I love potatoes. They are perhaps the most versatile vegetable around. You can boil it, bake it, mash it, fry it…. Potatoes aren’t nearly as bad as some people make them out to be. Potatoes contain all 22 amino acids that form complete proteins after being easily digested. Potatoes are rich in minerals and loaded with Vitamin C and B6. As a fact, potatoes have more potassium than bananas. You might ask why would we want to avoid potatoes if they are so good for you? There is a huge difference between conventional and organically grown potatoes.
Why You Must Avoid Conventional Potatoes
- Root vegetables easily absorb pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. Pesticides that may be applied to conventionally grown potatoes, which have been identified as acutely toxic, include: Aldicarb, Clothianidin, Methamidophos, Methyl parathion, and Propargite.
- According to the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program, 37 different pesticides have been found on conventional potatoes: 7 carcinogens, 12 hormone disruptors, 9 neurotoxins, 6 reproductive toxins.
- Ironically, many potato growers only eat potatoes grown on plots separate from the potatoes they grow for profit. Jeffrey Moyer, chair of the National Organic Standards Board said, “I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals.”
- Modern Conventional potatoes do not sprout. This is due to the fact that potatoes are being spread with a chemical called Clorpropham that prevent them from sprouting. These sprout inhibitors possess mutagenic properties that change the genetic material of an organism. A 1993 Cornell University study says this;
Chlorpropham is moderately toxic by ingestion. It may cause irritation of the eyes or skin. Symptoms of poisoning in laboratory animals have included listlessness, incoordination, nose bleeds, protruding eyes, bloody tears, difficulty in breathing, prostration, inability to urinate, high fevers, and death. Autopsies of animals have shown inflammation of the stomach and intestinal lining, congestion of the brain, lungs and other organs, and degenerative changes in the kidneys and liver. Chronic exposure of laboratory animals has caused retarded growth, increased liver, kidney and spleen weights, congestion of the spleen and death. Long-term exposure to chlorpropham may cause adverse reproductive effects. Chlorpropham may cross the placenta.
Buy organic potatoes. You can not just simply wash off the chemicals because they have been absorbed into the flesh. Plus, organic potatoes contain more nutrients than conventional potatoes.
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