Interesting facts about potatoes

 Many of us eat potatoes almost every day, and this product is very important in the diet of the average European. However, this was not always the case, and before the discovery of the New World, potatoes were known only to Native Americans. But thanks to the discoveries of Christopher Columbus, the rest of humanity also learned about this tasty and healthy root crop.

Potato facts

• When he first appeared in Russia, people treated him with distrust for a long time. Some tried to eat its "fruits" growing on the stems, poisoned themselves with them, and did not even know that they needed tubers.
• Tomatoes and eggplants are botanically related to potatoes
• Wild potatoes are found only in South America.
• Until the end of the 18th century, potatoes were practically not eaten in Europe. Many believed that it caused leprosy and other incurable diseases.
• French agronomist Antoine-Auguste Parmentier used a psychological technique to teach his fellow citizens to potatoes. During the day, his field was intensely guarded by special people, not even letting anyone close to the territory entrusted to them. At night, there were no guards, and people used this to steal some potatoes - everyone wondered why they were so carefully guarded.
• There are many potato varieties. They differ not only in appearance (white, purple, dark, and so on) but also in terms of the amount of starch, as well as some other substances.
• Before the introduction of potatoes into the diet of the population of Russia, the turnip was the main root crop grown everywhere. In second place is rutabaga. Fields were sown with them, fairy tales were composed about them. There are no Russian fairy tales about potatoes for this very reason. 
• Everyone knows that if iodine is dropped on potatoes, it will turn blue. However, there are varieties of potatoes that initially have a blue color not only of the peel but also of the pulp. One of the common varieties of these potatoes is Linzer Blaue.
• In addition to cooking, the Inca culture used potatoes for medicinal purposes. Slices of raw potatoes were applied to broken bones to speed healing and were used as a prophylactic against rheumatism and toothaches.
• This root vegetable is about 80% water.
• One medium potato contains only about 100 calories.
• In France, the potato, nicknamed "earthen apples", became famous in 1600. At first, the unusual product was recognized by French doctors as poisonous, and in 1630 the parliament completely banned the cultivation of potatoes in France 
• For the first time, people began to eat this root vegetable about 8000 years ago.
• Potatoes contain more potassium than bananas, more vitamin C than oranges, and more fiber than apples.

• The French queen Marie Antoinette was so fond of potato flowers that she decorated her hair with them.
• In 1765, Catherine II took care of helping the starving peasants of Finland. The Medical College was to find the best way. After some searches, the board decided that it would be best to use "earthy apples, which they call potatoes in England"
• The poisonous plant belladonna belongs to the same nightshade family as the potato.
• Gastroenterologists and nutritionists have ranked potato dishes in terms of their harmfulness to the body. French fries turned out to be the leader of this list. Large amounts of fat and spices are harmful to digestion and contribute to weight gain.
• Potatoes are perennial plants. We dig it up every year because we are interested in tubers. However, if not for our intervention, potato bushes could grow and grow for themselves.
• The Russian writer Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin was also a great promoter of potatoes. He is the author of the serious scientific work "Potatoes in field and garden culture" published in 1908
• If you see green or greenish-brown spots on the potato, discard it. Such a vegetable is not only unsuitable for food but also very harmful. Green root vegetables contain a lot of a substance called solanine. It is toxic, indigestible, and extremely difficult to remove from the body. 
• Potatoes cooked with the skin are useful only while they are young. The more the root crop has been in the ground, the more solanine its rind has accumulated.
• Russia is one of the world's top three potato producers. The first two places are occupied by China and India, respectively.
• The starch content in potato tubers reaches 15%.
• It was the potato that was the first vegetable grown outside our planet. It happened in 1995 onboard the American shuttle Columbia.