Cycling Nutrition: White Vs. Sweet Potatoes

Which potato is best?

April 30, 2010

"Want fries with that?" Hell yeah, you do. In fact, the potato--whether it's gussied up into fries, humbly baked or mashed into creamy goodness--is a cyclist's buddy. It's full of carbs, vitamins and essential minerals like potassium and manganese, and recent studies show that potatoes play host to quercetin and kukoamines, which you've never heard of, but which have tremendous blood-pressure-lowering potential, and aren't commonly found in foods.



But there's something you may not know about your basic white spud: It ranks very high on the glycemic index, which is a measure of how fast a food is converted to sugar in your body. Foods that are high on the glycemic index provide quick energy hits (think sugar and other sweeteners), but can leave you running on empty as your blood sugar crashes.


That's why Kelli Jennings, a registered dietitian and endurance athlete from Crested Butte, Colorado, fancies sweet potatoes. "I don't want to make a villain out of white potatoes, but like most orange vegetables and fruits, sweets are high in beta-carotene, an important antioxidant that aids recovery. And because they're high in fiber, they won't spike your blood sugar like whites," she says. In fact, sweet potatoes hit the glycemic index at about 50, while some whites spike to the 90s, even higher than table sugar.


That's not to say white potatoes don't have their place. In fact, Jennings recommends them for on-bike noshing because they provide such an immediate energy hit. But for general face stuffing, Jennings says it's time to go orange. "For day-to-day eating, there's no question sweet potatoes have the advantage," she says. "They're actually one of the healthiest things you can eat."