Potatoes: benefits and harms for the body, how to choose and store

😉 Greetings to regular and new readers! The article “Potatoes: benefits and harms for the body” contains basic information about the most popular plant.

Potatoes are the oldest plant. His homeland is South America. Surprisingly, it appeared in North America many centuries later. It is known that Indians began to cultivate it in Ancient Peru and Bolivia about 9 thousand years ago! Over time, he conquered the whole world!

Potatoes: useful properties

Potatoes come in many varieties, colors and sizes. It is a relative of the tomato, from the Nightshade genus.

100 grams of the product contains:

  • 73 kcal;
  • water – 76,3%;
  • starch – 17,5%;
  • sugar – 0,5%;
  • protein – 1,5%.

Contains vitamins C, B1, B2, B6. Potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, sugar, amino acids, fiber.

Wide application in cooking. It is boiled, baked, fried, stewed, added to soups and pies. Chips are made from it. There are thousands of recipes and various dishes in the world where potatoes are added.

For health:

  • stimulates metabolism (vitamin B6);
  • protects cell membranes from toxic effects (B1);
  • essential for healthy skin, nails and hair growth (B2);
  • lowers cholesterol in the blood;
  • prevents the formation of cholesterol plaques on the walls of blood vessels;
  • potato dishes are useful for people suffering from ulcers, gastritis, gout, kidney diseases;
  • grated raw potatoes are applied to burns;
  • potato juice cures many diseases;
  • inhalation – treatment of colds over potato steam;
  • potato juice is a diuretic.

The most useful potatoes are baked or boiled in their skins. The most harmful is fries. Potatoes can be eaten without harm to the figure, but no more than 1 time per day without the addition of butter and sour cream.

Potato damage to the body

It’s amazing how tasty and favorite potatoes can be dangerous for the body? Unfortunately, our pet can be cunning.

Potatoes: benefits and harms for the body, how to choose and store

Green coloring is poison!

Potatoes are called “earthy apples”. For example, in French Pommes de terre (pommes – apple, terre – earth). “Earth apples” grow in the ground, and toxic compounds begin to form in them from sunlight. It’s poison!

From daylight, the skin of the potato turns green or green spots. This is a collection of solanine. In this case, trim off the green areas before cooking.

Long-term storage in potato tubers increases the level of a toxic substance – solanine. Potatoes age gradually: they become soft and wrinkled. The sprouts of sprouted tubers contain toxic substances for the body – solanine and hakonin.

Potatoes: benefits and harms for the body, how to choose and store

Sprouted potatoes are hard and soft. Send the soft one to the trash bin! And the sprouted can still be eaten by removing a thick layer of the peel. The first symptoms of solanine poisoning will appear 8-10 hours after eating. If the level of accumulation of poisons was very high, then the central nervous system will also suffer.

Try not to store potatoes for a long time. If you buy potatoes for future use, you need to monitor their condition so as not to get poisoned. Diseased tubers must be removed, otherwise the disease will easily spread to the rest.

How to choose and store

Choosing a potato and learning how to store it correctly – Everything will be kind – Edition 660–27.08.15

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