Eating raw potatos poisonous?

photo source from flickr.com

"Do you know that eating raw potato is poisonous?"

A friend munched on while we were making some lunch conversations of my recent fascination on raw foods. He was not the first person to tell me that. The first person who gave me that info, warned by not to go raw on potatos. I did give him a little old home folk remedy piece, the raw potato juice, rich in potassium and other minerals is use to treat gout,rheumatism and arthritis.

My aunt's brother in-law has been drinking raw potato juice every morning on a daily basis for the past few years is still very much alive and without any side effects.

Intrigued and wondered if this is yet another urban legend, a false or misleading fact not verified but passed down by many innocent folks who take word of mouth as facts.

So ok, we are told since young, that we shouldn't eat green potatos or potatos with sprouts runs true, well partly.

Potatos originated from South America, comes from the Solanaceae nightshade family, it is one of the most commonly cultivated tubers in the world.

Potato contains Solanine & chaconine, glycoalkaloids that is concentrated in the leaves and the sprouts of the plant. However it is not the green in the potato that is poisonous. Its the chlorophyll that gives the Green. Potatos contains chlorophyll resulting from excessive exposure to light. This same process of photosynthesis that produces chlorophyll also produces solanine, that are toxic and affects the body's nervous system.

So avoid eating the green tubers or new sprouts, remove any of the budding sprouts, remove the green skin. Cooking the spud above 170 °C or 340 °F does destroy some concentration.

Solanine mostly contains just below the skin of the spud, but in some spuds, the level varies. So you could probably remove the skin and still able to eat the green spud.

Fun facts :
Non-organic potatos contain high concentration of pesticides. They may contain dieldrin (lung cancer) and methamidophos (muscle and motor cranial paralysis), and aldicarb (respiratory paralysis). So where possible, eat Organic Potatos.

Not so Fun Fact:
Wanna know what the medical term for Potato Poisoning called?
Solanum tuberosum poisoning.

Symptoms
* Hypothermia (lower than normal body temperature)
* Paralysis
* Shock
* Fever
* Slowed breathing
* Dilated pupils
* Vision changes
* Stomach or abdominal pain
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Slow pulse
* Headache
* Delirium
* Loss of sensation
* Hallucinations

Quick cure : Induce vomitting, swallow activated charcoal, admit to emergency.

More Fun Facts on the uses of Raw potatos :

Cure Common Warts
Raw potatoes are chock full of Potassium, Vitamin C and Iron. If you have a common wart you want to get rid of, cut off a piece off a raw potato. Rub the flesh side over the wart so it's completely covered with the juice. Then, discard the potato piece. Don't rinse the juice off. Do this daily until the wart is gone.

Soothe Minor Skin Burns
Another unusual use for a raw potato is to treat minor burns. The next time you get a burn, peel and dice up a small potato- or use a piece of a peeled potato, depending how large the affected area is- into fine pieces. Add a bit of tap water, just enough to make a paste. Apply the potato paste to the burn and let it set undisturbed for several minutes. You should feel relief from the pain.

Remove Berry Stains From Your Hands
Berry stains are tough to remove. Rub the stains with a peeled, raw potato, they should come right off! Finish by rinsing the juice and the berry stains off your hands with plenty of tap water.

Remove Excess Salt From Soups and Stews
Cut up one or two washed, raw potatoes and drop them into the pot. Allow the potato to cook for several minutes, then use a slotted spoon to remove the pieces. The potato will have absorbed the excess salt.

Get Rid of a Throbbing Headache
Slice the potato in half and place a piece on each temple. Gently rub your temples with the potato until the pain lets up.

Give Your Geraniums a Nutritional Boost
If you're planting young Geranium plants, or you have existing plants that are looking a little anemic, a raw potato can help make them grow better. Just cut up a small raw potato and place it into the hole along with the plant. To give existing Geranium plants a boost, dig some of the soil out and away from the stem. Place the pieces of raw potato around the stem, then replace the soil.

Raw Potato juice to your Car Washer
Add raw potato juice in your organic vegetable based environmentally friendly car detergent.
It helps disintegrate tough stains or spots on your car without damaging the paint work.

What organic food to buy if you can't go fully organic?

10 Produce to Buy Organic

Studies based on 1999 studies by Consumers Union (CU)and the Environmental Working Group (EWG)

The two groups analyzed the amounts and toxicity of pesticide residues found in conventionally grown food samples by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While most of these foods don’t exceed safety tolerances for a dose of a single pesticide, most contain multiple pesticide residues. CU and EWG have also considered combined exposures and risks to children. One-year-olds eat three times as many fresh peaches, per pound of body weight, as do adults, and more than four times as many apples and pears, according to CU’s Consumer Reports. In addition, children’s rapidly developing bodies are more vulnerable than adults’ are. Pregnant women should take care, too, as many pesticides cross the placenta to expose the fetus. Although DDT and related chemicals such as dieldrin have been banned in the U.S. for over 20 years, these pesticides can still be found in foods that absorb them from the soil. To reduce your pesticide exposure, you can peel fruit that you would normally just rinse, such as apples and pears. Some pesticides, like dieldrin, aldicarb and DDT, however, are systemic, pervading the flesh of the vegetable or fruit.

10 Fruits And Vegetables To Buy Organic

Peaches
Summer’s blushing fruit contains high residues of iprodione, classified as a probable human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and methyl parathion, an endocrine disruptor and organophosphate (OP) insecticide. Methyl parathion has caused massive kills of bees and birds. According to Consumer Reports, single servings of peaches "consistently exceeded" EPA’s safe daily limit for a 44-pound child.

Apples
Apples may contain methyl parathion. Both fresh apples and baby food applesauce can also contain chlorpyrifos, an OP which has caused large bird kills. CORE Values IPM apple growers are trying to phase out OPs.

Pears
Pears, both fresh and in baby food, can also come with methyl parathion, as well as the OP azinphos-methyl, which is toxic to freshwater fish, amphibians and bees.

Winter Squash
Dieldrin, a chlorinated, carcinogenic insecticide, exceeded the safe daily limit for a young child in two-thirds of positive samples. Another potent carcinogen, heptachlor, also showed up. DDT and its breakdown product, DDE, were detected in baby food squash.

Green Beans
Green Beans can contain acephate, methamidophos and dimethoate (three neurotoxic OPs), and endosulfan, an endocrine-disrupting insecticide, which showed up in baby food, too. Acephate disorients migrating birds, throwing them off course.

Grapes
U.S. grapes contain methyl parathion and methomyl, a carbamate insecticide listed as an endocrine disruptor; imports may contain dimethoate.

Strawberries
The enhanced red color of strawberries comes from the fungicide captan, a probable human carcinogen that can irritate skin and eyes, and is highly toxic to fish. While the lethal soil fumigant methyl bromide doesn’t show up on the fruit, it has harmed California farm workers, and depletes the ozone layer.

Raspberries
These berries can contain captan, iprodione and carbaryl, a suspected endocrine disruptor that has also been found in plum baby food

Spinach
Permethrin, a possible human carcinogen, and dimethoate dominate spinach’s toxicity ratings, but CU notes that residue levels have been declining as U.S. farmers reduce use of these insecticides. DDT has been found in spinach, which leads all foods in exceeding safety tolerances.

Potatoes
Pesticide use on potatoes is growing, CU warns. They may contain dieldrin and methamidophos, and children eating potatoes risk getting a very high dose of aldicarb, CU says.

Note: In an update to its 1999 report, Consumers Union announced two more foods high in chlorpyrifos or other pesticide residues: tomatoes and cantaloupe.

The Sprouts of Life

Ever have trouble digesting beans or grains properly?
Want a great and cheap way to stay healthy?
Sprout them!

For those into Raw and Living Foods, sprouts are an essential part of the living diet.

The Lowdown on Sprouts:
- Enzymes , digestion and Nutritional info

Sprouted beans, grains, nuts and seeds essentially help to pre-digest complex carbohydrates and proteins by breaking down into simpler carbohydrates and free amino acids. It also removes anti-nutrients like phytates, enzyme inhibitors making it easy for the body to use less enzymes, hence easier for digestion. Some sprouts like seeds, grains and legumes even increase enzyme content such as proteolytic and amylolytic enzymes in our bodies. These are essential in digesting complex proteins and carbohydrates. Sprouted beans also helps reduce gas and flatulence in the body.

Some of the most nutritious are rye, fenugreek, wheat, mung bean, lentils, and alfalfa. The increase of vitamins in sprouts is tremendous during the sprouting period, compared to the unsprouted seed. Studies from India and Asia show increases in carotene and vitamin A, Dr. C.W. Bailey of the University of Minnesota showed, in a study attempting to establish the importance of enzymes in the human body, that vitamin C value increased by 600 percent in sprouted wheatgrass.

Many Brassicas sprouts (such as broccoli, cabbage, mustard, radish) contain high amount of anti-oxidants and increased vitamins and minerals.

According to John Hopkins University researchers estimates that a three day Broccoli sprouts contains 20 to 50 times the anti-oxidant compound sulfurophane than matured broccoli. Radish seeds may also have the anti-cancer potential according to Australian researchers (Australia Department of Primary Industries Queensland)

How to Sprout (takes 2-3days)

Sprouting is easy, a little time consuming, but its highly nutritious and great low budget option for those who find organic produce too expensive.

• Soak your beans in filtered clean water for 12-24 hours (depending on beans). Quality of water is important if you want your sprouts to taste great.
  

• Use a wide mouthed glass jar and filling up to one third of it with seeds. Sterilise the glass jar with hydrogen peroxide. Fit a piece of mesh (or muslin netting) over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band. The jar should be airy and slightly exposed.
  

• Rinse and drain the beans four times for every 8 hours, Find a cool place out of the sun to keep your jar tilted downwards at an angle to keep your beans oxygenated. Cover with tea-towel - beans need darkness to germinate.

• Rinse the beans with fresh filtered water. This is important. Germinated seeds/beans in our tropical and humid weather encourages bacterial and fungal growth. But regular rinsing with water oxygenates the seeds, preventing fungal growth. If sprouts smells bad, dump it and restart.

• When sprouts are ready, give them final rinse. Sprouted tail should be at least 2 times the length of the bean/seed

• Make sure the sprouts are completely drained of fluids and lightly moist. Store them in the fridge in a glass jar or zip-lock bag.

More information of sprouting times for various seeds and beans are found in http://www.sproutpeople.com

Further reference
-Book: "Sprout for the Love of Every Body"by author Viktoras Kulvinskas
- Raw and Living Food Website http://www.living-foods.com/articles/