October 16, 2017
Potatoes A “Root” of Life:
Consider that the primary purpose of eating is to obtain enough energy to function throughout the day, and the body’s preferred source of this energy are carbohydrates. Therefore, the foods that deliver the greatest amount of carbohydrates would logically be nutritionally superior.
There is much more to nutritionally packed potatoes than just calories. They have 2.5 grams of dietary fiber per potato. Potatoes are very high in vitamin C, most B vitamins, potassium and other minerals. Of the calories from potatoes, only 1% comes from fat, and these few fats are mostly the kind that we need, called essential fats.
One important reason why people think of potatoes as fattening and unhealthy is all the toppings poured over them, like high-fat gravies, bacon bits, cheese, sour cream, and butter. Don’t confuse baked or boiled potatoes with the world’s favourite forms of potatoes: French fries and potato chips. Cooking a nutritious food like potatoes in oil increases the percentage of fat from 1% to 36% for French fries, and up to 58% for potato chips.
Potatoes can provide complete nutrition for children and adults. Many populations, for example people in rural populations of Poland and Russia at the turn of the 19th century, have lived in very good health doing extremely hard work with the white potato serving as their primary source of nutrition.
Today potatoes are grown in all 50 states of the USA and 125 countries throughout the world. The sweet potato belongs in the same family as Morning Glories while the white potato belongs to the same group as tomatoes, tobacco, Chile pepper, Eggplant and the Petunia. The potato is about 80% water and 20% solids.
In 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space travels, and eventually, feeding future space communities. The year 2008 was declared the International Year of the Potato by the United Nations, observing that the potato is a staple food in the diet of the world’s population, and confirming the need to focus world attention on the role that the potato can play in providing food security and eradicating poverty, quite literally making the potato a “ROOT” vegetable of life!
