You’re sat in a pub, looking for a healthy alternative. Then it hits you - the jacket potato. Perfect!

For years, this fat free vegetable has been a staple part of our diets, sometimes making it’s way into two of our three meals a day. Whether it be boiled, baked or fried, potatoes in all their varieties are everywhere.

If we stop considering the fat for a moment, and look at the ability this vegetable has in spiking our blood sugar, it’s top of the naughty list. In fact, a potato can spike your blood glucose more than a teaspoon of sugar!

So aside from that, why is this recipe a real disaster?

• Potato - Carbohydrate
• Beans - Carbohydrate
• Bean Sauce - Carbohydrate (sugar)
• Cheese - Fat

Combining high carb and high fat ingredients on a plate is effectively serving up weight gain. Your body will inevitably look to store this meal as fat because unless you’ve just done an hour of very high intense exercise, it doesn’t need all that energy. Especially if you have a sedentary, desk-based job. It’s very likely to make you feel heavy, tired and sluggish. And we thought we were making the healthy informed judgement by choosing to have a spud for lunch!

But there is hope…

Sweet potato has much less of an impact on blood sugar, tastes a little sweeter and makes arguably better chips (with coconut oil). It’s still a high carb option, so best to be had around activity, but much less detrimental than it’s white cousin.

Watch those potatoes, they’re everywhere!