The Skinny on Potatoes!

I’m not sure exactly what a ‘skinny’ is but it sounded good so I used it in this blog. First and foremost, we need to establish one thing right off the bat. There are actually two kinds of potatoes out there. The good potatoes and the bad potatoes. You need to be able to spot the bad ones as quickly as possible! They are out to get you and your plans for a healthy lifestyle. Geesch!

The good potatoes include those that are baked or boiled. Period. They will continue to stay pretty good too if you don’t try lathering them with margarine and salt prior to eating.:) The bad potatoes are pretty much any fried spud. This would include, but is not limited to, hash browns, French fries and potato chips. (In other words, three forms of potatoes that some of us absolutely crave. I’ve never understood how the Creator made everything we like to eat pretty much bad for us. I’m sure there are exceptions out there, I just can’t think of one right this minute).Note: Artwork is from Jeffrey's Art Blog

So, what makes the fried version so harmful? Well, besides having extra fat (oil) added to them, potatoes that are fried as chips or French fries can contain a substance called acrylamide. This is a toxic substance that forms in starchy foods when they are processed or cooked at high temperatures. There is currently little information about, and poor understanding of, how acrylamide is formed in some foods. It appears, though, to be produced naturally in some foods that have been cooked or processed at high temperature and the levels appear to increase with the duration of heating. The highest levels found so far were in starchy foods (potato and cereal products). Too bad, so sad! So, anyway, acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in lab animals, but we don't know exactly what levels of acrylamide exposures are dangerous for humans. So, don’t freak out quite yet. If you apply enough of anything, you can turn that thing into a cancerous or harmful agent! As Henry David Thoreau once said, “All things in moderation.”  (Actually I think it was some Roman proctorate named Terance, but that would be another tale). That thought, though, appears to be pretty much the ticket on most fried foods. You can eat them from time to time, just don’t make a regular thing of it!

OK, we all got that straight? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to enjoy a boiled potato with some BBQ’d Chicken. What’s that you say?

The Actual Cost of Produce at the Grocery Store

I though it might be interesting to take a look at the actual cost of certain vegetables I pay for at the grocery store. I was amazed to find that no one seems to be tracking this sort of stuff. At least I couldn’t find very much on the internet.


So, I’ve elected to try and track what I’m paying at a local chain store for select items. The list will include the following; Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers, green beans and Bell peppers. I think this list is representative of some of the stuff I like to grow in the garden each year.


My purpose in doing this is to provide a record of produce costs and to see where I want to concentrate my growing efforts. I’d like to grow veggies that cost a lot and perhaps save a few bucks in the process. I’ll try and append monthly updates to this blog over the course of a few months to get a feel for the average cost of each item in the list.


All costs will be expressed both in the unit in which they were purchased (a bag of potatoes) and in a cost per pound. So, a head of lettuce that might go for $1.39 per head will be also expressed in its true weight. This will allow an ‘Apples to Apples’ comparison as it were. Finally, wherever possible, I plan to buy the produce that is packaged in the cheapest manner. This means buying a 5 pound bag of potatoes rather than each one individually. The only cravat is that I will keep the proportions consistent with what an average family would purchase. In other words, I’ll confine myself to buying a head of lettuce as opposed to a crate of lettuce just to try and save some money. (Anyways that much lettuce would just rot away before I could eat it all).


So, for the beginning of the month of March, 2010, this is what I paid for vegetables at a chain store in southwest Missouri. If, anyone in another part of the country wants to post their costs in the comment section please feel free.