Publications /  The Potato, Treasure of the Andes
From Agriculture to Culture

Hold the cooking oil, butter and sour cream, and the potato is a dieter's delight. The much-maligned tuber contains just 5 percent of the fat content of wheat, and one-fourth the calories of bread.

Not only are potatoes not bad for you, they are high in vitamins and minerals and boast a particularly healthy mix of complex amino acids. This is especially important in developing countries, where a lack of nourishing food is a far greater threat than obesity.

A single potato contains about half the daily adult requirement of vitamin C. Other staples such as rice and wheat have none. Sea captains traveling between Europe and the New World learned this centuries ago, and carried ample supplies of potatoes to fight scurvy, a common shipboard disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. In the United States, potatoes actually provide the population with more of their vitamin C than citrus fruits.

A boiled potato has more protein than maize, and nearly twice the calcium. Cooked in their skins, potatoes aid in the digestion of other foods. Skinless, boiled potatoes are mixed with water to make a puree that is administered to children suffering from dysentery.

Potatoes are also rich in vitamin B, iron, magnesium and potassium. Their assessed biological value - a graded measure of the nitrogen provided by a food to the body - ranks a high 73 on a scale from zero to 100. Soybeans score lower.

High-yielding potatoes are especially good on a food value per land area basis. A hectare of potatoes yields twice the protein of a hectare of wheat. Every year, potatoes provide more edible material than the combined world output of fish and meat.