Higher nutrition potatoes
 

While diggin the forum I've found this: "The whole idea of my TaterMater forum is to share enough ideas with people so that higher nutrition potatoes can see the light of day. My Negro y Azul was tested by the labs in Prosser, WA for its anthocyanins and it was off the charts compared to other varieties. My high carotenoid potatoes are yet another venue. I have lines that are high in minerals like iron and I suppose that someday I could combine many of those high nutrients into single clones. "-Tom Wagner
:) and I thought it would be good to collect some information in one place.. I'm trying to find informations on each of TPS from Tom Wagner,and maybe other varietes. And I would love to have some basics in one place.. I think that would be nice for others too.
I have made a little list:
Anthocyanins – Negro y Azul, other blues [all of them?] and reds[am I right?] I guess that the darker colour - higher pigment content in raw ones. I wonder how it acts while thermal processing like boiling etc. Vitamin C is going down while heated, or oxydation but anthocyanins?

carotenoids -SKAGIT VALLEY GOLD, other yellow/orange

vitamin C- Panzer

protein- ?

minerals:
iron-?
chromium-Pigs don't lie
other:-?

And what exactly means "high"? I've found that 5% protein in potatoes is really high. And others? Could You help me with this? And maybe Tom Wagner will say something to make other points less misterious;) Possibility to get more chromium and iron trough potatoes would be really good for me.

Really, I never though that potatoes could be THAT interesting. :)

That information is difficult to find for individual varieties. In the CIPotato.org website they had published in the past information of commercial varieties. They have an analytical lab and I found some texts in spanish that list nutrient composition.

For example HUAGALINA per 100g with skin it has some protein 2.4g, Iron 0.56mg and vit C 24.44mg

Energía (Kcal) 54
Proteína (g) 2.40
Grasa total (g) 0.20
Colesterol (mg) -
Glúcidos (g) 18.30
Nutrientes
Cantidad
Fibra (g)-
Calcio (mg)-
Hierro (mg)0.56
Yodo (µg)-
Vitamina A (mg)-
Nutrientes
Cantidad
Vitamina C (mg)24.44
Vitamina D (µg)-
Vitamina E (mg)-
Vitam. B12 (µg)-
Folato (µg)

I guess that this will vary with different growing conditions..
Interesting thing is that almost noone eats potato skins here.

I have found this table, average nutrition levels in cream, yellow and purple flesh potatoes:
[url]http://cipotato.org/potato/nutrition[/url]

Interesting you mentioned HUAGALINA potato variety....I made a cross today using pollen from Black Irish. Trying to get a HUAGALINA type with extra anthocyanins. Since some potato varieties can have 50% more protein ...by dry weight...having the blue flesh mingle with yellow flesh would be a plus. And locating clones that can be eaten raw is one of my goals of preserving the nutritional value by not cooking them to death. HUAGALINA is somewhat resistant to late blight...and any variety getting even a trace of LB in the field is not being used for further crosses.

Do you keep late-blight prone strains around as incubators, so you can expose your main breeding lines to the fungus (or whatever the organism is) for testing?

[quote]And locating clones that can be eaten raw [...] [/quote]
Are you telling that there are potatoes that can be eaten raw, without any thermal processing? @@ Whoa. This is even more awesome..

Potatoes here are considered toxic as a raw vegetable. Mostly "eyes" and skins, so usually people peel off the skin or at least cut off the eyes before boiling. I was thinking about it, because young potatoes are boiled with eyes, only the skin is usually rubbed off. I like very much whole boiled potatoes in skin, and I'm not cutting off "eyes" then.. So I wonder if they are really so harmfull or only if it sprouted/was exposed to light/went green. But eating raw.. There was kind of a joke here : if ypu don't want to go to scholl eat a piece of a raw potato, and you will go a little sick and don't have to go there. Well ;)

[QUOTE]Are you telling that there are potatoes that can be eaten raw, without any thermal processing? @@ Whoa. This is even more awesome..

Potatoes here are considered toxic as a raw vegetable.[/QUOTE]

Howdy.

Green skin and flesh has a slightly elevated level of alkaloids. It is not enough to kill you; that's a common but incorrect belief. There was an episode of the cartoon "Arthur" devoted to the idea that eating green potato chips would kill you. At the end of the show, a representative of the potato chip factory assures DW that she's not going to die.

Tom Wagner has proposed the idea of juicing potatoes, and in particular, colored flesh potatoes.

Tom, today Trixtrax and I were chatting about higher-protein potatoes. You and I have chatted about that briefly too.

With the catastrophic crop losses worldwide due to drought, and in particular, corn for livestock feed, soy, and wheat, the latter two being high-protein crops in their own right, I think it's time to revisit the concept.

I'm not expecting miracles; the issue is just to boost the protein levels enough to make it more viable as a staple crop, in lieu of more success than we've actually had with other staples that are naturally a bit higher in protein. If it comes down to living on potatoes it would be nice if they had say 3-4% protein instead of something like 2%.

What are your current thoughts?

But do you mean juicing and drinking the liquid raw, or boiling it? I remember juicing potatoes in order to make potato starch..
I know that alkaloid levels are usually not high enough to kil. Precisely, greened ones are considered toxic [mildly toxic, some children in order to have a day off from school used to eat a raw potato;) childhood legends ;)].
Not-greened, just raw, are considered just unedible. Raw starch in big amounts is considered unedible, I think that this is the problem.

Eating raw potatoes won't hurt you- I used to sneekily eat the potato my mom would give me to use with my Mr. Potatohead pieces- and yes, I was a kid in the days before the kit included a plastic potato with holes in it.:lol:

But are there tasty-in-raw potatoes?

I have eaten some of the small diploids from Tom raw. A couple are almost like eating raw chestnut or uncured hazelnut/filbert. As for protein just leave the rhizoctonia sclerotia on when you cook/eat them. LOL. Seriously though it is true the more rhizoctonia sclerotia the higher the protein.

There is nothing like digging up a fresh potato, rubbing off the dirt and enjoying the flavor and crunch! I grew up in 'the Red River Valley' in North Dakota where the main crop was potatoes!

Sometimes I even made it into the house to wash the tater, slice it, and add a nice sprinkle of salt. Yummy.

Eating cooked potatoes with skin is no problem. French fries with the skin on are common. In my area many pounds of "salt" potatoes are sold at fairs and other places. Salt potatoes are small potatoes boiled in salt water and served in melted butter.

I've eaten a couple of pieces of raw potato in my life and each time they've made my stomaach fell "not quite right" I do in general like my food well cooked.