Potatoes - Good or Bad?

[Nimue]

In the handicraft lessons in school we have made glue out of potatoes, cause they have a high
portion of starch, as well it is not out of the ordinary that lots of farmers only plant
potatoes for the non food industry (for size, glue, foils...), of course a good alternative
to mineral oil, but this glue thing is always on my mind. I can´t chum up with the
thought, to serve glue for dinner ( I knew, if i cook the potatoes most starch cooked out!),
but I think it is better to use potatoes for what they are made for....... to tinker with the kids ;).

My diet is predominantly starch free, but to try sweet potatoes may be a good idea, so
I can widen my food variety.

I remember an article in a German journal about sweet potatoes as replacement instead of
"normal" potatoes, for people who have Bekhterev´s disease (they should avoid starch), and
when you are going to buy them you should have a look where they were
cultivated. If they are cultivated in a tropic climate, they have a lower starch portion,
thus a higher sugar portion. I wonder if this happen also with normal potatoes and in
the natural maturation in colder climate and if there is a connection to this statement:

Not sure how true this is but I once heard from a food adviser that the indigenous population of S. America used to expose the potatoes to the sun, or the weather in general, to neutralize the toxins in potatoes. Also they had many variations so who knows which ones made it to Europe.

Despite this, I will try to include them into my diet, but I think a good idea is to observe my bloodsugar !

Just my thoughts !

 

[Cosmos]

today I thought I allow me to cook something with tomatoes.

so I cooked Quinoa. I took hash, roested it and put tomatoes on top.I cooked it until all tomatoes were gone and a sauce had appeared.
so I took the Quinoa and put the meat sauce (tomatoe soße) on top. I ate it, it was really delicious.

but after few minutes I started to belch all the time, my stomach felt heavy and bloated.
then I started to feel really bad , my stomach started to hurt bad and it got worst from minute to minute.
so I lied down to tried to do EE, but my stomach didn't allowed it. then I tried to sleep but it didn't worked either.
so I decided to disgorge all that stuff out of my stomach. after I had done this I ate a faty piece of meat and now I feel I fine again.

so tomatoes are really nothing for me.
I've also noticed that Quinoa makes my stomach bloated.

so I guess this combination was very bad.

 

[mkrnhr]

If you search the forum for nightshades and tomatoes you'll find that they have been acknowledged as inflammatory :)

 

[Graalsword]

In my case, I have verified that potatoes give me gut inflammation. And tomatoes sometimes are not properly digested or absorbed, and go directly to elimination. So I am trying to avoid them as much as possible. Sweet potatoes, on the contrary, seem to be pretty fine.

 

[Cosmos]

I've just noticed that I posted this on the wrong thread
it should be in a tomatoe thread and not in the potatoes thread

 

[tschai]

Good grief! I love potatoes AND tomatoes and glad I read this (or not-looks like these items are OUT of my diet) Thank goodness I also love sweet potatoes, so I don't feel bad about giving the white spuds the old heave ho!

Thanks to all for the great info! :D

 

[happyliza]

I really miss my mashed potatoes and crispy baked ones. However I like the idea that I can sometimes have the skins. For some reason I cannot get the sweet potatoes here in north cyprus only in the south but cannot afford to make the trip much.

However we do have Kolocas and I have been experimenting with it. It does not appear to be part of the nightshade family however i would appreciate some advice whether nutritionally and inflammatory good/bad please? I looked it up on wiki and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colocasia

Colocasia esculenta

The edible types are grown in the South Pacific and eaten like potatoes and known as taro, eddoe, and dasheen.
Poi, an Hawaiian dish, is made by boiling the starchy underground stem of the plant.[7]
In the Indian subcontinent both roots and leaves are used. In Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka state, they are used to make Patrode. in Kerala state, the leaves are used to make chembila curry, and the roots are used in chembu puzhukku, a traditional accompaniment to Kerala congee. Various other recipes also exist locally. The stem and root are also used in the preparation of Ishtu and Moru curry. In TamilNadu, it is boiled, peeled and fried and used as a side-dish with rice. In Gujarat, they are used to make Patra. In Andhra cuisine, the roots are boiled, peeled, and fried as an entree with rice, or they may be boiled along with a gravy called "Pulusu", and the leaves are also used. In Nagaland, the leaves are dried, powdered, kneaded into a dough and baked into biscuits that are burnt and then dissolved in boiling water before being added into meat dishes to create a thick, flavourful dry gravy. In Cypriot cuisine they are used in a chicken and vegetable stew.

They seem to be quite filling and versatile. I use them like sweet potatoes and for thickening stews as they can go mushy.

 

[monotonic]

Sid,

Potatoes are part of the nightshade family of vegetables. Some people are sensitive to nightshades. Potatoes are also high in starch and low in protein which make them bad for people with blood sugar problems.

If I eat a very large amount of sugar, I often crave potatoes afterward (specifically potato chips, which means fried in oil, usually corn oil). The potato chips seem to neutralize the bad feeling I get. I know I probably shouldn't eat either, but is there something I can learn from this?

PS It's heard to eat healthy when you have no money and wheat is the only thing you can afford.