20 Amazing Facts About Potatoes

The potato is one of the world’s primary food crops. It grows well in cool climates. Potatoes are frequently boiled, fried, or baked. They are served whole or mashed, cut up into fries, or made into potato chips. The potato is a member of the nightshade plant family, which includes eggplant, tomatoes, and garden peppers. Potatoes are very much loved and eaten worldwide may be because of their so many qualities and dishes possibilities such as chips to salads, paranthas and so on. So let’s dive into the world of potatoes with these amazing and interesting facts about Potatoes.

The potato is one of about 150 tuber-bearing species in the Solanum genus (a tuber is the swollen end of an underground stem). The compound leaves are spirally arranged; each leaf is 20–30 cm (approximately 8–12 inches) long and composed of a terminal leaflet and two to four pairs of leaflets.
The word potato is from the Taino (a Caribbean language); the word batata is used for sweet potato. The Spanish called it patatas, which became potato in English.
Potatoes are botanically vegetables; they belong to the carbohydrate group, which is one of our diet’s three main macronutrients.
Between 8000 and 5000 BCE, the potato was the first domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia.
Potato is 75 % water, and 25% of the rest is solid.
There are more than 4,000 varieties of native potatoes that come from over 100 countries. They come in many sizes and shapes. There are also around 180 wild potato species.
Every year, around 376,875,686 tonnes of potatoes are produced worldwide. China is the world’s largest potato producer, producing 99,122,420 tonnes yearly. India ranks second, producing 43,770,000 tonnes per year. In the 3rd spot is Russia, with an annual production of about 31,107,797 Tonnes.
China also has the highest potato consumption (63,875 kt), followed by India and the United States.
Potato is grown and used at a large scale as about 157 countries around the globe grow this crop.
One medium potato contains 34.8 grams of carbohydrates, 2.4 of which are fiber, and about 110 calories.
According to a study, there are over 14 different elements found in potatoes. These are phosphorus (P), calcium, magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), sulfur (S), iron (Fe), manganese chloride (Cl), copper, sodium (Na), zinc (Zn), boron (B), aluminum (Al) and silicon (Si).
One medium potato with the skin on contains just over 4 g of protein. So If you eat about ten potatoes in a day, you will take the amount of protein needed for your body for the day. However, repeating it on a daily basis will encounter deficiencies in vitamins A, B12, and E, and calcium and selenium too.
According to food historians, the first edition of William Kitchiner’s groundbreaking cookbook, The Cook’s Oracle, was released in both British and American editions and was published in 1817. One recipe calls for “potatoes fried in slices,” which sound remarkably similar to modern potato chips.
George Crum invented the potato chip in 1853. Crum worked as a Native American/African American chef at Saratoga Springs, New York’s Moon Lake Lodge resort. The restaurant’s French fries were popular, and one diner complained that they were too thick.
Every year, McDonald’s consumes more than 3.4 billion pounds of potatoes grown in the US. The fast-food chain is the world’s largest buyer of potatoes.
The market for potato chips worldwide reached $31.2 billion in the year 2020 and is expected to rise further.
More than a billion people worldwide eat potatoes each day in any form.
In Most homes, potatoes are kept at temperatures ranging from 65 to 75°F, which is significantly higher than the ideal storage temperatures for potatoes (42 to 50°F). If your potatoes are stored at room temperature, the warmer temperatures of a typical home will eventually degrade their quality.
Potatoes contain two types of glycoalkaloids, solanine, and chaconine, which are both natural toxins. To reach a toxic level, a 200-pound person would need to consume 20 pounds of potatoes.
Nottinghamshire vegetable grower Peter Glazebrook currently holds the world record for the heaviest potato, weighing 4.98 kg.