Is Potato Bread Healthy?

You can make potato bread using mashed potatoes or by replacing some of the regular flour with potato flour or potato flakes. Either way, the potatoes boost the overall nutritional value, making it comparable to whole-wheat bread for fiber and nutrients such as zinc and iron. Potato bread has about the same calories and protein, but it provides significantly more potassium than either white or whole-wheat bread.

You will get about the same calories, carbs and protein whether you prefer potato, white or whole-wheat bread. One slice of potato bread has 85 calories, which is only 4 to 5 calories higher than white and whole-wheat. Potato and whole-wheat bread contain 4 grams of protein per slice, but white bread isn't far behind with 3 grams. All three types have 14 to 15 grams of total carbohydrates. You'll also get 4 percent to 6 percent of your daily value of calcium, iron and vitamin B-6 from one slice of potato bread.

Potato bread has an advantage over regular white bread when it comes to fiber. One slice of generic potato bread contains 2 grams of fiber, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database. This is the same amount of fiber found in a slice of whole wheat bread, but it's nearly three times more than you'll get from a slice of white bread. The amount of fiber you get may vary from one brand of potato bread to the next, depending on whether the flour used with the potatoes is whole-grain or processed. Potato flour has three times more fiber than all-purpose white flour, while whole-wheat flour provides more than the other two.

You probably need to add more potassium to your daily diet because most Americans only consume about half of their recommended dietary allowance, according to a Food Surveys Research Group report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You can boost your intake by choosing potato bread. One slice has 230 milligrams of potassium, which is 5 percent of the 4,700 milligrams you should consume daily. Potato bread provides almost three times more potassium than whole-wheat bread and seven times more than white bread. Potassium protects your cardiovascular health because it offsets the impact of too much sodium by lowering blood pressure.

Even though potato bread is a good source of folate, it contains about the same amount as white bread. But it provides significantly more folate than whole-wheat bread, unless the whole-wheat bread is enriched with folic acid. Folate and folic acid work the same way in your body, but folate is the naturally occurring form, while folic acid is used in supplements. Folate activates many metabolic activities, including those that synthesize DNA and protein. It also helps produce a substance called S-adenosylmethionine, or SAMe, which helps make neurotransmitters. The RDA for folate is 400 micrograms. You'll get 48 micrograms from one slice of potato bread.