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When everyone buys vegetables, do they all follow this rule: pick fresh vegetables and big potatoes. But many people have found that potatoes have gotten bigger in recent years. Rumor has it that these large potatoes were made with bulking agents.
Is it true that potatoes are all made of bulking agents? What exactly is this bulking agent? Will the potatoes that are used cause harm to the human body?
I have used a bulking agent that I have said is good
As an edible crop of the Solanaceae genus, potatoes originated in the tropical Americas, and then traveled to many places in India before finally reaching the mainland. Compared to other crops, potatoes actually prefer drier, sandy soils.
It is understood that as early as 2012, the mainland's potato output has reached the world's first, a total of more than 88 million tons, Heilongjiang has the mainland's largest potato cultivation base.
So why do potatoes get bigger every year? It turns out that there are more than 1,000 known potato varieties in the world, and the potato cultivation bases in our provinces will also study more suitable varieties for planting according to local conditions.
Therefore, in addition to the color, we have developed a series of different potatoes such as red and purple, and the seedling yield of these varieties has reached a maximum of about 1,500 kilograms.
The increase in R&D efforts and cost investment have not only increased the yield of potato crops, but also increased in size. And when we are researching new varieties, we will actually add a special reagent to them: bulking agent.
In fact, as a plant growth regulator, bulking agents work by accelerating cell division in crops and increasing the size of cells, so as to make crops larger and more productive.
This regulator was first discovered in 1920-1930, when it was observed that natural plant hormones could control the growth efficiency of plants, and after that, with the research of a group of scientists, the continent finally began to produce plant growth regulators that can improve the quality of crops in the 50s.
On the one hand, the bulking agent has promoted its growth objectively, and on the other hand, we have exerted our subjective initiative to develop different varieties according to the climate of different regions, which has also made its growth twice as effective with half the effort.
However, if the dose of this human-invented regulator is too large, will it have adverse effects on the human body? In fact, a long time ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) formulated very strict regulations for the use of pesticides.
According to the results of comparative experiments in developed countries, such as Europe, the United States and Japan, it is found that high-dose bulking agents will not cause harm to human health.
Among the bulking agents, chlorpyramide, which was first developed in the United States, and gibberellic, which was the first developed in the United Kingdom, have been used for about 40-60 years, and there have been no poisoning injuries caused by bulking agents during this period.
Small potatoes have a tendency to overtake
There are many people around the world who love to eat potatoes, but as more and more people learn about bulking agents, some people have begun to reduce their consumption of potatoes. But in reality, this kind of thinking is completely unnecessary.
Even though it is well known that there are no health problems when the human body consumes it after being injected with bulking agents, there is always a concern about whether this reagent will affect the internal composition.
Because potatoes have a lot of vitamin C and are rich in protein and sugar, they can not only be eaten as a side dish, but also have their own place in the staple food world.
In terms of medicinal food, potatoes can be eaten as a meal replacement for weight loss to a certain extent. No matter how bad it is, the crude fiber rich in it can also help the person to laxative, moisten the intestines, and can also relieve the pressure of blood vessels and regulate the spleen and stomach.
These native potatoes, after being baptized with bulking agents, will not actually change their original nutritional structure.
It is understood that even if the bulking agent is used excessively, it will only make the fruit of the crop deformed and prone to cracking. To put it simply, it's a bad look.
However, the starch content of these cracked and deformed potatoes will change to a certain extent, and although they will become larger when they are ripe, this will also make the crude fiber in them more developed.
This also brings a certain degree of difficulty to the subsequent cooking of consumers, so potatoes that have been used with bulking agents are often difficult to cook because they are too large.
If it is not cooked, of course, it will be unacceptable in terms of taste, so in life, there are many consumers who love small potatoes.
Solanine is a double-edged sword
Picking potatoes and making potatoes is actually a technical job, and if you don't pay enough attention, people will become unhealthy because of eating potatoes.
First of all, regardless of the size, if you find that the skin of the potato is blue and sprouted, you must throw it away quickly, because this means that a large amount of solanine has begun to appear inside the potato.
As a toxic substance, once solanine appears, it means that the potatoes have not undergone a good preservation program and will inevitably fester.
After people have eaten this kind of potato, they are likely to have a poisoning reaction, at this time the human body will feel dizzy and nauseous, and in severe cases, there will even be stomach muscle cramps, and in the most serious cases, it will even die due to paralysis of the respiratory center.
But having said that, most families buy a lot of potatoes at once, and it is difficult to avoid some of them sprouting or turning green, does this mean that this bag of potatoes is inedible?
In this regard, Guo Huachun, an expert in the national potato system, explained that solanine is produced by potatoes themselves in order to avoid being eaten by insects, and only improper storage of potatoes will increase the content of solanine.
Potatoes with solanine content of more than 20mg/100g are likely to be harmful to the human body after eating, and for potatoes with a small range of green skin, although the solanine content has indeed increased, the content has not yet reached a very serious point.
Therefore, it is best to remove this part at this time, and after processing the green skin, it is best to soak it in water for a while, and put more vinegar when cooking, so as to ensure that the human body is poisoned due to the use of bad potatoes to the greatest extent.
In addition to making potatoes, the best thing is to avoid getting bad potatoes when picking them, but how do we distinguish good potatoes?
In fact, it can be distinguished by three points, first, it is best not to choose potatoes with deep holes on the surface, second, potatoes with excellent texture can not be taken, and third, although the potatoes are muddy, it is best to rub them, if you find that the skin does not fall off much, it is also a more dangerous potato assassin.
In fact, as long as we choose potatoes well, keep them well, and pay more attention to the cooking process to ensure that they are cooked, potatoes will generally not endanger our health.
Information sources:
People's Daily Online 2018-03-06 Can't eat potatoes after they turn green? Experts explain their doubts
The Paper 2023-03-28 Is it absolutely forbidden to eat potato sprouting? Now let's take you to the truth
Xinhua News Agency, 2011-05-20 Experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences responded to five mysteries about the use of "bulking agents" in fruits and vegetables
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