11/28/08 Preparing spuds to retain potassium

It's been well documented; potatoes are nutritious and among other things they contain potassium. Shelley Jansky of the ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit says some potato lovers like those on kidney dialysis need a diet that is low in potassium. . JANSKE "By boiling potatoes without the leeching you really can remove a large amount of potassium and the smaller the pieces that are boiled the more potassium is removed." Janske says the UDSA ARS study all started with a question from a nurse during an Internet discussion; how can you limit the potassium intake for kidney dialysis patients? JANSKE "The response from the rest of the group was basically 'we don't know the answer.' So I started looking at the literature and there's very little information on what happens to mineral nutrients in potatoes when you prepare them. There were some papers from 30 years ago." If its potassium that you need in your diet you can retain it in the potatoes. JANSKE "Its better not to boil the potatoes in the first place if you want to retain those nutrients than if you can bake them or microwave them or roast them or do something other than boil you're not going to leech out those mineral nutrients." She says if you are going to boil them, if you like boiled potatoes then keep the pieces as big as possible and cook for as short a time as possible. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott