Healthy Potatoes

Healthy Potatoes

 Good news for Idaho potato farmers…potatoes could be making a big impact as healthfood. I’m David Sparks with more in just a second.  The potato’s been maligned through it’s association with fast food over the past 25 years. The image of potato chips and french fries tied to obesity has been relentlessly presented by dieticians and doctors leading to the hard fact that Americans are eating fewer potatoes than they did 6 years ago.

 Economist Rachel Detman works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and uses pounds consumed per person to underline the decline in consumption.  “In 2000 it was about 138 pounds per person, that’s all potatoes, that’s processed, fresh, everything, and in 2008 we estimate it to be about 124 pds/person.” Potato grower Larry Alsam has his own explanation for a decline in potatoes on the table, “mostly because of changes in lifestyle and eating habits”.

 That said, the potato is a nutrient-dense food providing excellent   nutritional return. Larry Alsam says that there are lots of very good things in potatoes. “Potatoes in themselves have no fat,  and are a good source of Vitamin C and potassium, and a good source of fiber and we want to bring that message to the consumers”.

 

The way potatoes are prepared can have a huge impact on the number of calories they contain. And now potato vendors are learning that preparation methods can be convenient and easy on the wallet. Grower Jim Wasaki explains.

“It’s been double washed and you take it directly into the microwave 6-8 minutes of microwaving, you’ll get a potato out that will not only be cooked on the inside but it’ll be steam cooked on the outside so you can stop at a grocery store and pick up a small package and have a meal for under $3.

 

 

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