You may be overwhelmed by the starch choices available when trying to manage your diabetic diet. When you want to make the best choice, understanding the benefits and nutritional impact is important. Red potatoes and russet potatoes have distinctive characteristics and different carbohydrate content. The individual flavors make each one best suited to different applications.
Red Potato Nutrition Information
Red potatoes come in many sizes, all with the characteristic red skin. A 1-cup serving of red potatoes contains 134 calories and less than 1 g of fat. A serving has 33.89 g of carbohydrates, with only 2.5 g of sugar and less than 10 mg of sodium. Red potatoes contain 3 g of fiber and also contribute potassium, choline and vitamin C in each serving.
Russet Potato Nutrition Information
Russet potatoes are a traditional brown potato, also sometimes referred to as a baking potato. A medium russet potato contains 160 calories with no fat. Russet potatoes have 15 mg of sodium. The 37 g of carbohydrates in a medium sized russet potato includes 2 g of sugar. Russet potatoes provide an equal amount of vitamin C in comparison to red potatoes, but have an additional 6 percent of your daily recommended allowance of iron compared to a serving of red potatoes.
Comparison
When you are selecting a starch with a lower glycemic impact, red potatoes have fewer carbohydrates and absorb more slowly than higher starch russet potatoes. Diabetes makes you more susceptible to blood pressure and cardiac problems, so choose red potatoes if your doctor has recommended that you limit your sodium intake.
Recommendations
Red and russet potatoes retain the majority of the vitamins and nutrients within the skin, so serve your potatoes with the skin on to gain the most nutritional benefit for the carbohydrate impact. Limit the added toppings to salsa, low-fat cheese, vegetables and low-fat yogurt in place of sour cream to reduce the fat and cholesterol impact, which is important in a diabetic meal plan.
