Myth busted: Potatoes help fight BP sans weight gain

Myth busted: Potatoes help fight BP sans weight gain
Times of India
Sep 2, 2011

LONDON: Potatoes are generally discarded by most people as fatty food.But, a new study now claims that eating spuds daily can help lower your blood pressure; and moreover, there is also no weight gain involved.In the study, researchers fed 18 volunteers six to eight spuds twice a day.

Most of those taking part were overweight or obese and on pills to lower blood pressure.And, the spuds used were purple ones cooked unpeeled in a microwave.But researchers believe that redskin potatoes and white potatoes may have similar effects.

After a month, the upper of their blood pressure reading when blood is pumped with each beat of the heart, was down by 3.5%.Diastolic or the lower readings decreased by 4.3%.In addition, none of the volunteers put on any weight, the Daily Mail reported.

"Mention 'potato' and people think 'fattening, high carbs, empty calories'.We hope our research helps to remake potato's popular nutritional image," lead researcher Dr Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania was quoted as saying.

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