A new and virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has moved to major wheat growing areas in Iran, as reported from the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. The fungus is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying entire fields. Bad news seem to be coming at us from every angle. The wheat fungus first emerged in Uganda in 1999 and is therefore called Ug99. The wind-borne transboundary pest subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia. If it reaches eastern Europe, North America and Australia, it’s curtains.
I’ve been searching high and wide for a drought & pest resistant wheat and although CSIRO of Australia are coming close to produce toughened, water use efficiency crops, the end result is nevertheless genetic engineering coupled with old fashioned know-how of breeding salt-tolerant wheat varieties techniques.
With cereal prices soaring worldwide, an international conference has opened in Cusco, Peru, last week on a crop that produces more food on less land than maize, wheat or rice.
That crop, which some scientists are calling “the food of the future,” is the humble potato. Yes, the old tuber is back in vogue. Grown in more than 100 countries, potato is already an integral part of the global food system. It is the world’s number one non-grain food commodity and world production reached a record 320 million tonnes in 2007.
Potato consumption is expanding strongly in developing countries, which now account for more than half of the global harvest and where the potato’s ease of cultivation and high energy content have made it a valuable cash crop for millions of farmers.
Potato’s prospects are bright. In Peru itself, food price inflation has spurred government efforts to reduce costly wheat imports by encouraging people to eat bread that includes potato flour. In China, the world’s biggest potato producer (72 million tonnes in 2007), agriculture experts have proposed that potato become the major food crop on much of the country’s arable land.
Potatoes get a bad rap as little more than a waist-thickening waste of calories. But amazing new research puts spuds squarely at the center of the latest weight loss buzz, along with other unfairly maligned carbs such as corn and rice. The reason: all these foods contain resistant starch, a unique kind of fiber you’ll be hearing a lot more about. In fact, experts agree that it’s one of the most exciting nutrition breakthroughs they’ve seen in years. Although this may be the first you’ve heard of resistant starch, it’s likely been a part of your diet most of your life. Resistant starch is a type of dietary fiber naturally found in many carbohydrate-rich foods such as potatoes, grains, and beans , particularly when these foods are cooled. It gets its name because it “resists” digestion in the body, and though this is true of many types of fiber, what makes resistant starch so special is the powerful impact it has on weight loss and overall health.
As a dieter’s tool it can’t be beat: Not only does it increase your body’s ability to burn fat, but it also fills you up and reduces overall hunger. Its health benefits are truly impressive as well. Studies show it improves blood sugar control, boosts immunity, and may even reduce your cancer risk.
So why is some of the starch resistant to digestion and what does cooking and cooling do to starch?
Starch is made up of glucose molecules linked together to form amylose and amylopectin. Amylose has a linear molecular structure and can stack to form tighly packed granules which is insoluble and hard to digest whereas amylopectin has a branched structure and thus cannot form tighly packed granules and and is thus easier to digest.
Most plants contain about 20-25% amylose. But some, like pea starch have 60% amylose and certain species of maize starch have 80% amylose (e.g. Hi-Maize(r)) - these plants are therefore very high in RS.
The physical and chemical composition of starch determines whether starch is digested in the small intestine or whether it ferments in the colon. There are several reasons why starch may not be digested:
Some starch may be physically trapped inside intact plant cells as in wholegrain foods like muesli and grainy bread. This starch is therefore inaccessible because digestive amylases are unable to penetrate or break down the cellulose cell walls.
The higher the amylose content of starch the greater its resistance to digestion because they form tighly packed granules in cells. Raw potato, green bananas, pulses and high amylose maize starch have a high amylose content.
When starch is heated, starch granules swell and are disrupted. This process, known as gelatinisation, makes the starch much more accessible to digestive enzymes. Starch with a high amylose content and starch which is inaccessible due to the physical structure in which it is located, are less susceptible to gelatinisation and hence are more resistant to digestion.
When starch that has been heated, is cooled, retrogradation occurs converting some of the gelatinised starch to a crystalline form which is resistant to digestion. Foods, such as bread, cornflakes, cold cooked potato, rice and pasta, contain retrograded starch which is resistant to digestion.
How much resistant starch is required for good health?
Some resistant starch is measured when total dietary fibre is measured. However, there is currently no official analytical method for measuring the resistant content of foods. It has been estimated that resistant starch intake in Australia is around 5-7 grams/person/day. Approximately 20 grams a day is recommended to obtain the beneficial health benefits of resistant starch.
There’s nothing better than a baked potato for a snack or dinner. Do you know the calorie count of a baked potato? You’d be amazed. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, if a person’s entire diet consisted of potatoes, he or she would get all the riboflavin (vitamin B2), one and a half times the iron, three to four times the thiamin (B1) and niacin (B3), and more than ten times the amount of vitamin C that the body needs.
$2500 School Wellness Grants Available! If there are farmers among us here, the US Potato Board, representing US potato growers, and the School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) are co-sponsoring the first-ever School Wellness Grant program. Ten grants of $2,500 will be awarded for one of the following: purchasing food service equipment for the healthful preparation of fresh or processed potatoes; physical activity equipment; or development or execution of nutrition or physical activity educational programs.
Would you like some fries with that grant?
15 Comments
I feel some incoming potato recipes, folks. Post your own as well, it’s all good!
I don’t eat potatoes because their glycemic index rivals that of sugar. (Who wants to look at a half-pound pile of sugar topped with sour cream on a plate?)
This has to do with the same starch issue you discuss above, and feeds into insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. I will write much about those things, and why ordinary Irish potatoes (sorry, AAF) are very bad for people with metabolic syndrome.
Of course, I’m allergic to wheat, so I don’t eat it either.
Makes note to write about low-glycemic and non-wheat foods, with recipes.
potato pancakes - latkes (compliments from elmo)
Scrub a couple of baking potatoes. Grate them, skins and all, on the large holes of a box grater. Or, if you’re lazy, use a food processor. With your hands, squeeze out the water from the grated potatoes.
Add a chopped onion and one or two beaten eggs. You can add a little matzoh meal (or some folks add wheat flour…personally? yuck), but you don’t have to. Without a thickener, though, you’ll need a bit more oil for frying.
Heat about 1/4 inch of olive oil in your fry pan at medium high (you can use less oil if you’ve thickened your pancakes with matzoh meal or flour). Using your hands, squeeze the potato mixture into little patties and ease them into the oil. Fry on both sides until golden and crispy.
Drain the pancakes on paper towels as you finish frying, and keep hot in the oven on a cookie sheet until all your batches are finished.
We serve with sour cream. Some folks go with applesauce. Eat ‘em for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Infinitely variable. You can use Indian spices, cilantro, grated sweet potato, garlic, anything you can think of to change the character of potato pancakes. Yum.
Roesti (compliments of gchaucer2)
# of potatoes depend on how many served — I use 2
Grate unpeeled potatoes using basic grater (large holes), food processor or mandoline
Rinse and drain
Wring out most water by placing potatoes in kitchen towl and twist
Mix with 2 tblsp. corn starch — Salt and pepper.
Melt 2 tblsp. unsalted butter in 8-9 inch non stick skillet.
Dump potatoes in skillet — turn heat up to med. to med-high and cover.
Cook for about 3-4 minutes, but check to make sure no scorching.
Uncover, place a plate over skillet and flip out potatoes.
Add 1-2 tblsp. butter, melt, return potatoes uncooked side down and cover.
Slide potatoes to warmed plate — and serve immediately. They are crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside.
Kate, how about rice? any other types of grain you can’t eat? By all means you should write that diary, it’s useful for those who have metabolic syndrome.
Brown rice is good; white rice is somewhat lower in glycemic load than potatoes, but still pretty high. I love barley and can make a mean risotto with it. Amaranth and quinoa are also excellent grains that I can eat with no problem. I haven’t explored baking with either amaranth or quinoa flour, although I understand it can be done with some finagling.
Biscuit has celiac disease, which is a more severe form of wheat intolerance — I just break out in hives and have - um - adverse gastrointestinal effects, but wheat proteins actually attack and destroy her digestive system. I think she can eat potatoes, though.
Between us we can manage some good alternative recipes.
There are a number of flours that are wheat & gluten free such as Amaranth (I’ll do a diary on this particular grain, most amazing), Arrowroot, Barley, Brown rice, Buckwheat, Millet, Cornmeal, and of course potato flour…and quite a few more.
Another good recipe, from dlcampbe
Potato Casserole
6 to 8 White Rose potatoes
2 cups sour cream or IMO
3 cups grated Jack cheese
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
3/4 cup green onions, chopped fine
1/4 cup butter
Crushed corn flakes for topping, about 1 cup
Cook potatoes ½ way, chill 2 hours and then grate.
Heat ¼ cup butter with chicken soup: add sour cream and stir until melted. In a buttered deep casserole dish layer potatoes, cheese, onions and then soup mix. Repeat 2 more times. Sprinkle corn flake crumbs on top and dot with butter. Bake at 325º F for 45-60 min.
note: Use only White Rose potatoes…..russets will be mushy.
I’m looking for my Spanish omelet recipe, will post it when I find it…I have recipes everywhere…
I ate some wonderful Irish Chips at a restaurant last night. I was thrilled - they tasted exactly like something I’d make, meaning they were just thinly sliced potatoes which had *maybe* been soaked in a bowl of cold salt water - but not too salty - then rinsed and fried in something very, very light.
Not that I’m that great a potato chip maker - it’s more that the chips were so wonderfully inconsistent, with some very dark brown and cooked almost too long and others very light and crisp, and just a totally handmade and homemade thing about them and very nice and tasty.
Potatoes are high on the glycemic index, but there’s new data and approaches to diabetes etc out there which note that there simply is no comparison between the sugars in, say, carrots and those in a mess of M & Ms. I’ll dig around and post some of the info a bit later. I’m still trying to recoup from my exciting adventure into the heart - okay, the big toe - of The Polka Belt and all the beery antics of the natives. They sure do talk funny!
Mwalla!
Sounds like you had a great time!
Well, it was a working trip, and I had to attend all these “classes” and get documentation for attending them and etc. - and the beds at the hotel absolutely suxxt and etc.
But it was fun watching the natives in their natural habitat and learning about their native calls and mating rituals.
That’s a diary in itself!!!! Do tell.
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