let's talk potatoes.

[lionessmom]

i have read that cooking them a certain way increases their fructose. but i cant find any info on what ways those are. help?

what ways can you handle? i did read that russets are better than the little round red ones....

[charlie]

From what I can work out the more complete the potato is the higher the fructose content. ie baked potato in skin will have higher content. Meg doesn't seem good on chips/fries but that may be more it shoots her blood sugar up too high as she goes doolally on them after half an hour.

Later, main crop white potatoes seem to be the lowest in fructose and peeled, soaked then boiled seem to lower the fructose. Avoid new or baby potatoes as they are sweeter.

Hope this helps.

[ukbill]

I agree with Charlie except to say variety is also important..

Cheap "value" potatoes are never acceptable to me.

I have found only 2 varieties that rarely give me problems.. King Edwards and Maris piper but these are English varieties so not going to be available world wide.

So the best idea is to give you an idea of what potatoes work for me.

All meals that include potatoes is "less good" than a meal containing rice or pasta for the Carb content.

I say this because I feel better "warm glowing feeling" after eating a meal that uses pasta or rice as the source of carbohydrates than any meal that contains potatoes.

I wondered why I never felt very good after a traditional Sunday Roast Dinner.

Why I did not feel better?

I had eaten a lot of food mostly meat and gravy and providing I had avoided my mothers insistence that I eat something green.. (boiled sprouts, broccoli or cabbage) yet still I was not feeling "good" after.

I have by deduction Mr Holmes come to the conclusion its the potatoes that are the problem!

So I have slowly gone through the varieties of Potatoes and keeping the rest of the meal HFI "safe" I have discovered the following generalisations :-

1/. Yellow fleshed or Waxy Potatoes are out!
2/. New potatoes of any variety are out!
3/. Boiling or Soaking in water is better than straight cooking (as in roast potatoes)
4/. White fleshed "floury" potatoes are best.

I still feel "better" if I avoid potatoes in total however many times I have to compromise.

1/. Baked potatoes (for me) are rarely OK
2/. Mashed potatoes are better than Roast spuds
3/. If making Roast potatoes par boil the potato wedges before roasting.
4/. Chips from a traditional Fish and Chip shop in the UK are generally OK'ish
They are usually Main crop white potatoes chipped and soaked in water before frying twice.
5/. In the UK MaCains Frozen chips are as good as they will get in a reliable form.

Warning! There are companies who add a sugar coating to their chips to reduce the cooking time as the chips "brown" quicker.. the main culprit in the UK is a company based in Willenhall in the West Midlands called "Middleton Catering" Their chips (fries to people in the USA) are inedible!

Hopefully this helps.. I may need to edit this later as I have discovered a new beer 9.2% proof.. it is currently undergoing testing.. (purely for scientific research you understand)

So far it is getting the all clear although I may need to try another bottle to make sure.. Hic.. :*

[ukbill]

Thanks Fred

I was trying to be as HFI sensitive as possible with the subject of Potatoes because for parents feeding small children, the parent may not know how to prepare the potatoes in a fashion to provide the smallest Fructose load as possible or know there are differences in Fructose load between varieties.

I agree with Red skinned potatoes however there is a new variety called "Rooster" red skinned potatoes (in the UK) which I tried and found them acceptable.

Hence I was trying to indicate that Floury white potatoes are usually the best.

I still maintain that I feel that I get a lot more "goodness" from a meal if I have Rice or Pasta instead of Potatoes.

Sugar dipping frozen chips Sounds like a typical American thing to do.

The beer by the way was excellent at doing one thing.. getting me drunk asap!

The ingredients were Malt, Hops, Yeast and Water.

I do not expect it to be available everywhere as it seems to be a short run form a Scottish Micro-brewery.

Apparently it was made in a similar way to a Californian Micro Brewery recipe and was called "American Double IPA" (IPA stands for India Pale Ale)

When The British empire extended to India the beer went off on the long sea journey

Someone found by adding a lot of Hops to the beer preserved it.. hence IPA (and the home version "Bitter" )

This had a lot of Hops and was very bitter tasting.. however I persevered and managed to drink the whole bottle.. about 1 min I think it took

HFI Safe for me! Well no not safe if you want to drive after drinking a bottle or two or even walk if you drink 3 bottles

[ukbill]

I also meant to say do not buy the variety which has the smallest sugar content on the label.

I went to 2 Supermarkets in the UK Tesco and Wallmart (ASDA).

They all had meaningless sugar content labels on the potatoes which did not correlate to my experience with them.

New potatoes showing lower sugar content than main crop floury whites for example.. and the lowest sugar content was reserved for ....


Wait for it....


SWEET POTATOES!

Yeah RIGHT!

This illustrates what I have said in other posts about the difficulty in identifying one type of Carbohydrate from another in a high Carbohydrate mix (such as a potato which is mostly complex Carbohydrates or in a Sugar such as Glucose).

[charlie]

Hi Bill,

Hic, the beers going well then.

sadly the sugar dipping of fries we can't just accuse the americans of as it happens over here as well, some of the companies over here are starting to admit it and list it on their labels but not all. I just do them now in extreme emergencies.

I have bought a good old fashioned chip pan and do mine in beef dripping now, it may take a while to get temperature and timing right - nearly set fire to the kitchen yesterday but definately didn't have such bad aftereffects half an hour later - ie same affects as your beer he he..... ;D

Interesting you struggle with Maris Piper and King Edwards as they are the main types i tend to get Megs and always wondered, like you she is better on rice.

As I have such an exciting life now - I got a book out of the library on potatoes!!! Yes, I really know how to live it up now??? so I will bore you all with a list of late and main crop potatoes as I think they will have the lowest sugar content.
Ailsa, are white and floury; Arran victory have purple skins, main crop; Cara late main crop can be white or red. Golden wonder are russet with yellow flesh but are late main crop so should be low. Kerrs pink are late main crop but have pink skins. King Edward and Maris Piper are main crop but Bill doesn't recommend. Morag, main crop pale skin. Pentland Square usually white skinned main crop; Shelagh(scottish) main crop.

There, are you asleep yet?? No, well added extra they are high in Vitamin B and C and iron and potassium, so there you have it, All you need to know about potatoes, I'll look up some good usefull recipes and post those soon.

[ukbill]

No No you got it wrong Sorry I must have worded it badly.

I DO recommend King Edwards and Maris Piper..

"I have found only 2 varieties that rarely give me problems.. King Edwards and Maris piper but these are English varieties so not going to be available world wide."

The reason they "rarely give me problems" is because sometimes they are not pure breed and if genetically contaminated with other varieties of potato then I can get problems.

Occasionally they appear to be mixed with other varieties (at the farm or packing plant) that look the same but when peeling them you can see the difference in the colour and texture of the flesh. They also cook differently as well.

Please don't go by the stated sugar contents they do not correspond to my eating experience of any potatoes..

Golden wonder I have not seen or tested but being red skinned and Yellow waxy flesh I would not even bother to buy them as I think they will be far too sweet.

OK ?

PS the beers fine thank you the only problem is I drive for a living so do not get enough opportunities to "test" new brews..

Its all in the interest of scientific research you understand.. If you know anyone willing to help fund this important research please put them in touch with me as all this hard work is currently self funded

[charlie]

Oops, sorry yes, should have gone to specsavers, I must admit I was surprised when I read it as really give problems as I thought they were the best type.

Here's another idea to ponder: a friend and I were wondering if the way they are packaged alters the sugar content. If we buy the same make of potato at say a greengrocers where they come in paper sacks they taste much better than the supermarket ones packed in plastic bags,

[ukbill]

The Potatoes packaged by Supermarkets are washed processed and packaged in "protective" atmosphere they are also treated with an Iodine compound to stop them sprouting.

I would suspect that the potatoes bought form a local shop are far fresher than the potatoes form the Supermarkets.

Other than new potatoes I cannot say that the sugar content changes much I do find older potatoes are better than newer thinner skinned potatoes.

I hardly ever eat them now unless in the form of Chips (fries) from my Local chip shop. I avoid eating chips when the new potatoes are being used.

[lionessmom]

loads of good advice! thanks!

i have bought some large russet potatoes. they look "floury" to me when i cut them open. i was thinking of doing them in the fashion of hot crash potatoes. but that involves some skin on the bottom. but they do get boiled first. we are gonna give them a try. we need the potassium. i am starting to get leg cramps. lol. and the kids get tired of rice all the time.

[lionessmom]

thanks!

[charlie]

Thats it, thanks to Freds link I can now officially call myself an Anorak about potatoes!!!!!! My life is complete.

[ukbill]

Sugar free potato's!

Just bought 4 packs of Gnocci (Italian potato dumplings).

They are great and "cook" in 4 min.. just pop them into boiling salted water and skim them out when they float.. easy!

I usually make up a pesto sauce out of fresh Basil oil salt and hard cheese (any Italian hard cheese will do grated) its dead easy and very nice with pork chops or meat of any kind.. but a bit strong if plated up with white fish.

If I'm eating them with white fish then I'll toss the Gnocci in a little butter, salt and pepper.

They are made from mashed potato and claim to be sugar free! Certainly I have never had a reaction from them.

[ukbill]

lionessmom If you are short of potassium why not buy some "Low Sodium Salt" and add it in small quantities to your food?

I quote form the LoSalt web site "LoSalt is a blend of at least 66.6% potassium chloride and up to 33.3% sodium chloride. So gram for gram, LoSalt contains 66% less sodium than regular table sea and rock salts."

I have tried it and find it to be too "sharp" for me to use in anything more than cooking.. but then it will be an acquired taste I suppose.

The Web site is here www.losalt.com/chemistry.html

That should do the job for you?