Heart Friendly Yellow Potatoes

The big issue for most diets isalways how to fit in a safe load of carbohydrates.  Potatoes were already a little touchy and nowwe find a solid reason to use them instead of other carb options.  In fact it is a great reason and reallyunexpected.

Purple potatoes are not commonlyavailable but the yellows certainly are and will be more so as consumers switchto take advantage of this feature. Besides they actually taste better as a plated serving.

This is great news for potatolovers who like a regular serving and certainly will be better that polishedwhite rice as a diet component.

Mash This Kind of Potato to Baby Your Heart

By RealAge

http://www.realage.com/tips/anti-inflammatory-foods-yukon-gold-potatoes?eid=1098945007&memberid=14418348

Potatoes sometimes get a bad health rap. But new research shows thatcertain varieties may help quiet inflammatory processes that set the stage fordisease.

Specifically, researchers recently sang the praises of potatoes withyellow flesh -- like YukonGold. In a small study of men, eating a cup of yellow potatoes every day for 6weeks helped lower blood levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), a compound thatpromotes inflammation.

Inflammation Overload

Inflammatory cycles go something like this: First, free radicals in your body-- generated by stress, illness, pollutants, and normal everyday body processes-- start to damage cells and tissues. In response, your body releases IL-6 tohelp corral and neutralize some of those free radicals. But chronically highlevels of IL-6 can up your risk of inflammation-related diseases. Enter,potatoes. Research suggests that antioxidants in yellow potatoes -- likephenols and carotenoids -- may help fight the out-of-control inflammation thatmakes you susceptible to a wide range of illnesses, from heart disease tocancer.

Top Tater

Purple potatoes seemed to be beneficial, too. In the study, adult men up to age40 ate a cup of boiled potatoes every day for 6 weeks. The men who ate yellowpotatoes had lower levels of IL-6 and exhibited less DNA damage compared withthe men who ate white potatoes. Purple-potato eaters had lower levels of adifferent inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein, compared with white-potatoeaters. Researchers suspect the rich pigments in colored potatoes help protectcells, tissue, and DNA from the free radical injuries that initiateinflammation.