Potato Extracts

My husband played the word potato for 31 points in our ongoing game of Words with Friends today. My older daughter ate the last of the hash brown potato casserole today. I read about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes in the latest edition of Hobby Farms magazine too. All this (and I’m swearing off French fries for New Year’s) is nudging me to blog about potato extracts. A daily dose of potato extract (derived from 30 potatoes -yes, 30- that’s a lot of spuds!) could be a solution for preventing both obesity and type 2 diabetes. The testing that arrived at the aforementioned conclusion was done on mice. In fact investigators fed mice an obesity-inducing diet for 10 weeks. The results soon appeared on the scale: mice that started out weighing on average 25 grams put on about 16 grams. But mice that consumed the same diet but with a potato extract gained much less weight: only 7 more grams. The culprits (or obesity fighting heroes) in the potato extract are polyphenols. Polyphenols are also found in other so-called super foods (fruits, like blueberries, and vegetables) that we eat. Despite the fact that potatoes are cheap to produce, and already part of the basic diet in many countries, it takes an awful lot of potatoes for each suggested dose of potato extract. Nevertheless if the trials are eventually designed for humans, I will be interested to find out if the extract works to prevent obesity and diabetes. Maybe now I’ll be able to put potatoes out of my mind.