30 Interesting Facts About Potatoes

Potatoes are a root vegetable and staple food of many households. They are cheaper and easy to grow. One of the properties of potatoes is that they are naturally gluten-free. Apart from all these benefits of potatoes, there are various facts about it that you might be unaware of.

Have a look at the interesting facts about potatoes one by one.

1. The country Spain is responsible for introducing potatoes to Europe in 1536. Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada was the first to introduce it in Europe.
2. Spud is another name for potato.
3. China is the world’s largest potato-producing country.
4. After corn, wheat, and rice, potatoes occupied the place of being the fourth most important crop.
5. National Potato Day is celebrated on August 19th and October 27th.
6. Potatoes were the first vegetable to be grown in space in 1995.
7. Potatoes have been grown for 7000 years.
8. For the very first time at a presidential dinner, “French fry” was allegedly served in the U.S. by Thomas Jefferson.
9. The world’s largest potato weighed 18 pounds, 4 ounces, as stated in the Guinness Book Of World Records.
10. Potatoes consist of 80% water and 20% solids.
11. There are around 4000 distinct varieties of native potatoes, mostly found in the Andes. They are of different shapes and sizes. There are also around 180 species of wild potatoes.
12. Green potatoes are not good for eating.
13. You can store potatoes for a year if placed under appropriate conditions of storage.
14. As stated in the Guinness World Records, the heaviest potato ever grown was by the Peter Glazebrook in the United Kingdom.
15. There are a variety of potatoes available in the market which are of different colors like brown, yellow, red, pink, etc.
16. Potatoes are highly rich in starch, i.e., carbohydrates; therefore, their nutritional value can be compared with rice, pasta, and bread.
17. Potatoes are one of the environment-friendly vegetables. They can be grown easily and don’t require much use of fertilizers and chemicals like other crops.
18. About 4 grams of protein is present in one medium potato (213 grams)
19. 3 grams of sugar is present in one medium potato (213 grams)
20. 100 calories are present in 8 ounces of baked or boiled potato.
21. The biggest potato lovers are Germans as they consume more than 200 pounds of potato per year. Around 140 pounds of potatoes per year are consumed by an average American.
22. Alcoholic beverages such as vodka, potcheen, or akvavit are brewed from potatoes.
23. Insects like bumblebees are responsible for the pollination of potato plants.
24. Potatoes are rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals.
25. Billions of packets of potato chips are consumed every year in the world as the most common snack food.
26. Presently, developing countries produce more than half the amount of potatoes in the world.
27. At present, potatoes are grown in all states of the USA and in 125 countries of the world.
28. It has been found in a test-tube study that the growth of the liver and colon cancer cells can be suppressed by the antioxidants present in potatoes.
29. It depends on the method of cooking how rich in nutrients a potato is. When fried, it contains more fat and calories as compared to other methods of cooking.
30. If you want to enjoy more nutritional content of a potato, you must not remove the skin because most of the nutrients are present in the skin.

Conclusion

Though it can be seen that potatoes have fallen in popularity these days due to people being more inclined to consume low-carb foods, however, the rich vegetable can provide a lot of vitamins, fiber, and minerals and can help keep away a lot of diseases. Therefore, they should be sufficiently included in your diet.