It’s not too late to have a tot girl summer.
Potatoes, egg yolks and full-fat dairy top the list of “bad” foods Toronto-based registered dietitian Abbey Sharp wants you to try.
“Diet culture loves to demonize these foods but they can actually be pretty good for you!” Sharp captioned her Thursday TikTok.
Potatoes
Potatoes have earned a poor reputation because they have a lot of carbs. Plus, they can quickly turn unhealthy when you deep fry ’em, salt ’em or dump butter on ’em.
“Potatoes do not inherently make you gain weight,” Sharp argued.
She insists that they are a good source of potassium, vitamin C and vitamin B6.
They’re naturally free of fat and cholesterol, though they do contain resistant starch. It’s a type of fiber that’s difficult to digest but can help regulate blood sugar and may help prevent obesity, colon cancer and diabetes.
Potatoes are also very filling. Sharp cited research from 1995 that tracked how satisfied people felt after consuming 38 different foods. Boiled potatoes came out on top, being seven times more filling than the lowest-scoring food, croissants.
If you find this news appeeling, the American Heart Association recommends baking, broiling or steaming potatoes and leaving the skin on because that’s where the fiber is concentrated.
Reach for dill, oregano, fresh chives, onion powder, garlic powder or plain yogurt instead of salt and sour cream.
Egg yolks
You could always pair your potatoes with egg yolks for lighter-fare mashed potatoes or duchess potatoes.
“For too long I feel that diet culture has painted egg yolks, specifically, as these fatty cholesterol bombs that will harden your arteries overnight,” Sharp said.
A large egg yolk has 200 milligrams of cholesterol, but as Sharp points out, “now we know that dietary cholesterol doesn’t actually impact our blood cholesterol.”
Harvard University reports that the biggest influence on blood cholesterol — a marker of heart disease and stroke risk — is not the amount of dietary cholesterol you eat, but rather the fats and carbohydrates you consume.
Sharp says that egg yolks boast key nutrients like vitamin D and choline, which is important for brain and nervous system function, and they contain up to half the protein of the entire egg.
If you do decide to yolk it up, the Cleveland Clinic says it’s generally OK to eat a whole egg, including the yolk, each day.
Full-fat dairy
And finally, Sharp praised full-fat fermented dairy products like yogurt for having conjugated linoleic acid, which may improve insulin sensitivity and decrease body fat; butyrate, which is good for gut health; and gangliosides, which are crucial for brain development.
“Recent research has also found no association with full-fat dairy and cardiovascular disease while other research has found that full-fat dairy may actually reduce the risk of obesity and weight gain,” Sharp said.
Harvard recommends pairing low-fat dairy with full-fat dairy, like a glass of 1% or skim milk and a full-fat yogurt.
“I feel like we have a lot of unlearning to do,” Sharp concluded her TikTok, referencing “bad-for-you” foods.
