It's in every good picnic, every delicious family dinner, and almost everybody has had some sort of experience with it. Potato salad, to many people, is the core of every good picnic or dinner. Like any delicious side, potato salad has its health benefits and it has parts of itself that aren't so good. Potato salad can be found in many different shapes and sizes, and especially flavors.

Health Benefits of Potato Salad.

With potato salad being one of the best sides to a barbecue, it's natural to think that it's unhealthy. All the best foods are unhealthy for you, right? Potato salad, however, does have benefits for our health.

• Potatoes According to Reader's Digest Best Health, potatoes help to boost anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants help to neutralize free radicals, molecules that can result in oxidation damage. Potatoes can also maintain blood pressure with their potassium, help prevent bone loss with manganese, and more according to the article "6 Health Benefits of Potatoes".
• Vitamin C The vitamin C found in potato salad also comes from the potato. Vitamin C helps with the immune system, helps prevent heart disease, and can even help prevent and lessen wrinkles according to Webmd.com. Looking up the nutrition facts, it's said that potato salad has 40 percent of your daily need based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
• Vitamin B-6 Potato salad has 20 percent of your daily need for Vitamin B-6. Vitamin B-6 is needed for over 100 enzymes related to metabolism. The National Institutes of Health reports that Vitamin B-6 helps with brain development in pregnancy and infancy.

Health Risks of Potato Salad.

The only problem with potato salad is the quantity of some necessary but potentially damaging nutrients. According to Self Nutrition Data, potato salad is high in sodium and fats.

Sodium

Potato salad has a whopping 55 percent of the sodium needed in a 2,000 calorie diet. Fifty-five percent is a large amount, especially when factoring in that potato salad is only a side dish, and how common sodium is in food. Ingesting too much sodium plays a role in high blood pressure and heart disease; the kidneys also can't process it very well. Although potato salad is only a contributor in getting too much sodium, it's a huge contributor.

Fats

Fat (alone) doesn't make the human body fat, but too much fat can be hazardous to one's health. Fat can also increase the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular disease. Granted, some fats will lower the risk, but the average potato salad has a total of 8 different fats that add up to 32 percent total fat consumption for a 2,000 calorie day.

Potato salad itself isn't bad, in some aspects it can be healthy. If potato salad is part of the meal, it's important to remember portion control and balancing a diet around what's already been eaten.

Twists on the Classic Potato Salad Recipe

Here's the fun part! Although the classic potato salad recipe is delicious, there are many different potato salad recipes out there. If barbecue sauce sounds good, there are potato salads with barbecue sauce. If deviled eggs catch your guests' interest, it's possible to switch it up with a deviled egg flavored potato salad. Not only can potato salad recipes be found on Google, but there are specific websites made with the sole intention of sharing recipes. A good example of one of these websites is Recipes.com.

Top 5 Routes for "Potato Salad"

1. Nutrition Facts This website reports the label for standard potato salad.
2. Nutrition Data Here is a food label for home-made potato salad.
3. Healthy Eating This article explains the effects of having too much fat in your diet.
4. Reader's Digest, Best Health There are many great benefits of potatoes, but 6 of them are listed and explained here.
5. National Institute of Health Potato salad is high in the vitamin b-6, and here's why that can be helpful.