Desperate Potato Growers Say They'll Pitch a 'low-Carb' Spud in January

[CShine]

SPUDS, Fla. (AP) - 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 percent 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.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBDZIRBSVD.html

[ThreeCatNight]

1. Just in time for the fad to die out.

Sorry all you carb-a-phobics, but I believe this is just another fad diet that will soon fade away into obscurity.

[Malva Zebrina]

10. For diabetics it is still a good way to control blood sugar

and the ups and downs. It is by now, pretty well proven that this limiting of carbs does no harm and also, helps maintain normal weight as well as improving blood lipids.

[lazarus]

14. thirty years

The diet's been around for thirty years. Not really a fad.

Yeah, it's suddenly, for some reason, caught on with the media, but remember all the low-fat stuff a few years ago? It's still out there.

[jpgray]

2. A low carb POTATO!?!

Sorry, this just makes me mad. I originally had a snarky comment that was in poor taste--pardon me while I contemplate the existence of a world where potatos must have reduced carbs.

[fairfaxvadem]

4. You've got that right...

And isn't a low carb spud downright sacrilegious??

[sleipnir]

3. Atkins is a joke, but people will do anything the media tells them.

I love this one shirt I saw, in plain writinging it said:

"I EAT CARBS"


HA!

[ThreeCatNight]

5. Carbavore! n/t

[htuttle]

6. Potatoes are the perfect food

Tampering with it tempts fate!

[Demobrat]

7. Woo-Hoo! A low carb potato

to fry in grease, mash with butter and milk or smother in sour cream. Stuff 'em down people, they'll make you thin!

[qb]

8. Shoot. There goes my joke.

I always said I'd join Atkins when they came out with a low-carb potato.

[Wwagsthedog]

9. Potatoes were a staple of the Incan diet

According to an exhibit I went to yesterday ("Unveiling th Mystery of the Incas: Machu Picchu" at the Houston Museum of Natural Science), the Incas used potatoes (not lo carb) as a staple in their diet. It seems that the potatoes they ate were of several different colors; blue, purple, red, tan. Apparently the Spanish robbed them from the new world too. Very interesting and I got to ride on the new Houston metro rail line for the first time while my spouse was attending federal jury duty (got kicked off the minute after answering the usual questions). Sometimes it pays to have off the wall views. French fries are yummie. Our staple vegetable (thanks to ronny) ketchup is good with them too.

[maxsolomon]

11. SLOW potatoes.

not the russet. the incan blue potato, etc. there are plenty of atkins-friendly tubers. yams, sweet potatoes. just not russets. they spike your blood sugar.

[Lisa]

21. I'm growing some solid-purple ones now ...

They taste really good, just cooked in the microwave with their skins on, and sprinkled with pepper and some grated cheese. Got them at our local supermarket, which sometimes surprises us by stocking unusual local produce. (I saved a couple to plant, as an experiment. So far they seem to be doing fine, in the one corner of the yard that no other plant life beside moss would tolerate.)

[tekriter]

12. Isn't that like having a fat-free bratwurst??

?

[htuttle]

16. They sort of have those already

They're made of turkey and/or chicken. I have them all the time. I eat about the opposite of the Atkins diet -- lots of carbs, low to moderate protein, as little animal fat as possible.

I'm fairly 'light' for my height, too. I think the trick to not gaining weight is easy: Just stop eating when you're not hungry anymore. :shrug:

[AwakeAtLast]

13. If people stop eating potatoes they stop

If it helps their health, fine. I think this is a bad reaction to losses in sales of potatoes. Did potato growers think people were going to keep eating more and more French fries without thinking about it? I don't get it.

[JCMach1]

15. Stop the Atkins BS already!!

[bluedeminredstate]

17. Christ on a raft!

Will our suffering never end?
I am sick of this carb alarm that has taken over the country. Now they're making "carb assist" vitamins and some God-forsaken low-carb "dairy" substitute for milk. Enough!!!
When they mess with the very natural and perfect potato it's a sign that this has gone too far.
I'm half expecting apples, orange juice, etc. to come with cigarette pack-type warnings in the near future if this continues.

:crazy:

[Piperay]

18. I'm so sick of this low-carb crap

people are such a bunch of sheep following whatever stupid fad comes along. :argh: If all these fad diets worked there wouldn't always be 'the latest one'. Counting calories is the tried and true and effective method, next time I need to lose weight that is what I will go with...taking in less calories. :think:

[Blue Gardener]

24. Yep, I'm with you

Smaller portions, fewer calories, more exercise. It doesn't have to be anything dramatic, just walking works wonders.

[Rich Hunt]

19. it's no fad

It's been around for millenia.

It's called 'famine'.

[TahitiNut]

20. Will they call it a 'potatoe'?

:silly: Is Dan Quayle an investor?

[TahitiNut]

22. Better to develop a potato immune to phytophthora infestans.

I think the Irish would agree.

[Stuckinthebush]

23. There are no words to describe this foolishness...

When, oh when, will "Low Carb!" grow old and die just like the thousands of other diet fads this nation has endured?

[Mountainman]

25. Why do people follow fashion diets anyway?

I think the food industry is playing a lot of people for fools labeling everything they can "lo carb."

This is just a fad. Something else will come along to replace it.

You need to eat fruits and vegetables and meat in moderation and get regular exercise. Fads just try to replace these rules with something that you can't sustain after your wait loss and your body will be harmed by too much fad dieting.

You need to make a life style change.

[OKNancy]

26. Low carb IS a lifestyle change

As a "borderline" diabetic, when I started limiting my carbs, I had more energy, slept better and lost weight in the bargain. It's a great way to live.... I don't miss candy and cakes and all that stuff...and when I do cheat, they taste so damn good!

[truthisfreedom]

27. 30% less? sorry, but that won't cut it. try 90% less, and maybe it will

fit in with a high-protein diet. stick to leafy greens... they're better for you anyway.

[steely]

28. Aw geez, first bio-engineered corn, then soybeans,

and now pataters!! yikers

[steely]

29. I wonder what the chips'll taste like??

sorry...weak moment

[hightime]

30. I love the low-carb haters, they must hate to see people happy.

I dropped 50 lbs. and have kept it off for 3 years now. Having dropped the weight I now can bike all over town with my kids and exercise with ease. But don't let me get in the way of your hate fest. Go ahead and tell me ALL the other ways I should have done the same thing. I'll let you all rant...but I won't listen. I am happy and no longer fat. THAT is all that counts!! Anyone who doesn't like it can kiss my skinny ass.

Bacon, natures best condiment.