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How Good is Potato for us? By Mumtaz Khalid Ismail
More Links Nutritional value Uses of Potato Points to note Nutritional value of potato Potato Dishes from Saroj's Cookbook
Man knew nutritional value of potato (solanum tuberosum) from the time of Inca civilisation. For the peasant the introduction of the potato was a great blessing since it provided a cheap alternative crop to cereals. In our time this is one of the foodstuff liked by all. Potato is popular among all age groups, sexes, races and economic classes. Potato is also known as alu (Hindi, Oriya and Punjabi), gal alu (Bengal), alu gaddalu (Telungu) and urula kizangu (Malayalam and Tamil). Potato form major part in so called Junk foods.
- Potatoes are good sources of carbohydrate.
- It is a useful source of vitamin C.
- It is good for high blood pressure patient.
- Potatoes are good for hyper acidity patient.
- It can be given to infants and invalids since it is easy to digest.
- Green part of potato has toxin, so this part should be discarded.
- It can be used as a facemask.
Content Per 100 gms of potato Content Per 100 gms of potato Energy 97 kcal Carbohydrate 22.6 gm Protein 1.6 gm Fat 0.1 gm Fibre 0.6 gm Calcium 10 mg Phosphorus 40 mg Iron 0.48 mg Vitamin C 17 mg Vitamin B1 0.1 mg Vitamin B2 0.01 mg Niacin 1.2 mg Magnesium 30 mg Sodium 11 mg Potassium 247 mg
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Water content of potatoes is about 74 to 75 percent and it gives 97 kcal per 100 gms. Potatoes are good sources of carbohydrate (22.6 gms / 100 gm ) and only 1.6gms of protein for 100 gms. Since potatoes have high carbohydrate content, people on weight reducing diet and diabetes should avoid or limit the intake. The ability of the food item to rise the blood sugar is measured in terms of glycemic index. The glycemic index of new or boiled potato is 81. The fat content is less in potato.
The most popular form of potato among the youngsters is potato chips. Even though potato has less fat and sodium, in chips both are more due to the way we cook. Among the chips finger chips will have less fat and sodium content than thin wafers. These preparations are not advisable for people who are having high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, renal diseases or obese people.
Solanine and chaconin are alkaloid present in green and sprouted potatoes. Consumption of these alkaloids in excess can be poisonous. 100 gm of potato has normally less than 7mg. The maximum permissible is 20 -25 mg per 100 gm fresh potato weight. So green patches present in potato if any must be discarded. The toxicity is more when it is eaten as baked potato and this is less likely when boiled and peeled. The toxic symptoms are headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and even circulatory collapse. Other rare symptoms are mental confusion, stupor and hallucination. Solanine can cause rarely migraine or drowsiness in sensitive people even when eaten in small quantity.
