Potatoes are a Real Food

This week’s ethical eating item is potatoes! (previously: eggs)

Somewhere along the line, potatoes got a bad reputation. In the midst of the Atkins low-carb frenzy, potatoes were shunned and portrayed as the bad guy – “you might as well eat a loaf of white bread!”

We eat carbs again now – we all know that a healthy diet is one balanced in carbohydrates, fat and protein. But potatoes seem to be stuck with their bad reputation.

Sweet potatoes became a trendy replacement for the poor little white potatoes. Restaurants began serving sweet potato fries (newsflash: no matter what kind of potato it is, if it’s deep fried, it isn’t healthy!)

Don’t mistake me for a sweet potato hater – I love sweet potatoes! However, you don’t need to join the 100% sweet potato club and banish potatoes from your life – potatoes are good for you too. Potatoes are a vegetable! They shouldn’t be lumped together with processed food-like substances, like white bread or instant white rice – potatoes are a real food! And a pretty good-for-you one at that:

Image: Potatoes.com

• 45% of the daily value for vitamin C
• 620 mg potassium (comparable to bananas, spinach and broccoli!)
• 110 calories, and 2g of fiber

The great news is that potatoes are a very easy item to buy ethically! The not so great news? Potatoes are a really important item to buy ethically.

The problem is all of those fast food French Fries – even if “healthy eaters” don’t usually eat a lot of potatoes, North America sure does. Potatoes are one of the most heavily treated vegetables!

The problem: Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes—the nation’s most popular vegetable—they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. "Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won’t," says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). "I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."

What can you do instead? Buy organic potatoes. Washing vegetables won’t help if the chemicals have been absorbed into the flesh.

 

 

Since potatoes grow all over North America, local varieties are easy to find. In addition, since potatoes store well, local varieties should be available year round!

    

Recipe to try: Eat Clean French Fries

 

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Keep the entries coming for the Sun Warrior and Amazon Gift Card (how are you enthusiastic about health?) giveaways! I’m so pleased to be getting entries from new commenters – I hope you keep on commenting, it makes my day!:)

 

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Tomorrow on Eat Clean Live Green: a clean eating chocolate ice cream – it’s oh so good, and good for you! You won’t want to miss this!

 

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What’s your favourite way to eat potatoes (regular or sweet potatoes!)? Baked  or roasted or mashed or pan fried or ______ ?

                  I’m tempted to say all of the above, but my favourite-est is probably roasted.

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Tagged as: conscious consumer, ethical eating, vegetables