Undervalued potato?

By Rhiannonw

Sat, 04 Mar 2023
  • 182 reads
4 comments
 

Nutritious fruit
(tomatoes, bananas, apples …)
and valued veg:
tubers and tap roots –
like the humble spud,
edible leaves (cabbage …)
seeds (peas and whole grain …)
(and are Brussel sprouts a kind of bud?).

5-a-day are good for you they say,
but I’m puzzled about why
they decry
the economical
and nutritionally valuable
belittled potato?

[last week’s IP: vegetables]

 

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Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I know it has lots of vitamin C and potassium, which is what bananas have, isn't it? And I think there is a type of protein in the skin, along with B vitamins. I guess the problem is about them being solid carbohydrate, and also how they are almost always combined with fat when cooked, so might contribute to weight gain unless going along with lots of exercise? Also without the skins not sure how much fibre they have, and they don't have any colour so no benefits from that? But compared with white bread or pasta they must be MUCH healthier, do you think?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks for reading and comment.

I think they must be more nutritious than refined pasta and rice, lthough those are still natural products. We do need carbohydrate, and I think there is still some fibre in the rest of the potato. Cooking aything in fat can I think affect absorption, though I'm not sure of that, but still they are good filler food, and I can't understand them not being included in the 5 a day, though I suppose the idea is that they recommend 5 as well as potatoes or pasta. Do they encourage the fact that we do need good carbohydrates too? Do people get put off eating potatoes? Eating plenty of potatoes is probably better than just filling up on more pudding and cakes I presume! I probably do both. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

Apparantly putting a potato in your bed works for restless legs. Sounds stupid but some people swear by it.

Potatoes are very versatile. See you! Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

!! smiley Haven't heard that one! Rhiannon