Eat Your Potatoes Mashed, Boiled or Baked, but Hold the Fries | Harvard Magazine
Limiting potato intake —especially in the form of French fries—is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to a new Harvard study that offers the most comprehensive findings to date on potatoes and T2D.
The study, led by professor of epidemiology and nutrition Walter Willett and postdoctoral research fellow Seyed Mohammad Mousavi, found that three servings of French fries weekly were associated with a 20 percent higher risk of developing T2D. Although they found no association between consuming baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes and increased risk of T2D, replacing potatoes altogether with whole grain sources of carbohydrates—including whole grain pasta, bread, or farro—lowered the risk of developing T2D by 4 percent. Substituting whole grains for French fries lowered the risk of developing T2D by 19 percent; even replacing refined grains like white bread, pita, or rice with whole grains, the study found, lowers T2D risk.
“We’re shifting the conversation from ‘Are potatoes good or bad?’ to a more nuanced—and useful—question,” said Mousavi. “How are they prepared, and what might we eat instead?” Their study is the first to examine the health effects of replacing potatoes with other foods in a diet.
