Do you eat potatoes with or without skin?

[ImanAlAulaqi]

This is my first whole30 and I'm only on day 4 however my runs haven't been easy the last 4 days after reading a few posts I realized many people recommended starchy veggies such as sweet potatoes.

 

So I'm thinking of adding potatoes to dinner but can I eat it with the skin? I love the skin but can't remember where I once read that the skin isn't healthy and should be removed before eating the potato.

 

So for those who eat white/ or sweet potatoes during your whole30 do you peel the skin or keep it? And is it a rule to not eat the skin or it's fine to eat it? 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tom Denham]

I've done both. With sweet potatoes, I have tended to eat the potato first and then eat the skin too if I am still hungry. I chop up red potatoes with the skin, but am not a fan of the skin of baking potatoes.

[littleg]

I've read both schools of thought - the vitamins/minerals are in the skin and the skin is meant to protect so its got the "toxic" chemicals.  Personally, I peel - better safe than sorry - I'll get my nutrients elsewhere  

[Sleeve]

The thing about skin is phytates.  They're called anti-nutrients because they bond with nutrients in the vegetable to create things that our digestive system no longer recognizes as usable or decomposable into usable things.

 

However, for something like a potato, the nutrient to phytate ratio is so low that you get plenty of net bioavailability.  There's just too much yum for the skin to marry.

[DarlingSnail]

I'll eat the skin of white potatoes but I'm not a fan of the texture of sweet potatoes skin. 

[ladydeevious]

When people say sweet potatoes they usually mean yhe the orange one but that is a yam. A real sweet potatoe is white and delicious but I dont eat the skin...so when refering to sweet potatoes is it really the yam that everyone is referencing?

[Sleeve]

Yams and sweet potatoes are nutritionally different, with the latter more dense.  The sweet potatoes in my chain supermarket and at Whole Foods are orange.  It is really common to think of these as yams.

 

Yams are higher in potassium, while sweet potatoes have a megadose of beta carotene convertible to vitamin A and are about 20% lower in calories.

 

This sums it up:  http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/difference-between-yam-and-sweet-potato/