National Potato Day is celebrated amongst many vibrant, conscious and possible ex-othorxic people every year on October 3rd. Whilst the International Year of the Potato was celebrated back in 2008 across all potato growing nations (approximately 90% of the globe), there are still to this day thousands of potato festivals across all continents celebrating with displays and competitions of the finest jackets, fries, goulash, mash, soups, roasts and many other arrays of potato goodness. I couldn't help but declare my love for the potato and educate those "tater haters" of the historical importance and nutritional wealth this finely simple rooty tuber offers.
The potato's journey thus far:
It would be strange if I didn't begin this topic of conversation by mentioning the very agriculturists that started the journey of our beloved potato. For the early history surrounding the potato, the stage was dominated by the men and women (Incas) who lived amongst the the seven countries that host the infamous Andes mountain ranges of South America. Many varieties of wild potato thriving at 9-12 thousand feet were documented by the likes of Columbus and the Spanish conquers to have been foraged, grown, distributed between communities and eaten by the natives of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia and thus probably for hundreds of years prior to their contact as a means of consistent calorific
wealth. Besides the potato, other useful, energetically dense forms of food were found: Quinoa (a seedy
product cooked similar to oatmeal), various tuber like plants of which are resistant to altitude conditions. But none of these played a part at all comparable to that of the potato in the economic life of the peasant.
It was the potato species Jamesii and Fendleri from these two countries that made their first appearance into Central America (Mexico), where they where gradually accepted and patented into agriculture. The only issue being that the like of the cassava and manioc had large competition with the already established cereal maize for the first place in natures bounty (a battle that the cereal won within Central/North America, and now corn is the largest genetically modified crop in that continent).
But what has later been detailed and appreciated, is that the potato has always been home to the southern slopes of America and has gradually made its way out and across various parts of the world largely via war and conflict, having seen foreigners take away various valuable resources to then have its seed continue in such diverse climatic soils.
Surprisingly to many, one of the first stops for the potato was in fact south east asia and more specifically 'China'. China was once the largest producer of sweet potatoes or should i say Convolvulus batata and still today is amongst the big boy exporters globally. Today their crop yields are approximately 90-100 million tons per year and the Chinese people happened to once be the largest consumers of the 'not so worshipped' sweet potato during the 1930's and 40's, at the same time supplying half the worlds need for it.
The great thing about the sweet potato is that throughout china and south east asia it was cultivated on steep hilly soils that contain large ratios of salt and sand, making it practically impossible to produce rice and other flat landed cropped cereals, thus they where still able to simultaneously farm high yielding wet rice paddies, whilst meeting the calorific needs for a large sector of the worlds population through their potato yields.
Despite the sweet potato offering an obscenely superior amount of nutritional value, energy and digestibility (once cooked) than that of rice and wheat, it was once and still is in places scene as a poor mans food throughout China and the rest of Asia. It was once a large staple for most poverty struck populations due to the expensive nature of the less common cereal grains such as rice. Times have really turned around now with China being the largest producer and consumer of rice (76.8kg per person/year) and the third largest yielders of rice annually and a heavy contender for largest exporters to mainland Europe and Africa.
However the 'white potato' was introduced to Asia by the dutch during the 1650's, where still today it is considered the "Holland tuber". Though never really as popular as the alternative varieties of sweet potato, the white potato and varieties of yams have held their own against the cereal grains throughout asia and still contribute a large percentage of useable calories for the northern mountainous populations (bordering Kaz and Mongolia).
Well could we forget the irish..?. Prior to the introduction of the potato into Ireland by Sir Walter (in what is debated to of been the late 1590's), Ireland apparently survived off of Corn, peas, beans, and possibly parsnips, with thyroid suppressing 'cabbages' and onions forming the vegetable food of the people. Now the potato has been imbedded into irish soils for well over four centuries and quit frankly made Ireland into the agricultural rich nation its known as today. It didn't take long to realise that the potato thrived in the farmers cool moist soils with very little labor needed for them to thrive, its estimated that only an acre of well fertilised soil could feed a family of twelve (or two families of six) for a whole year.
Prior to the famine that came about during the mid 1800's and lasting for around six years, the potato had become the staple crop in the poorest regions. More than three million Irish peasants became dependant of this nutritious crop with only buttermilk and onions the only real supplement to their diet. Many historical texts and newer opinions from various historians have all stated at how the peasants were actually healthier than peasants in England or Europe where bread (phosphate rich= phosphate poisoning), far less nutritious (no minerals or vitamins), was the staple food.
What can it offer us...
There has always been a common miss conception that plant foods contain zero to somewhat limited amounts of amino acids necessary for promoting and providing structural materials to build the scaffoldings that maintain cell shape and structure, supporting enzyme production which catalyse biochemical reactions and hormones which signal messages between cells. There are 8 amino acids that people cannot make and thus, these must be obtained from our diets—they are referred to as “essential”
(though apparently only for growth).
The potato and tuber family differs with regards to what nutrients they offer depending on the type. The sweet potato and yam for example are considered of great value due to their high biologically available amino acids, broad spectrum of B-vitamins and calorific density. The beta carotene that most people rave about amongst the various types of sweet potato is pretty useless unless its present with stable fats for its conversion into Vit A (most people with an under active thyroid will struggle with this conversion). Taro's are well known for their vitamin A +E, zinc and Manganese properties, hence many cosmetics include extracts and isolated compounds from the root to enhance their product value.
During the late 1930's a biochemist named Russell Marker made plans to use yams for mass production of human steroids, after identifying a way to create progesterone in five steps and isolate testosterone in just eight steps from this Mexican Yam. Dr Marker went to live in Mexico where he set up a laboratory in his room to make steroids from yams. Marker worked round-the-clock for several weeks to make progesterone. Then he offered the progesterone for sale to a businessman in Mexico City, who offered him $80 per gram. However, the businessman was in shock when Marker handed him two kilograms of the stuff ($160,000), which he had produced in such a short time.
The compounds Russell Marker extracted from the yams where simple precursors to the human steroidal hormones. He did try to take his formula to leading pharmaceutical companies, but they where quickly to usher him away and play down his findings. That was until the early 1950's when Syntex jumped on board and to this day still utilise the formula, of which has been patented very cheaply for commercial sale.
Nightshade…
Ok, so there might be one or two downsides for those sensitive bunch that can't handle a few Solanine's or nitrogenous alkaloids. The potato is a prestigious member of the nightshade family and thus does come with a small print attached; 'The potato may not be for all of us'. Yep i just said that, and the fact of the matter is, its true. I've worked with many low impact athletes that complain of varying degrees of joint pain, constant fatigue and out in out shit sleep and whilst I have many approaches to correct these mal-alignments, still to this day taking away nightshades is one of the last, but at times most effective at reaching the root cause of the symptoms. If you haven't tried a nightshade elimination approach but tried everything else google has thrown at you, give it a try.
(Please note, this does NOT include any of the sweet potato, tuber or yam varieties, just the 'white/irish potato)
A potatoes role in energy production:
The white potato typically constitutes a molecular structure of 'long chains of glucose molecules', otherwise known as starch. Consider this; the primary purpose of eating is to obtain enough energy to function throughout the day and the body’s preferred source of this energy is glucose. Therefore, the foods that deliver the greatest amount of glucose, fructose or sucrose would logically be nutritionally superior, right? So, why are so many people condemning a food for doing what it is supposed to do? – providing efficient fuel for our physiologies, largely meeting our satiety needs, comes in over four thousand different shapes, looks and textures, globally and is organically bloody cheap to feed any family.!?!
Well if you consider that the attack against 'starch' began in the late 1970's by Mc Govern and Evertt Koop. Along with the ever so expanding and rivalling meat, seed oil and dairy industries, they created an abundance of propaganda to evidently convince the public and consumers to turn their main source of calories towards their very own product of sale (meat and dairy). One of the many theories manipulated and carried along the 'bro science' shelf was the 'starch= sugar= insulin= triglycerides= fat storage= diabetes= unhealthy theory, and this one is still being continued today.
That theory was again compiled, regurgitated and published in a Time magazine article in 2003 continuing the already feeble onslaught by putting the potato on the same table as sunflower oil and margarine as far as your hearts health is concerned. “According to Meir Stampfer, a nutrition professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, the problem is potato starch. He quit vaguely put together, that "When you eat a potato and that starch hits the saliva in your mouth, its tightly bundled molecules immediately get turned into sugars, which make a beeline for the blood. ‘You ate a potato,’ says Stampfer, ‘but your body is getting pure glucose.’ The flood of blood sugar sets off a chain reaction. Insulin pours out of the pancreas. Triglycerides shoot up. HDL cholesterol takes a dive. ‘It's a perfect setup for heart disease and diabetes.’
“Experts” who make these statements show telescopic vision by latching onto one small quality of a food and blowing it into national headlines – ignoring the big picture and the truth. The focus of the statements made by Stampfer and the likes of Lustig, Jimmy Moore and co is a concept called the glycemic index, of which they are mistakenly judging whether foods are good for human consumption based off of their GI ratings.
Just for your information glycogen storage is always president (preferred) over triglyceride formation. When liver glycogen stores are not full and we ingest 1 serving of a food that is mostly glucose with a little bit of fructose (i.e. sweet potato, taro) the liver glycogen stores are replenished and carbohydrates are burned for energy in the Krebs cycle. Fructose improves the liver’s ability to phosphorylate glucose, which enhances liver glycogen replenishment. Have those "experts" took the time to appreciate this concept? or have they like many others just cherry picked the research that suits their financial claim..?!
Why potatoes should be bought organically:
The potato like many of our other beloved root vegetables, fruits and derivatives have taken a real beating with the huge uptake of commercial farmers leaning towards quick growth, max yield, for little cost energetically and financially.
Though whilst the cost of our societies health has taken its toll on our medical systems and pockets of many individuals, the declining long term health has simultaneously arrived with the up regulation of insecticides and most commonly herbicides being added to our food supply via the application to our
soils and plants.
For the potato in particular, they are well known to host a form of fungus commonly known as "potato blight". This fungal disease is home to that of the Solanaceae family and can and has destroyed crops of potato and tomatoes in a mater of days on large (Irish and Highland famine, 1845-6) and local scales. Thus crops are sprayed like mad with commercial fungicides in order to produce reliable yields year on year.
Fortunately you don't have to meet your daily recommended.. amount.. of nutritionally dense.. fungicides..?.. Why not just eat 'real food' without that crap and try sourcing locally from your mates honesty box, farm shop or organic distributor.
For now….
stay wise and keep loving the spud!
Beatle.
The potato's journey thus far:
It would be strange if I didn't begin this topic of conversation by mentioning the very agriculturists that started the journey of our beloved potato. For the early history surrounding the potato, the stage was dominated by the men and women (Incas) who lived amongst the the seven countries that host the infamous Andes mountain ranges of South America. Many varieties of wild potato thriving at 9-12 thousand feet were documented by the likes of Columbus and the Spanish conquers to have been foraged, grown, distributed between communities and eaten by the natives of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia and thus probably for hundreds of years prior to their contact as a means of consistent calorific
 |
| From the Peruvian soils. Could you ever get bored of that? |
product cooked similar to oatmeal), various tuber like plants of which are resistant to altitude conditions. But none of these played a part at all comparable to that of the potato in the economic life of the peasant.
It was the potato species Jamesii and Fendleri from these two countries that made their first appearance into Central America (Mexico), where they where gradually accepted and patented into agriculture. The only issue being that the like of the cassava and manioc had large competition with the already established cereal maize for the first place in natures bounty (a battle that the cereal won within Central/North America, and now corn is the largest genetically modified crop in that continent).
But what has later been detailed and appreciated, is that the potato has always been home to the southern slopes of America and has gradually made its way out and across various parts of the world largely via war and conflict, having seen foreigners take away various valuable resources to then have its seed continue in such diverse climatic soils.
Surprisingly to many, one of the first stops for the potato was in fact south east asia and more specifically 'China'. China was once the largest producer of sweet potatoes or should i say Convolvulus batata and still today is amongst the big boy exporters globally. Today their crop yields are approximately 90-100 million tons per year and the Chinese people happened to once be the largest consumers of the 'not so worshipped' sweet potato during the 1930's and 40's, at the same time supplying half the worlds need for it.
The great thing about the sweet potato is that throughout china and south east asia it was cultivated on steep hilly soils that contain large ratios of salt and sand, making it practically impossible to produce rice and other flat landed cropped cereals, thus they where still able to simultaneously farm high yielding wet rice paddies, whilst meeting the calorific needs for a large sector of the worlds population through their potato yields.
 |
| China's anual yield of organic sweet potato is still one of the highest in the world today. |
However the 'white potato' was introduced to Asia by the dutch during the 1650's, where still today it is considered the "Holland tuber". Though never really as popular as the alternative varieties of sweet potato, the white potato and varieties of yams have held their own against the cereal grains throughout asia and still contribute a large percentage of useable calories for the northern mountainous populations (bordering Kaz and Mongolia).
Well could we forget the irish..?. Prior to the introduction of the potato into Ireland by Sir Walter (in what is debated to of been the late 1590's), Ireland apparently survived off of Corn, peas, beans, and possibly parsnips, with thyroid suppressing 'cabbages' and onions forming the vegetable food of the people. Now the potato has been imbedded into irish soils for well over four centuries and quit frankly made Ireland into the agricultural rich nation its known as today. It didn't take long to realise that the potato thrived in the farmers cool moist soils with very little labor needed for them to thrive, its estimated that only an acre of well fertilised soil could feed a family of twelve (or two families of six) for a whole year.
Prior to the famine that came about during the mid 1800's and lasting for around six years, the potato had become the staple crop in the poorest regions. More than three million Irish peasants became dependant of this nutritious crop with only buttermilk and onions the only real supplement to their diet. Many historical texts and newer opinions from various historians have all stated at how the peasants were actually healthier than peasants in England or Europe where bread (phosphate rich= phosphate poisoning), far less nutritious (no minerals or vitamins), was the staple food.
There has always been a common miss conception that plant foods contain zero to somewhat limited amounts of amino acids necessary for promoting and providing structural materials to build the scaffoldings that maintain cell shape and structure, supporting enzyme production which catalyse biochemical reactions and hormones which signal messages between cells. There are 8 amino acids that people cannot make and thus, these must be obtained from our diets—they are referred to as “essential”
 |
| Beyond the nutrition, you might find love amongst a fellow potato fanatic! |
The potato and tuber family differs with regards to what nutrients they offer depending on the type. The sweet potato and yam for example are considered of great value due to their high biologically available amino acids, broad spectrum of B-vitamins and calorific density. The beta carotene that most people rave about amongst the various types of sweet potato is pretty useless unless its present with stable fats for its conversion into Vit A (most people with an under active thyroid will struggle with this conversion). Taro's are well known for their vitamin A +E, zinc and Manganese properties, hence many cosmetics include extracts and isolated compounds from the root to enhance their product value.
During the late 1930's a biochemist named Russell Marker made plans to use yams for mass production of human steroids, after identifying a way to create progesterone in five steps and isolate testosterone in just eight steps from this Mexican Yam. Dr Marker went to live in Mexico where he set up a laboratory in his room to make steroids from yams. Marker worked round-the-clock for several weeks to make progesterone. Then he offered the progesterone for sale to a businessman in Mexico City, who offered him $80 per gram. However, the businessman was in shock when Marker handed him two kilograms of the stuff ($160,000), which he had produced in such a short time.
 |
The compounds Russell Marker extracted from the yams where simple precursors to the human steroidal hormones. He did try to take his formula to leading pharmaceutical companies, but they where quickly to usher him away and play down his findings. That was until the early 1950's when Syntex jumped on board and to this day still utilise the formula, of which has been patented very cheaply for commercial sale.
Nightshade…
Ok, so there might be one or two downsides for those sensitive bunch that can't handle a few Solanine's or nitrogenous alkaloids. The potato is a prestigious member of the nightshade family and thus does come with a small print attached; 'The potato may not be for all of us'. Yep i just said that, and the fact of the matter is, its true. I've worked with many low impact athletes that complain of varying degrees of joint pain, constant fatigue and out in out shit sleep and whilst I have many approaches to correct these mal-alignments, still to this day taking away nightshades is one of the last, but at times most effective at reaching the root cause of the symptoms. If you haven't tried a nightshade elimination approach but tried everything else google has thrown at you, give it a try.
(Please note, this does NOT include any of the sweet potato, tuber or yam varieties, just the 'white/irish potato)
A potatoes role in energy production:
The white potato typically constitutes a molecular structure of 'long chains of glucose molecules', otherwise known as starch. Consider this; the primary purpose of eating is to obtain enough energy to function throughout the day and the body’s preferred source of this energy is glucose. Therefore, the foods that deliver the greatest amount of glucose, fructose or sucrose would logically be nutritionally superior, right? So, why are so many people condemning a food for doing what it is supposed to do? – providing efficient fuel for our physiologies, largely meeting our satiety needs, comes in over four thousand different shapes, looks and textures, globally and is organically bloody cheap to feed any family.!?!
 |
| Despite the "attack on starch", India has been sustaining itself on rice and of course potato since 1615. |
That theory was again compiled, regurgitated and published in a Time magazine article in 2003 continuing the already feeble onslaught by putting the potato on the same table as sunflower oil and margarine as far as your hearts health is concerned. “According to Meir Stampfer, a nutrition professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, the problem is potato starch. He quit vaguely put together, that "When you eat a potato and that starch hits the saliva in your mouth, its tightly bundled molecules immediately get turned into sugars, which make a beeline for the blood. ‘You ate a potato,’ says Stampfer, ‘but your body is getting pure glucose.’ The flood of blood sugar sets off a chain reaction. Insulin pours out of the pancreas. Triglycerides shoot up. HDL cholesterol takes a dive. ‘It's a perfect setup for heart disease and diabetes.’
“Experts” who make these statements show telescopic vision by latching onto one small quality of a food and blowing it into national headlines – ignoring the big picture and the truth. The focus of the statements made by Stampfer and the likes of Lustig, Jimmy Moore and co is a concept called the glycemic index, of which they are mistakenly judging whether foods are good for human consumption based off of their GI ratings.
Just for your information glycogen storage is always president (preferred) over triglyceride formation. When liver glycogen stores are not full and we ingest 1 serving of a food that is mostly glucose with a little bit of fructose (i.e. sweet potato, taro) the liver glycogen stores are replenished and carbohydrates are burned for energy in the Krebs cycle. Fructose improves the liver’s ability to phosphorylate glucose, which enhances liver glycogen replenishment. Have those "experts" took the time to appreciate this concept? or have they like many others just cherry picked the research that suits their financial claim..?!
Why potatoes should be bought organically:
The potato like many of our other beloved root vegetables, fruits and derivatives have taken a real beating with the huge uptake of commercial farmers leaning towards quick growth, max yield, for little cost energetically and financially.
 |
| Whilst there is a conscious shift away from the huge commercial food producers, the smaller scale though larger yielders of organic food are steadily rising. |
soils and plants.
For the potato in particular, they are well known to host a form of fungus commonly known as "potato blight". This fungal disease is home to that of the Solanaceae family and can and has destroyed crops of potato and tomatoes in a mater of days on large (Irish and Highland famine, 1845-6) and local scales. Thus crops are sprayed like mad with commercial fungicides in order to produce reliable yields year on year.
Fortunately you don't have to meet your daily recommended.. amount.. of nutritionally dense.. fungicides..?.. Why not just eat 'real food' without that crap and try sourcing locally from your mates honesty box, farm shop or organic distributor.
For now….
stay wise and keep loving the spud!
Beatle.
