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The National Potato Conference, organised by IFA and Teagasc, in association with Bord Bia, took place on Tuesday in the Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin and featured some very interesting discussions.
The re-emergence of the potato as being the healthy alternative on the menu of the Irish consumer was one of the stand-out discussions at the conference.
One of the main items for discussion on this list is the growing misconception that potatoes are somehow bad for you.
Specialists Aoife Hearne, a registered dietician and Fiona Crispie, PhD Teagasc & APC Microbiome Institute, were on hand to point those in attendance in the right direction on the nutritional values of potatoes.
Crispie spoke about the role of foods which are high in fibre (such as potatoes) play in the developing short-chain fatty acids. In turn, these short-chain fatty acids produce vitamins and promote good bacteria in your gut.
Hearne spoke of the benefits of including potatoes in our diets and the unjustified backlash there has been against them recently.
Potatoes and our health
She pointed out that since in the 1940s Irish people ate four times as many potatoes as they do nowadays, but rates of obesity are far higher today. She then went on to discuss how potatoes were once seen as the kingpin in terms of carbohydrates, but now have been knocked down the pecking order by the likes of sweet potatoes, rice and pasta without any conclusive evidence that that they are indeed the healthier alternative.
In fact, two medium-sized potatoes (unpeeled) contain 14.3g of fibre, which is significantly more than that found in 65g of brown rice (3.3g of fibre) or brown pasta (6.1g of fibre).
Fibre is not the only area in which the humble spud leads the way in terms of its health benefits, according to Hearne. A medium sized potato also has three times more potassium than a banana and is also naturally gluten free, meaning it is suitable for people with coeliac disease, she said.
Sales increase
However despite this general level of ignorance from the general public there seems to have been a resurgence in sales of potatoes in the recent years, which the EU Potato Promotion Campaign has helped.
Potato sales have increased from a low of 164,000t in 2012 to over 200,000t today.
One of the main ways this was done was through an advertising campaign which used strategically placed posters, billboards and internet ads. As a result of this campaign, less people now see potatoes as boring and fattening.
There has been a massive jump in those that see them as being versatile and tasty.
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