potato skins

[Barrie Partridge]

       Greetings from Port Franklin, friendliest place in Oz!

       G'day again Michael!!

-=> Quoting d_micro at ix.netcom.com(Michael to All <=-

 d_> From: d_micro at ix.netcom.com(Michael (L Roginsky )
 d_> Organization: Netcom

 d_> By the way, did you
 d_> know that against cultural beliefs of eating potato skins, they should
 d_> be discarded. Any heavy metals are stored in the skins....potato is a
 d_> good portion of this backcountry society. They never eat the peels!

       I suppose it depends on what you mean by "peels".  If you boil 
       spuds and then 'skin' them, you finish up with a glossy surface
       whereas if you set into the raw spud with a potato 'peeler' the
       cooked surface is (or most often should be) somewhat floury.
       
       Now, removing the 'skin' like that is - in my opinion - a waste
       of time, but in any case only removes that which is largely 
       indigestible anyway.
       
       However, if you 'peel' the spud, you remove the whole cambium 
       layer and with it all the vitamins, minerals and proteins so 
       that all you are left with is nearly pure starch.  Nothing 
       wrong with starch, even for slimmers: it is what folk put on 
       the starch that makes them fat - oil for roasting or making 
       chips (or even worse those finely divided and badly named 
       'french fries', butter, cream, sour cream or milk.
        
       To be sure, if you do peel them you will get rid of any 
       possible concentration of heavy metals, but you also get rid of
       some of the finest of their food value.
       
       I have no idea what your conditions are, but do you really have
       a problem with heavy metals in your garden or the atmosphere 
       (like smoke polution from factories using heavy metals)?
       
       The Irish have traditionally served potatoes "in their jackets"
       as it is said, and this holds (or did when I lived there for 12
       years) even for "posh" hotels and restaurants.  In the time of 
       the famines, the Irish would have died out completely had they 
       not eaten the layer immediately under the skin.
       
       I respect your right to your own opinion and your right to tell
       others of it: it is just that I feel that the course you 
       propose is rather taking a sledge-hammer to crack a nut.  I 
       just hope that the nut that gets cracked is not mine!
       
       Keep smiling - and eating the fabulous spud any way you like.
       
           Tweet tweet!  Time to go back on my perch now!
           Barrie, the Pear Tree Twit.





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