Low Carb Potatoes
USA Today — Diet: Potato growers say they’ll pitch a ‘low-carb’ spud
For dieters, potatoes have been scorned, rejected and castigated — the Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables, they get no respect. Many weight-loss programs, including the Atkins and the South Beach diets, advocate meat and cheese over high-carbohydrate potatoes, pasta and bread.
Come January, carb-counters who love potatoes may find cause to rejoice a bit. Florida growers will be pitching a potato they hope will be a hot one — it claims one-third fewer carbs than the ordinary spud. “Consumers are going to love the flavor and appearance of this potato and the fact that it has 30% fewer carbohydrates compared to a standard Russet baking potato,” said Chad Hutchinson, an assistant professor of horticulture at University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
After five years of testing in the sandy soils near here in the heart of Florida’s potato country, Hutchinson knew it tasted great, had a shorter growing cycle, was disease-resistant and able to handle Florida’s extreme weather. He then learned about its lower-carb properties.
“That was just gravy,” he said.
And, of course, gravy is perfectly acceptable on the Atkins and South Beach diets.
How about some exercise? Maybe if folks stopped worrying about every little source of carbs (which every nation on earth consumes w/o blowing up) and took a step or two or forced their little Buddha kids to turn off the video game and play outside then we would not need low carb potatoes.
Luckily you can still put a pack of bacon and bucket of sour cream on your low carb potatoe w/o violating Atkins.
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