to the body’s daily intake.

Potatoes also provide dietary fiber, with a content of about 1.4 g per 100 g.

By comparison, spinach contains 1.9 g per 100 g.

Coarse vegetables such as carrots and white cabbage contain 2.9 g and 2.3 g of dietary fiber per 100 g, respectively.

Myth 2

“Potatoes make you fat”

Potatoes have a relatively high water content. This means that the energy content of 100 g of cooked potatoes is about 40% lower than that of equivalent amounts of cooked pasta or rice. Therefore, you can eat a somewhat larger portion of potatoes compared to pasta and rice without consuming more calories.

Potatoes contain carbohydrates, just like rice and pasta, but several studies have shown that weight-loss diets containing normal amounts of carbohydrates (from foods such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes) are just as effective as similar diets with a very low carbohydrate content.

Potatoes contain less than ½ g of fat per 100 g.

Myth 3

“Potatoes don’t make you feel full”

On the contrary—studies have shown that potatoes are very filling.

The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration’s website therefore also highlights that potatoes are one of the foods that provide the greatest sense of fullness for the fewest calories.

However, it is important to note that this applies only to boiled and baked potatoes and not, for example, to French fries, which are less filling and typically have a relatively high fat content.

Myth 4

“The vitamin C in potatoes is lost during cooking”

According to official nutritional tables, the vitamin C content of raw potatoes averages 26 mg per 100 g.

During preparation—including peeling and boiling—potatoes lose some of their vitamin C content.

However, since potatoes are naturally a good source of vitamin C, a significant amount will remain even after cooking. For this reason, potatoes are considered an important source of vitamin C.

Official nutritional tables list the content as 8 mg per 100 g of cooked potato, which is roughly the same as in apples, where the content is 10 mg per 100 g.

Myth 5

“Potatoes aren’t healthy enough to be included in the ‘6 a day’ recommendation”

The reason potatoes aren’t included in the 600 g of fruits and vegetables we’re recommended to eat daily is that they contain a relatively high amount of starch—and are therefore counted toward our daily intake in the same way as rice, pasta, and bread.

However, as mentioned above under the question “Do potatoes make you gain weight?”, the energy content—and thus the starch content—is significantly lower in potatoes than in cooked rice and pasta.

Changes That Occur When Frying Potatoes

For the vast majority of produce, there is a change in nutrient content along the “farm-to-table” journey, and this also applies to potatoes.

These include, among other things, the loss of vitamins during heating and, in some cases, changes in the distribution of energy from carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Such changes occur not only when potatoes are processed industrially, but also when they are prepared in home kitchens.

During the production of fried potato products, there is a loss of vitamins and an increase in fat content.

Using optimized manufacturing methods, the increase in fat content in Flensted products is limited to between 1 and 5 g per 100 g, depending on the product type.

At the same time, oils with a high content of unsaturated fat are used for deep-frying.