Potatoes… - Bayer CropScience

Potatoes contribute important nutrients, vitamins and minerals to the daily menu. As well as being rich in valuable nutrients,
they can also be prepared and cooked in a variety of ways. Photos: CMA, Germany
sumption is on the wane. Germany is the
European Union’s biggest producer of
potatoes and is ranked number six in
terms of global production. But consumption
per person here (66 kg) lies below the
European average. The most prominent
change has been the consumers’ move
away from fresh potatoes towards
processed potato products. Indeed, this
applies to all industrial nations.
Courier: What makes the potato so
suitable for human consumption
Sulzer: Potatoes have a broad spectrum of
valuable contents and they are among the
foods with the highest nutrient density,
which is a measure of the balance between
the nutrients a food contains and its energy
content. Here, the potato does especially
well. It has a calorie content of only 70
kilocalories per 100 grammes of cooked
potato, but at the same time it contributes a
major part of our need for biologicallyuseful
proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins
and minerals.
Courier: So the potato isn’t simply
the “fattener“, as its reputation would
have it
Sulzer: No, certainly not. This myth
derives from the potato’s capacity to make
one feel sated. The low calorie content is
an inverse result of the high water content
(80%). Moreover, the potato contains hardly
any fat. The energy content is comparable
with, or even slightly lower than, that
of cooked rice (84 kilocalories) and pasta
(94 kilocalories per 100 g). This disproves
the myth that the potato is a fattening food.
Courier: Why is the potato’s protein
content always emphasized At 2% of
fresh material, it doesn’t seem especially
high.
Sulzer: The potato’s high water content
means that its protein content is – relatively
speaking – low. Nevertheless, the protein
it does contain is highly valuable –
with a favourable composition in terms of
essential amino acids. The essential amino
acid lysine, in particular, is present in high
quantities. For these reasons, potato proteins
are among the most beneficial of all
the proteins available from plant-derived
products, and they complement those contained
in animal-derived foods when
served together. For example, the combination
of potato and egg provides a very
favourable spectrum of proteins.
Courier: What’s the main constituent
of a potato besides water
Sulzer: At 16g per 100g, the carbohydrates
(mainly in the form of starch) are the
second-most prominent group of constituents
in the potato; they also deliver the
most energy. In fact, raw potato starch is
practically indigestible for people; it only
becomes so after simmering in water at a
temperature around the boiling point. This
is why you shouldn’t eat potatoes raw. The
fact that the starch gradually breaks down
into glucose (a building block of sugars)
during digestion is very positive in terms
of nutritional physiology. Roughage, in the
form of indigestible carbohydrates, is present
at up to 2 % in the potato; it contributes
to the feeling of satedness and helps to
ensure regular intestinal movement.
Courier: And what about vitamins
and minerals
Sulzer: When it comes to vitamins, it’s the
high vitamin C content that should be
emphasised: this is why the potato is sometimes
also called the “lemon of the North“.
For example, a young, cooked potato
10 COURIER 1/08