Kidney patients told how to prep potatoes

[okarol]

Kidney patients told how to prep potatoes

Published: May 30, 2008 at 7:42 PM

MADISON, Wis., May 30 (UPI) -- U.S. food scientists suggest boiling cubed or shredded potatoes for kidney patients who must avoid potassium.

The study, published in the Journal of Food Science, compared leaching and boiling effects on levels of potassium and other minerals in potatoes and found that boiling cubed or shredded samples of potato reduced potassium levels by 50 percent and 75 percent, respectively.

Shelley Jansky and Paul Bethke both of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and University of Wisconsin-Madison said the mineral content of the potatoes was drastically reduced by either cubing or shredding them and then boiling. Boiled potato cubes lost 35 percent of their total magnesium and zinc. Boiling shredded potatoes reduced levels of zinc, manganese, magnesium, and sulfur by 50 percent.

"Our study offers information about the nutritional quality of potatoes and the effects of cooking on the contents of mineral nutrients," the study authors said in a statement. "It will likely result in changes in recommendations by medical staff working with patients who have compromised kidney function."

Leaching, which refers to soaking food in water before cooking, had little effect on the mineral levels of the samples.


http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/05/30/kidney_patients_told_how_to_prep_potatoes/2804/

[Chris]

When I was on dialysis, this is how I was told to best prep potatoes. Sort of a common sense type of situation after taking different biology classes. However, prepping potatoes this way just doesn't make the potatoes taste the same. But now there is a study to prove that method is best than leaving the skin on and leaving the potatoe whole.