Thread: Any love for the common 'tater?

Originally Posted by Gordo

It seems that sweet potato seems to be more favoured than a regular spud. Is it simply due to starch content?
I know the sweet potato is more favoured during, say a cut, but is there really any reason to avoid a regular potato on a bulk?

It usually comes down to their GI - Regular potato's have a very high GI (up to around 100 in some cases!) while sweet tato is a lot lower...

But it really needs to be taking into context and in my opnion people get far too concerned about the GI of potato... Once you combine it in a meal with some fats, fibre and lean protein, the total glycaemic load and index of the meal decreases substantially... and it is not going to be such an issue..

Also, potato has a pretty high satiety rating - which means that it will help to keep you full and this will help with cutting...

But people think 'odd' things when... eg: many people avoid things with 'sugar' in them while cutting (eg: fruit, dairy) but sweet tato has LOTS of sugar in it and they will happily eat them.. and then the will add dextrose to the shakes too... Anyway...

It basically comes down to being sensible and eating the correct amount of calories, protein, healthy fats and fibre and then using carbohyrates as required for your goals, genetics and training routine...

And yes - The GI of the food should be considered - but it is certainly not the 'be all and end all' of carbs!! Things like snickers bars have low GIs while things like watermelon have really high GIs.... So does that mean you'll get cut if you don't eat watermelon and chow down on snickers?!

Anyway - there are other things to think about with carbs - first and formost it is the level you are eating and the times at which this is occuring... then think about things like fibre content, glycaemic load, satiety rating, insulin index.... They are usually more important than the GI alone.

Plus, if you think about it, the GI has only been around for a few years... Old-school BB used to chow down on 'real spuds' when cutting and they still got lean...


With that said - I usually recommend sweet tato (actually I recommend yam - which is completely different)... Some people trying to lose weight (especially those with lots of abdominal fat) will usually have glucose resistance issues (or the early stages diabetes) and lower GI/GL foods become particularly relavent in their cases. Also, sweet tato has a slightly better vitamins/mineral/phyto-nutrient content (eg: higher vit A level)...

So anyway - Eating them on a bulk is certainly ok! If you want to eat them on a cut (if you like them better than regular sweet tato) then try them - just combine them in appropriate portions with appropriate proteins, fats and fibre...