Potatoes - carb value

Hey Jude, (Is that a song?)

I have the Carbs and Cals, A Visual Guide and 120g = 20gCarbs. The picture shows about a tablespoon of mash. It is a book worth buying because you can actually see the amount on a plate.

Mashed potato definitely has carbs in it! We use 16g of carbs for every 100g of mash dished up.

I dont eat mashed potato, never have really, but I was told that the mashing constitutes processing, therefore mashed potato hits your blood quicker than jacket or boiled new potatoes. The same as squeezed orange juice is worse than a whole orange, It kind of makes sense to me but I dont know if it is true, as I say I never eat mash and I dont drink OJ any more although I do eat oranges.

I suppose if you find it hits the bloodstream too quickly you could mix in some cheddar cheese, the fat content would slow it down a bit. Or mixing in mashed butternut squash will also lower the carb value. But do your teeth not mash other forms of potato when you chew your food? I can understand that the low carbers don't eat mash, like most other high carb foods, but my daughter manages fine with them as her insulin covers it well. Mash is always eaten with something else like a casserole so it all mixes up with other food making the absorbtion of the mash slower.

Floury potato varieties with more starch in are used genereally for mashing. I believe that cooking at high temp and a vigorous mashing process breaks down some of the chains of starch, making it much more quickly absorbed and thus raising the GI. Your saliva and chewing will start to do this, but not as efficiently. If you use a potato ricer this apparently keeps more of the starch intact and slows down absorption, also don't overboil potatoes - this makes horrible mash and raises the GI.