Some foods are considered bad for maintaining a healthy diet but are actually essential to have in your diet as you’re missing out on some important nutrients.
Some foods might be considered “bad” for your health, but the truth is some of these foods are actually healthy and important to incorporate into your regular diet. You may have heard otherwise but we set the facts straight on foods deemed “bad” that are actually important in your diet.
White potatoes are a common vegetable that is also a starch with a low nutritional value that simply isn’t true. One baked potato is 164 calories that are rich in magnesium, vitamin C, calcium, vitamins, twice the potassium of a banana (950 mg), protein (4.5 g), and fiber (4 g). On the glycemic index (GI), russet potatoes have a high GI value compared to new and red potatoes have moderate GI values.
Food presenting low GI values is preferred as these are slowly absorbed and digested resulting in a slower, smaller rise in blood sugar levels. The GI index drops in nutritional value when the potatoes are cooled meaning it is best to eat potatoes cooled down like a potato salad. Potatoes retain more nutrients during cooking steamed, baked, or roasted potatoes.
Pasta is another food that gets a bad reputation as being a food that promotes weight gain when it can help with weight loss in certain diets. The Mediterranean diet is associated with lower waist size and body mass index with pasta incorporated into the diet.
White pasta is made using semolina flour that is low on the GI scale and with some marinara pasta sauce is a great source of lycopene that is an antioxidant to guard against heart disease and certain types of cancer.It’s recommended to maintain proper portion sizes serving with a side dish with vegetables and proteins. You can also eat whole grain noodles for a rich source of antioxidants, fiber, and minerals.
Eggs are commonly seen as being too high in cholesterol and are often replaced with egg whites. Egg yolk has approximately 190 mg of cholesterol for a large egg that has no to little effect on cholesterol levels.
Skipping out on egg yolk is tossing away half the protein of an egg that is also rich in brain-friendly choline, B vitamins, vitamin A, and selenium. The egg yolk also enhances the body’s absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (D, E, K) and antioxidants like lycopene, beta-carotene, and lutein.