Ensuring everyone in your family eats healthy and nutritious meals isn’t an easy feat, especially when everyone’s dietary requirements may be different. While I’m pretty satisfied with a big bowl of salad, I have a very athletic husband who tries to eat clean and stay healthy in his forties but has much different (and larger) nutritional requirements than me, and a very active toddler boy with a healthy appetite who I continuously need to fuel.
While the standard fare of meat and potatoes to feed growing boys (and men) has been shunned over the past few years due to the low-carb and keto craze, there are valid reasons why Creamer potatoes should be reestablished as part of a healthy, balanced diet filled with greens, veggies, and fruits, lean meats and proteins and healthy fats—especially for those important men in your life. Men’s Health Month doesn’t have to just be one month long!
Creamer Potatoes Make the Perfect Pre-Workout Snack
What you fuel with before your workout makes all the difference in the effort you put out during your workout. Complex carbohydrates are a critical part of this equation. Complex carbs are slow releasing so will sustain you through the duration of your workout versus causing you to burn out half way through. When these complex carbs are digested, they store in your muscles (and liver) as glycogen. Your body relies on these glycogen stores to carry you through your workout. Creamer potatoes make the perfect bite-size snack for your child to munch on before his soccer game, or for your husband to pack in his gym bag to snack on before he hits the gym.
Creamer potatoes are also rich in potassium. Potassium aids in muscle function and fluid balance helping to sustain a workout, sporting activity, bike ride or the daily life of an active toddler! One serving of Creamer potatoes contains more potassium than one banana.
Creamer Potatoes Contain Nutrients Essential for the Health of Growing Boys and Men
While many health-conscious men may shy away from carbs (especially those refined carbs, with good reason), potatoes should be excluded from this category. Creamer potatoes are a vegetable (yes, vegetable) loaded in vitamins, minerals, and key nutrients essential for men’s health. They are a great source of vitamin C. Vitamin C helps to speed up wound healing—those cuts and injuries that seem to happen quite frequently with boys—helps to prevent heat stroke on those hot days and is a powerful antioxidant essential for the health of aging men. They also contain calcium which is essential for growing boys and are high in fiber.
Fiber is a Man’s Best Friend
Fiber has your back. It’s the card you keep up your sleeve, the card you play to win. And that’s because it has more touchdowns than the winning team at the .
Fiber contributes to a balanced diet by:
- keeping you full on fewer calories
- keeping your boys regular and prevents constipation
- helping to prevent childhood obesity,
- helping prevent weight gain and obesity in men,
- helping to balance blood sugar levels,
- managing energy levels and mood,
- sweeps away bad cholesterol, which reduces risk of cardiovascular disease.
You can only get fiber from plant-based foods and Creamer potatoes are a plant-based food. Men are required to eat at least 38 grams of fiber per day. That’s 13 grams more than what women require (at 25 grams). So men, fiber up!
Creamer Potatoes Contribute to a Healthy Heart
A man’s blood pressure often increases in his thirties due to stress. In order to reduce hypertension, one must increase the amount of potassium they consume, relative to sodium. One serving of Creamer potatoes (roughly 5 to 6 potatoes) contains 650 to 680mg of potassium, depending on the variety. This is roughly 20% of the Daily Recommended Intake and are naturally sodium-free. Getting enough potassium from your diet and reducing sodium intake helps to ease and lower systolic blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Adding Little potatoes to your family’s diet is great way to keep the boys in your life healthy and happy! Happy Men’s Health Month!