low-carb potatoes
Review by
David Mendosa
A few days ago Peter in Florida called me to ask some questions about the glycemic index, which he is trying to follow more closely. Along the way I mentioned the wonderful low-carb Dreamfields Pasta. That was exciting to him, but in return he mentioned something that was just as exciting to me: low-carb potatoes. He says they are delicious, and asked his wife to grab the bag they came in so I could check them out.
These “SunLite All Natural Low Carb Potatoes” come from SunFresh of Florida Marketing Cooperative Inc. The website says:
Members of the group consulted Dr. Chad Hutchinson, program leader at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Research farm in Hastings, Florida, in search of a better tasting potato. Hutchinson and his team screen about 400 new varieties of potatoes a year for taste, shape, color and skin quality.
They eventually tested and suggested the SunLite variety, developed by Netherlands-based seed potato company HZPC, because it consistently led all others in taste, texture and appearance. Researchers later discovered that the new variety has 30 percent fewer carbohydrates and 25 percent fewer calories than the standard Russet potato.
If you live in Florida, like Peter, you can probably buy SunLite potatoes in your local supermarket. Otherwise, you can order them from the SunFresh website. They cost $16 for 9 pounds, including tax and shipping.
I followed up with emails and a call:
- SunFresh’s Hank Whetstone wrote, “Sorry, we don’t have that number and have not tested [their potatoes for their] glycemic index.”
-
The one previous time I heard about low-carb potatoes was from Dr. Jon Anfinsen, the inventor of Dreamfields Pasta. When I interviewed him in April 2004, he told me that they were also working on a low-carb potato product. So I was curious whether Dr. Anfinsen was involved with the SunFresh potato or knew of it. He told me that he wasn’t involved with SunFresh, but was aware of their potato. “The only problem is that the SunLite potatoes are high in moisture level,” he said a few days ago. He added that when you fry these potatoes, they splatter a lot.
However, Mr. Whetstone denies that. SunLite potatoes, he says, “have slightly higher moisture. But they don’t splatter any more than other potatoes. Moisture comes out a basically the same rate as other potatoes. It just takes proportionately longer to boil out the additional moisture.”
As for Dr. Anfinsen’s research, he says that they are working on mashed and extruded potatoes, looking at two new technologies to reduce the digestibility of starches. “The work is going very well, and we will launch next year,” he concluded.
The website for SunLite potatoes is SunFresh of Florida Marketing Cooperative Inc..
|
|
|
Got an opinion about a diabetes product?
Write a review, and send it to info@diabetesmonitor.com for consideration of publication... be sure to tell us something about yourself, and why you wrote the review... and where you first learned of the product.
|
|
|
