LOW-CARB POTATO (6-2004)

Potato sales have lagged lately, thanks mainly to the low-
carb dieting craze. Diets such as the Atkins and South 
Beach diets advise shunning such high-carb staples as 
potatoes, bread, and pasta.

For that reason, food companies have been introducing low-
carb versions of their best sellers. There are now low-carb 
pasta, low-carb bread, and low-carb ice cream. Sugar-free 
varieties of candy, which were once scarce, are now 
available everywhere. There are even low-carb snack chips, 
providing an alternative to pork rinds, which were once the 
only salty snack option for low-carb dieters.

But what about the potato? Most of the low-carb foods on 
the market are manufactured, so the amount of carbohydrates 
can be controlled by the recipes. But potatoes are grown. 
They are what they are, right?

Well, not anymore. Florida potato growers will be pitching 
a new potato that claims one-third fewer carbs than the 
ordinary spud. The growers hope that the new variety will 
lure dieters back to eating potatoes again.

Potatoes have been around for more than 4,000 years. They 
were first grown in Peru, but were brought to Europe by 
Spanish explorers. They didn’t gain popularity in America 
until the 1700s. 

In fact, for several hundred years the potato was 
mistrusted by many in Europe and America. Some thought it 
was unhealthy, even poisonous, but not because of its 
carbohydrate content. Perhaps they thought the potato tuber 
was poisonous because the leaves and stems of the plants 
actually are.

But by the late 1700s, the potato started to gain wide 
acceptance in America, probably because Thomas Jefferson 
was a big potato fan. The Irish immigration caused by the 
potato famine in Ireland also helped spread the popularity 
of the tuber around the world.

With the advent of fast food and french fries in the last 
half of the twentieth century, potato popularity went 
through the roof. But with the fattening of America 
shadowing the potato boom, some began to suspect a causal 
relationship.

Dr. Robert Atkins was among the first to popularize a low-
carb diet in the 1970s. He warned against eating potatoes 
and high-starch foods, because starch is converted quickly 
into sugar in the body. Sugar stimulates insulin production 
by the pancreas. An overabundance of insulin creates 
metabolic havoc, eventually leading to a condition known as 
syndrome-X, characterized by high blood pressure, high 
cholesterol, and even diabetes.

So Americans started to avoid the potato, leaving potato 
growers scratching their heads wondering how to counter the 
low-carb phenomenon. 

Chad Hutchinson, an assistant professor of horticulture at 
University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural 
Sciences, said a new variety of potato has been undergoing 
testing for five years. He said the new potato variety was 
developed because of its disease resistance, taste, and 
hardy nature. The fact that it is also lower in 
carbohydrates is, “just gravy,” as Hutchinson put it, 
perhaps not realizing that gravy is also high in carbs.

At any rate, the new lower-carb potato should be ready for 
the market by next January. And although it has fewer 
carbohydrates than a regular russet potato, it still packs 
almost 70 percent as many carbs. So low-carb dieters should 
still be cautious about consuming them.

Still, it’s a step in the right direction, because it means 
those on the maintenance phase of the diet may be able to 
work them in, at least a couple of times a week. 

Now what we need is a low-carb watermelon.