This vegetable, which many people love to eat, is really not recommended to be eaten with rice, because...

Potatoes are a classic "side dish" that goes well with rice. Whether it's the crispy vinegar-fried potato shreds, the spicy dry-pot potato chips, or the soft and glutinous braised potato cubes, they are all mouth-watering.

But recently, the saying " potatoes and rice cannot be eaten together " has emerged, which has attracted everyone's attention. This has made many people who like potatoes wonder: After eating this delicious combination for so many years, how come it is suddenly labeled "unhealthy"?

Image source: Weibo screenshot

So potatoes and rice really can't be eaten together?

Let me first say the conclusion: potatoes and rice can be eaten together, but it is really not recommended . First of all, potatoes are high in carbohydrates and calories. Secondly, eating potatoes + rice for a long time is likely to lead to nutrient deficiencies. From the perspective of major nutrients, potatoes and rice are relatively similar, so it may be more reasonable to treat potatoes as a "staple food". If potatoes and rice are to be eaten together, we can eat less rice.

Why potatoes and rice?

Not recommended to eat together?

1

Potatoes are high in carbohydrates and should be considered a "staple food"

Spicy and sour potato shreds, we often eat potatoes as a dish, but in fact, potatoes should be considered a staple food ! Let's try to compare the main nutrients of potatoes, rice and other vegetables:

Data from "Chinese Food Composition Table Standard Edition" (6th Edition, Volume 1)

It can be seen that potatoes are very different from other vegetables. Not only are they high in carbohydrates, but they also have much higher calories than ordinary vegetables . Compared with pumpkins, which can also be used in cooking and "replace" some staple foods, potatoes have three times more carbohydrates and calories. If compared with other green leafy vegetables and melon and eggplant vegetables, the calories and carbohydrate content of potatoes are several times higher.

When we compare potatoes with rice, we find that not only are the contents of several major nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein, and fat, similar, but the calories are also at the same level - even steamed potatoes have 60% of the calories of rice . This shows that it is more reasonable to compare potatoes as a staple food to "vegetables".

2

Potatoes + rice have a single nutritional value, and long-term consumption can lead to nutritional deficiencies

From the perspective of nutritional provision, in addition to the fact that the vitamin C (high-temperature cooking will also destroy some vitamin C) and potassium content in potatoes is higher than that in rice, steamed buns, and noodles, the nutrients provided by the combination of potatoes + rice are almost the same as those of rice + noodles or rice + steamed buns.

For modern urbanites who generally lack the intake of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, the combination of potatoes and rice obviously cannot ensure a comprehensive nutritional supply compared to rice with green leafy vegetables and mushrooms. Eating like this all the time is likely to lead to nutrient deficiencies, and then cause a series of sub-health conditions .

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3

High in calories, increases blood sugar, and increases the risk of obesity and diabetes

From the perspective of disease prevention, the combination of potatoes and rice has higher calories than other vegetables and rice. The steamed potatoes and baked potatoes listed in the table above are both low-fat and low-calorie healthy cooking methods, while stir-fried potato shreds, roasted potato cubes, fried potatoes, etc. used to pair with rice have higher fat content and calories.

As shown in the picture, a medium portion of spicy and sour potato shreds has a calorie content of about 136 kcal/100 g, which is higher than a 100 g portion of rice!

Image source: Pre-packaged spicy and sour potato shreds from a certain brand on an e-commerce platform

Friends who love to eat potatoes should be wary of this combination of "carbohydrate + carbohydrate + fat", which are all inconspicuous calorie "bombs". Not only will it cause a rapid rise in blood sugar after a meal, making people tired and sleepy; eating like this for a long time will also increase the risk of diabetes and obesity .

Potatoes are relatively simple in nutrition as vegetables

But there are many benefits of making it a staple food

Seeing this, some friends may change their previous friendly impression of potatoes and prepare to put them into the cold palace. Don't worry, you have to look at both sides of everything. Although potatoes are not suitable to be eaten as vegetables with rice, as long as they are switched to the staple food track, the nutritional advantages of potatoes will be highlighted.

1

High in vitamin C, unlike staple foods

Staple foods such as rice and pasta usually do not contain vitamin C, but potatoes are a clear winner in this regard: the vitamin C content of steamed potatoes can reach 30 mg/100 g, which is four times that of pumpkin. Even baked potatoes contain 15 mg/100 g of vitamin C.

Although the content is not as high as some green leafy vegetables, it is several times or even dozens of times higher than pumpkin, wax gourd and other melon and eggplant vegetables, as well as mushrooms such as button mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. For those who like to eat staple foods and eat less green leafy vegetables and fruits, eating some steamed potatoes can supplement vitamin C and help improve the body's antioxidant capacity .

2

The potassium content is dozens of times that of rice and pasta

Potatoes are very high in potassium, with steamed potatoes containing 484 mg/100 g of potassium, 16 times more than rice and 32 times more than noodles (15 mg/100 g). It is even nearly twice as high as some recognized high-potassium foods, such as bananas (256 mg/100 g)!

For friends with high blood pressure, this is really a natural blood pressure-lowering food. In summer, the temperature is high, people sweat a lot, and potassium is lost a lot. If you can add some steamed potatoes to your three meals, it can effectively supplement potassium and lower blood pressure.

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Eating potatoes this way is healthier

Some friends may start to wonder, saying that potatoes are not good with rice, while others say that potatoes have advantages, so how should they be eaten?

Strictly speaking, with just a slight adjustment to the potato + rice combination, not only can you avoid problems such as increased calorie intake, rapid rise in blood sugar after meals, and obesity, but you can also turn it into a healthy meal for weight loss and blood sugar control!

The key here is to turn potatoes from a side dish into a substitute for the staple food.

1

Replace some staple foods with potatoes

In 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture wanted to promote the implementation of the strategy of making potatoes the staple food, making potatoes one of the four major staple foods. So we can try to replace 1/3 or 1/2 of the rice with potatoes in daily life, so that we can reduce the total calorie intake when consuming the same weight of staple food. Moreover, this method is not complicated to operate. You only need to put clean and peeled potatoes into the steamed rice and steam them together.

For example, if you replace a bowl of 200 grams of rice with 100 grams of rice + 100 grams of steamed potatoes, the calorie intake can be reduced from 232 kcal to 185 kcal. The calorie reduction is roughly equivalent to brisk walking of nearly 2,000 steps.

2

Refrigerate potatoes and rice until they are cool before eating

When the temperature drops to about 4 degrees Celsius, some of the starch in potatoes and rice will undergo a "aging and regeneration" phenomenon, forming resistant starch. The digestion and absorption rate of resistant starch is much lower than that of the gelatinized starch in hot rice and hot potatoes.

This means that eating foods high in resistant starch can improve the rate at which blood sugar rises after meals, maintain blood sugar levels stable, and reduce the risk of diabetes .

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At the same time, the presence of resistant starch greatly increases the feeling of fullness after eating, which naturally reduces the total amount of food intake, reduces calorie intake, and is also beneficial for weight loss . Some studies have also found that resistant starch can help improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

In addition, resistant starch can be fermented by the flora in the intestines, which helps probiotics to work and improve intestinal health . Although reheating will cause some resistant starch to disappear, as long as the temperature is not too high, some resistant starch can still be retained to help lose weight and control blood sugar.

It should be emphasized that if you want potatoes to have the above health effects, you should cook them without oil and with less water. Potatoes absorb a lot of oil, and once they are fried or stir-fried, the heat rises instantly; the purpose of processing with less water is to reduce the presence of water, inhibit starch gelatinization, and increase the content of resistant starch. For example, oil-free baking in an air fryer, microwave baking, and steaming all have lower water content than boiled potatoes.

These look like "vegetables", but they are actually "staple foods"

There are many common foods that look like "vegetables" but are actually staple foods. If you fail to identify them in time, you may end up eating a double-carb combination of "staple food + staple food" due to improper pairing.

When eating the following vegetables that are more like staple foods, you should pay attention to reducing some of the staple food in order to achieve the goal of controlling calorie intake and preventing obesity and diabetes.

1

sweet potato

The carbohydrate content of sweet potatoes reaches 20.1 grams/100 grams, and the calories are as high as 86 kcal/100 grams, which is higher than that of potatoes.

If it is made into dishes, such as candied sweet potatoes or fried sweet potato balls, the calories will be higher, and the fat and sugar content will also increase greatly. When eating these dishes, be sure to remember to reduce the amount of staple food.

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2

Taro, yam

The carbohydrate content of taro is 12.7 g/100 g, and the calorie content is 56 kcal/100 g; the carbohydrate content of yam is 12.4 g/100 g, and the calorie content is 57 kcal/100 g. Although slightly lower than that of potatoes, it should not be underestimated.

For example, the delicious dish of fried taro is not only fried, but also uses a lot of white sugar, which is a calorie bomb. When eating this dish, not only should the staple food be reduced, but also other dishes should be as light as possible and low in oil.

3

Lotus root, pumpkin

The carbohydrate content of lotus root is also not low, which is 16 grams/100 grams, and the calories are 66 kcal/100 grams; the carbohydrate content of ordinary pumpkin is 5.3 grams/100 grams, and the calories are 23 kcal/100 grams.

It should be noted that pumpkin varieties with a drier texture, such as baby pumpkin, have carbohydrates as high as 20.6 grams per 100 grams and calories as high as 78 kcal per 100 grams, and can definitely be used as a staple food.

Just imagine, if you eat glutinous rice with osmanthus and lotus root, or pumpkin baked with salted egg yolk and rice, how many calories would you consume?

After clarifying these, we know that it’s not that potatoes cannot be paired with rice. As long as the pairing idea is right, potatoes are still a good pairing with rice!

References

[1] Zhu Ping, Kong Xiangli, Bao Jinsong. Research progress on the application and efficacy of resistant starch in food[J]. Nuclear Agricultural News, 2015, 29(02): 327-336.

[2]Ni Y, Qian L, Siliceo SL, Long X, et al. Resistant starch decreases intrahepatic triglycerides in patients with NAFLD via gut microbiome alterations. Cell Metab. 2023 Sep 5;35(9):1530-1547.

Planning and production

Author: Wang Lu, registered dietitian

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

Planning丨Wang Mengru

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin

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