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by Marion Nestle
Oct
21
2024
Industry-funded study of the week: again, potatoes
Potatoes, a source of rapidly absorbable starch, have such a bad reputation that some nutritionists advise against eating them. I am not one of them. I enjoy eating potatoes and think their blood sugar-raising effects depend on how they are prepared and how muh of them you eat.
The potato industry, alarmed about advice not to eat potatoes, funds research to prove they are healthy, or at least do no harm. Hence:
Djousse L, Zhou X, Lim J, Kim E, Sesso HD, Lee IM, Buring JE, McClelland RL, Gaziano JM, Steffen LM, Manson JE. Potato Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Harmonized Analysis of 7 Prospective Cohorts. J Nutr. 2024 Oct;154(10):3079-3087. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.07.020.
- Results: In the primary analysis, total potato intake was not associated with T2D risk:…In secondary analyses, consumption of combined baked, boiled, and mashed potatoes was not associated with T2D risk, whereas fried potato consumption was positively associated with T2D risk:.
- Conclusions: Although consumption of total potato is not associated with T2D risk, a modest elevated risk of T2D is observed with fried potato consumption.
- Conflict of interest: LD received investigator-initiated grant from the Alliance for Potato Research and Education (as principal investigator).
- Funding: This project was supported by a grant from the Alliance Potato Research and Education (principal investigator: LD). A lengthy list of other funders, including NIH and Mars Edge, follows.
Comment: This potato industry-funded study did not find potatoes to be associated with type 2 diabetes, which must be a huge relief to this industry. But the study did find a weak association (barely statistically significant) beween fried potatoes and type 2 diabetes. The Potato Alliance ought to be delighted with this result. I’m guessing the result is real (it’s what I would have predicted), but I’d be happier with it if it had been conducted by investigators independent of industry funding. As it is, it looks like the potato industry got what it paid for.