Our seed potatoes arrived this week so on browsing the Internet my interest was drawn to this website. It's worth a browse as it tells you everything you may want to know about potatoes including lots of recipes.
Potatoes certainly seem to have plenty of people to love them - some have even set up a petition asking the government to create a 'supercarb' food group for potatoes to reflect the fact that potatoes are both an energy-rich starchy carbohydrate AND a vegetable which is packed-full of essential vitamins and minerals.
Apparently although potatoes are a vegetable they don't count as part of our five a day. The argument is that when eaten as part of a meal they are generally used in place of other sources of carbohydrate, such as bread, pasta or rice. So they are classed as starchy food! However, other root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, parsnips, swedes and turnips do count. That is because they are usually eaten as a vegetable alongside the main starchy food in a meal.
Confusing isn't it? And that isn't all there is to be confused about according to this US website the amount of fruit and vegetables you should eat depends on your sex, age and level of activity. It has an interactive utility to help you calculate how much you should eat! AND other countries appear to give different advice e.g. Denmark suggest 6 a day!
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Hubby loves potatoes; I like them in moderation, but my favourites are the deep blue potatoes that come from the south shore of Nova Scotia. We don't grow them because his cousin puts in an acre or so of potatoes each year, about 8 different varieties, and we just buy some from him. I get crazy over the people who think all carbs are the root of all evil. It's strange, isn't it, how something so innocent as a food can be made 'evil' by a bunch of diet mavens?
ReplyDeleteWe grow quite a few potatoes and so are just about self sufficient in them - as long as they don't start to sprout too early.
ReplyDeleteIt seems mad that they aren't classed as a vegetables because of how we eat them! According to the website posted they contain lots of vitamins and nutrients.
We've never had the blue potatoes although we have had all sorts of colours of other vegetables such as carrots, bettroot and cauliflower!
I love my potatoes as do all my family and have never really thought of them as nutritious...more of a filler upper...I will have to look into this more now!!
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