Nutritional Characteristics of Potatoes - The Potato: Botany, Production and Uses - page 333

and obesity. However, as described in this chap-
ter, potatoes contain numerous health-promoting
compounds in addition to complex carbohy-
drates. Furthermore, potatoes are a very effi-
cient crop, which in addition to its nutritional
merits, suggests that potatoes will be a key part
of the solution needed to feed the projected in-
crease in global population. In the US Pacific
Northwest, potatoes provide about 26 million
calories acre - 1 . The white cultivar, Norkotah Rus-
set, would provide about 150,000 g of potas-
sium acre - 1 , 6700 g of vitamin C, and 19,000 g
of phenolics. Some have estimated that agricul-
tural production will have to double by 2050 to
maintain food security (Ray et al ., 2013). In
view of their nutritional content and yields per
acre, potatoes will almost certainly have a key
role in “feeding the future”. This role for potatoes
is ironic in light of a minority of nutritionists
advocating that potatoes be eaten sparingly and

replaced in the diet with other foods. Leaving
aside the abundant published scientific evidence
documenting the nutritional value of potatoes,
those advocating such a policy have not pro-
vided data documenting exactly what the re-
placement cost would be. For example, what
would the replacement for potatoes be and
would it be as affordable as potatoes? How much
more land would be needed to provide an
equivalent amount of energy and nutrition?
Efforts to maximize the nutritional poten-
tial of potatoes are in their early stages. The
rapid pace of scientific progress over the last
decade is facilitating the development of new
cultivars with even higher nutritional value.
This ability, along with increasing information
about exactly what plant components are health
promoting and desirable in the diet creates new
opportunities for plant biologists to develop the
next generation of cultivars.

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