Hot potato: Is the common spud’s bad rap deserved?

Potatoes have been suffering from a bit of an image problem lately as many young people avoid them as part of low-carb diets. But, potato growers are fighting back and the new Australian “Good Carb” campaign promoting potatoes are “good for your body, your budget and the planet” is a case in point.

Georgia Thomas from the Potato Growers’ Association of Western Australia was at the World Potato Congress in Dublin this week to explain how to get the maximum nutrition from potatoes (keep the skin on, steam or microwave, eat cooked potatoes cold for gut health).

“Consumers’ main reasons for not eating potatoes are because they are high in carbohydrates, starchy and promote weight gain, but potatoes have a lower energy density than most other carbohydrate foods like pasta and rice and they are high in dietary fibre,” said Thomas.

“One medium unpeeled potato (140g) contains 7.7g of fibre, which is more fibre than two slices of wholemeal bread (4g), one quarter cup of wheat bran (6.5g), four wheat biscuits (6.9g), half a cup of chickpeas (4.9g) or 25 dried apricots (7.4g),” she explained.

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Irish dietitian Orla Walsh said it was challenging to share scientific nutritional advice on healthy eating when you are “up against sexy influencers”.

“There is a lot of confusion about what a healthy diet is but it’s not complicated. If you eat three meals a day filling half of your plate with fruit/vegetables, one quarter with potatoes/rice/pasta and one quarter with protein, your body will become healthier and stay healthier. The problem is not everyone has fruit and vegetables and protein for breakfast,” she said.

Speaking specifically about potatoes – it was the World Potato Congress after all – Walsh said that potatoes are a nutritious source of fibre, potassium, vitamin B and vitamin C. “They are fat free, salt free and 82 per cent of potatoes are water,” she said. Potatoes are also naturally gluten free and lactose free.

Also speaking at the health and nutrition session at the conference, a Peruvian scientist explained how potatoes fortified with iron can help reduce malnutrition.

Although potatoes have lower levels of iron compared with cereals and legumes, their high levels of vitamin C (which helps iron absorption) and low levels of phylates (which inhibit iron absorption) make them valuable for fortification in countries such as Peru, Rwanda and Ethiopia, said Gabriela Burgos from the Centro Internacional de la Papa (International Potato Centre) in Lima, Peru.

“Studies of women with high levels of iron deficiency in Peru found that they got 50 per cent of their daily iron requirements from yellow fleshed bio-fortified potatoes,” she said.

In a pilot project in northern Peru, mothers attending health clinics were given vouchers for seed potatoes high in iron. Ninety per cent of them planted them, 60 per cent said they have good resistant to late blight and 46 per cent said that they benefited their health. Potatoes fortified with iron are expected to become available commercially in Peru in 2023 and in Rwanda and Ethiopia in 2024.

“It’s a cost-effective way to reduce anaemia [a condition resulting from low levels of iron in the blood],” said Burgos.

Potatoes are the third most important food crop after rice and wheat for the global agricultural food system. On average, each person in Ireland eats about 85kg of potatoes a year, which is about 2½ times the global consumption of potatoes per person (32 kg).