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White vs yellow potatoes
Hi everyone! I often see that potatoes are listed as being very low in vit A (carotene). However, I live in Russia and almost every type of potato sold here has yellow-colored flesh instead of white.
I mean, like this one when it's not cooked:
I've been noticing that I don't feel very good after eating them, but haven't figured out why until this moment.
Which kind of potatoes do you eat? Do you specifically search for white ones?
I have the same one ( yellow. ones ) , I am yet to see any. white ones , I have never eaten then . I don't feel anything terrible after eating these potatoes . May be others can comment
@viktor same potatoes here in Czech Republic. I also don't feel good after eating them. I think it's due to high oxalate content and also other things that are in nightshade vegetables. Especially my joints and spine doesn't feel good. That is probably oxalates deposits in the joints..
I somehow believe that in my case it's due to their carotene content. I was fine with potatoes this summer, but then added lots of cheese to my diet, and after that, I think my liver vitamin A stores went completely overboard, so now I'm very sensitive to even the tiniest amounts of b-carotene in foods.
By the way, please see the paper below from your fellow Czechs 🙂
The β-carotene concentration of raw and boiled tubers ranged from 0 to above 1.20 mg/kg DW, in both raw and boiled tubers.
André et al. (2007a,b) reported a β-carotene range of variation of 0.42–2.19 mg/kg
i.e. up to 120 mcg in a cooked potato per 100 gram from the first assessment - I would say that's pretty high if someone is intent on keeping their vitamin A intake as low as possible. Also, potatoes are usually eaten in larger quantities than 100g, maybe around 200-300g per meal. If a person lives off potatoes and still wants to cut vit A to a minimum, I think they should seek only the white-flesh varieties.
Estonian here. These yellow potatoes are the main potatoes sold in my country also.
In fact, this has probably been my main stable food throughout my whole life. I have no idea what white potatoes are, never seen them.
@viktor because I don't have any immediate issues even after eating things like water melon which is insanely high in beta carotene(especially when I had no problem eating 5kg of watermelon as a snack..) I don't think small amount of carotens in potatoes is the issue for me.. I get stiff joints and feeling like I have sand in neck spine and that is related to nightshade vegetables and also oxalates.. I am not trying to eat super low vit A diet. I am just avoiding foods that have high and moderate content of vit A. I don't care about foods like yellow potatoes, corn, bananas, oats and other grains, pseudograins, legumes etc.. that can have some beta carotene. That's the last thing that can damage my health right now.. For me copper, iron is bigger problem..
I don't eat any potatoes because I'm oversensitive to the glycoalkaloids but from the papers I have seen the yellow potatoes are still relatively low in carotenoids, although they have enough to give symptoms and stop detox if you're senstiive. For example look at page 33 and onwards of this paper https://www.livsmedelsverket.se/globalassets/publikationsdatabas/rapporter/2010/2010_livsmedelsverket_19_potato.pdf
For comparison most nuts seem to have about 30-60 µg lutein per 100g and most people (I personally don't) seem to tolerate them. The potato readings are also much lower than the whole grains (except rice) that people here seem to like to stuff their faces with.
Hi! Thanks for the info!
Although, I don't understand the bad reaction to lutein that some people claim to have as it's not a provitamin A carotenoid.
This is what Wikipedia says about potato color:
Dozens of potato cultivars have been selectively bred specifically for their skin or, more commonly, flesh color, including gold, red, and blue varieties[35] that contain varying amounts of phytochemicals, including carotenoids for gold/yellow or polyphenols for red or blue cultivars.[36] Carotenoid compounds include provitamin A alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, which are converted to the essential nutrient, vitamin A, during digestion. Anthocyanins mainly responsible for red or blue pigmentation in potato cultivars do not have nutritional significance, but are used for visual variety and consumer appeal.[37] In 2010, potatoes were bioengineeredspecifically for these pigmentation traits.[38]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
Thanks! F***ing carotenoids 🙂