USEFULNESS OF POTATOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 42, 20 February 1933, Page 6

USEFULNESS OF POTATOES.

(To the Editor.) I was very pleased to see that the "Star 1 * was advocating the greater consumption of potatoes, especially at this time of a glut on the market, and therefore cheap prices. The thought has come that the gluts of various products have not been taken advantage of (and counteracted to some extent) in the past as they might have been. Producers and other interested parties have been content to simply advise the eating of certain products wifili such slogans as "Eat more eggs," "Eat more oranges," "Eat more fruit," and with the present knowledge of the housewife or the man in the street they can be forgiven for asking why they should. I say, "Eat moire potatoes," because at the present time they are a remarkably cheap food if correctly cooked. By correctly cooking, I mean that they should be boiled or baked in their skins. The reason is that if you cut a raw potato with a sharp knife and then carefully examine the surface, three distinct sections, or layers, can be seen. The comparatively thin outer surface, a broader layer inside called the fibre vascular layer (amongst other things it contains pigment and the power of absorbing -an increased quantity -when exposed to the sun, therefore it turns green, giving the potato an unpleasant taste), and' the balance may be described as the flesh of the potato. On careful inspection even that can be again divided. Practically the whole of the valuable mineral matter is contained in the two outer layers. A potato contains less than one per cent of fat, but nearly the whole of it is contained in the outer portion. There is a larger amount of nitrogen in the' form of protein, etc., in the outer layers than in the other portion. The proportions were fixed by Mother Nature, and when we take a knife and peel away the bulk of the two outer layers the potato becomes an unbalanced food. This is further accentuated when the potato is soaked in water for some time before cooking, then cooked in an abundance of water, which, by the way, is poured down the sink. Potatoes are certainly deficient in fat, although they contain almost as much as wheat. Unfortunately for the farmer, butter is also cheap, so add a little butter to the very cheap potatoes, and you have a valuable food, ROBERT J. TERRY.