Potatoes provide potassium and small amounts of thiamine, niacin and folate with relatively few calories. While greasy, fried potato snacks like French fries, potato wedges and potato chips are less than ideal food choices, mashed potatoes give you a healthy way to indulge in comfort food. The way you prepare your mashed potatoes can also make them more compatible with your diabetic diet.
Potatoes as Starches
Although the potato is a vegetable, it falls into the starch food group in the diabetic exchange system. Each exchange, or serving, of starch foods contains about 15 g carbohydrates, note MayoClinic.com health experts. The starch group includes grains, bread, beans and starchy vegetables like corn, squash and potatoes. By comparison, foods in the non-starchy vegetable group contain only 5 g carbohydrates per exchange. Examples include spinach, cabbage, zucchini, broccoli and cucumbers. When you're managing diabetes, controlling your carbohydrate intake is important because carbohydrates have a significant effect on your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels.
Starch Exchanges
A 1/2-cup serving of mashed potatoes counts as one starch exchange. The number of starch exchanges you can eat daily depends on your required daily calorie intake. If you require 1,500 calories daily, you may need eight starch exchanges every day. If you need 2,000 calories, though, 11 exchanges may be appropriate for you. To learn the ideal number of starch and other food exchanges for you, talk with your health care provider.
Visual Cues
Visually dividing your plate into sections for different food groups is another way to balance your diabetic diet. Half your breakfast plate may be starches, such as mashed potatoes, but starches should cover only one quarter of your lunch and dinner plates, experts from the American Diabetes Society advise. An exchange of mashed potatoes, or 1/2 cup, is approximately the size of one rounded handful. Depending on your calorie needs, a large bowl of mashed potatoes, or 1 1/2 cups, may provide around half your daily starch allowance.
Healthier Mashed Potatoes
Yellow potatoes like Yukon gold or yellow Finn are ideal for mashing, suggest
University of Idaho health experts, because their buttery look and flavor allows you to use less margarine. If you flavor your mashed potatoes, choose fat-free milk and trans-fat-free margarine. For a change, try mashed sweet potatoes. These vitamin-rich vegetables have a lower glycemic index, or GI, than regular potatoes, meaning they won't raise your blood sugar as quickly. Replacing some of the potatoes with mashed cauliflower is another way to add variety while lowering the carbohydrate content of your meal.
References
- MayoClinic.cin: Diabetes: Exchange List: Starches
- MayoClinic.com: Diabetes: Exchange List: Nonstarchy Vegetables
- Joslin Diabetes Center: Carbohydrate Counting 101
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Diabetes Diet--Diabetic Exchange Lists
- American Diabetes Association: Create Your Plate
- Baylor College of Medicine: Visual Aids Make 'Portion Sense'
