Coming soon: low-carb potatoes

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-fiberside2aug02.story
Coming soon: low-carb potatoes
Long spurned by Atkins dieters, the less-starchy spud is poised for a comeback next year.
By Valerie Reitman
Times Staff Writer

August 2, 2004

It has jokingly been dubbed "spud lite."

But farmers and marketers are hoping that a new breed of less-starchy potato will allow low-carb dieters to not only have their steak, but a baked potato too.

The designer spud, a European import, has about 30% fewer carbohydrates and calories than the popular Russet Burbank found on many American dinner plates. It has about 13 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams (about 3.5 oz.) compared with 19 to 20 carbs per 100 grams for the russets, says Don Northcott, a marketing director for HZPC, a Dutch agricultural firm that developed the "low-carb potato."

Thus, a 7-ounce, low-carb potato would have about 120 calories, compared with about 180 for the Russet Burbank.<snip>

[phantom power]

Isn't that a bit like removing the water from a watermelon?

Or, cutting all the hair off the Big Red Hair Monster from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons?

I mean, what's actually *left* after you take the carbs from a potato?

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Great!

Now I can put more butter or sour cream on them.

[RodneyCK2]

2. Great, genetically altered potatoes...

they have already ruined the hot peppers, especially the green ones. They use to be hot. Do not even get me started on tomatoes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Genetically altered the old fashioned way

ie by breeding - if they come from the Netherlands, and are already sold throughout much of Europe (but doesn't yet have a name - that seems strange). There seems to have been a spate of stories about this back in June:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=potato+carbohydrate+low+netherlands&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
which do alos say there's no name for the potato variety, despite first being bred 8 years ago (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/06/27/world/spud040627).

[Boomer]

4. Just in time for the world-wide famines!

So we're busily distributing a diet version of one of the world's most basic staple foods just before Peak Oil and Climate Change will damage our ability to feed the world's population. Could anyone have possibly scripted a more ludicrous irony? In just a few decades I suspect that those 30% extra calories will be sorely missed.

[NNadir]

5. This low carb fad is annoying as hell.

It gives some idea of how far media reinforced stupidity will go.

Of course, George W. Bush gives the same message, but that's another matter.