Can I Eat Potatoes on the Daniel Fast?

You’re wondering if you can eat potatoes on the Daniel Fast. Like life, a potato is what you make it. Potatoes have a Jekyll and Hyde personality: they are associated with some of the unhealthiest foods but if treated right they’re a nutritional powerhouse. 

Stay on the potato’s good side

Potatoes have been given a bad rap, but for all the wrong reasons. Think they’re “bad carbs”? It’s true that all carbs are not created equal, but in fact potatoes are extremely healthy. Starting with the pure healthy naked potato, it’s all about what you do to it.

On the Daniel Fast, you can eat all the potatoes you want. Potatoes are one of the healthiest foods on the planet, but that depends on how you prepare them. Boiling, baking, air frying, or roasting your potatoes without oil are preparations that keep the nutritional integrity while remaining compliant to the Daniel Fast.

Avoid the dark side

The potato is not Daniel Fast-compliant once you start to process it too much. Avoid the unhealthy side of potatoes—which includes things like French fries prepared in oil, tator tots, potato chips, or that baked potato topped with butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon bits.

A bushel of benefits

Potatoes are the holy grail of food when it comes to satiety. They’re packed with fiber, which can help you stay full for longer periods of time—and that can also aid in weight loss. Consider making a simple brothy potato soup to serve before your meal: studies have shown this aids in weight loss too. Throw it in the blender for a comforting, creamy starter with no dairy at all.

Potatoes are packed with many vitamins and minerals, like the potassium that can help with blood pressure, vitamin C, magnesium, and folate, to name a few. Be sure to eat the entire potato because the skin carries most of the nutrients. Check out this delicious Steakhouse Style Garlic Mashed Potatoes that includes the potato skins.  

Potatoes are also a great source of antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. This is why eating potatoes and other nutritionally rich foods improves your health. Check out the article, What Does the Daniel Fast Do to Your Body?

Potatoes can also improve blood sugar levels because they contain resistant starch, a special type of starch. Resistant starch aids in feeding the good bacteria in the gut and improves digestion.

Treat them right, they’ll treat you right

Beyond all the nutritional benefits, potatoes are delicious, cheap, versatile, and easy to prepare.  They have a very wide range in the kitchen. You can eat them on their own or add them to a hearty breakfast burrito, or a give them a tasty “cheese” sauce. When in doubt what to eat, you can always turn to a potato to get you over that hump.