from the you-like-po-tay-toes-and-I-like-po-tat-toes dept.
Approach is designed to slow starch digestion to avoid blood sugar spikes:
"There is a perception that potato foods are unhealthy because eating a large amount of some potato foods can cause a rapid increase in blood sugar, which is a risk for people with diabetes or those who want to control body weight," said Amy Lin, PhD, the study's principal investigator and lead of the Food Carbohydrate Program of the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) at A*STAR. "Our team revealed that toggling the accessibility of two digestion enzymes— α-amylase and mucosal α-glucosidase— in the small intestine is a successful strategy to make dietary glucose slowly and continuously release from potatoes."
For the new processing technique, researchers cut potatoes into cubes and blanched them in hot water with a food grade ingredient for 30 minutes. [...]
This process causes a reaction with pectin, a water-soluble fiber in potatoes, creating a gelling structure that acts as a barrier between starch granules and digestive enzymes. This protective layer is porous, and the processing method allows the size of the pores to be controlled to moderate how quickly α-amylase is able to penetrate the potato parenchyma cells and degrade starch to small molecules. [...]
"Without our treatment, enzymes move freely in and out of cells, and starch is quickly degraded by both enzymes and rapidly converted to glucose," said Lin. "The treatment allows the starch to be slowly degraded to prevent a spike in glycemia and then fully converted to glucose to meet our energy and nutritional needs."
The technique is not designed to prevent the potato from being digested, but rather to slow digestion to avoid a rapid increase in blood sugar. Researchers say the modification could also help consumers feel full for a longer period after eating the treated potatoes, helping to avoid overeating.
[...] Since the process essentially pre-cooks the potatoes, treated potatoes are not shelf-stable but could be frozen and then cooked or further processed for dishes such as roasted potatoes, hash browns, soups or stir-fry, researchers say. Initial taste tests had good results in terms of digestibility and texture.
Potatoes drowned in grease probably won't benefit.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @01:04AM (4 children)
Potato is perfectly healthy food. In fact, it's a miracle food - a hardy plant that grows on side of mountains very quickly and provide lots of carb, the main energy source, as well as micronutrients found near the skin.
Now, unless you suffer diabetes from innate cause (mostly type 1), it's your lazy ass gluttonous life style that is the disease, not potato. Potato saved millions from starving, and despite the euros fucking up the native americans, spreading potato around the world is a significant achivement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @02:10AM (1 child)
Not sure what the current thinking is on food for endurance sports. When I crewed for an ultra-marathon cyclist in the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) around 1990, the liquid diet used by most was based on potato starch. This was developed by sports medicine practitioners as a good way to consume the 10,000+ calories/day that were needed to cycle for ~10 days with minimal sleep (average a couple of hours/day of sleep).
Tasted like chalk to me, but it seems that for ultra athletes food with any taste is distracting, or something. Bland is the way to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:10AM
Come on. Ultra-marathon runners are exceptions of human kind.
These days, they probably make the nutrition supplement with wheys.
Anyways, potato tastes hella good - baked potato, potato pancakes, potato-filled dumplings, aloo paratha, indian samosa, potato croquette, bosnian krumpirusa...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:05AM
You may have noticed that most of today's lifestyles are completely unnatural. So of course food needs to be reengineered to fit these lifestyles.
I just rediscovered frozen hash browns in my freezer. Too bad it didn't get the special processing, maybe all frozen potatoes will by 2025.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:09PM
Agreed. I blame the anti-carb people for the tarnished reputation....
(Score: 4, Insightful) by legont on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:01AM (4 children)
"Food grade ingredients" is what's worried me the most. Sorry, I don't trust you, motherfuckers.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:16AM (2 children)
I agree with your comment, but I don't appreciate you grouping me with them. I fuck moms for living, and it's hard (but very enjoyable ... well, sometimes, somebody gotta do it) work.
Please, be a little considerate.
(Score: 2) by FuzzyTheBear on Thursday June 16 2022, @09:55AM
And we thank you for it. Man , some need it so bad , you listen to them and by jove instinctively you know the remedy .. again thanks for your services LOLOLOL
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday June 17 2022, @12:12AM
Forgive me, bro, but being born abroad I thought that motherfucker means somebody who fucks her own mother. If not, I sincerely apologize, as I fucked many other people mothers in my life and it was mostly agreedable by all parties involved.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @08:46AM
Probably something "patent-pending" that they want to sell to whover falls for this.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:15AM (1 child)
One time when they tried making potatoes 'healthy', we got Olestra.
(screamy youtube attention seeker voice) Leave our chips alone!
(Score: 1) by Retian on Thursday June 16 2022, @06:17AM
But it's cool bro, it's totally a food grade ingredient!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:42AM (2 children)
That little three-word weasel phrase worries me a bit. Which is a shame since I love potatoes in all forms!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @05:25AM (1 child)
What about this one? [imgur.com]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 16 2022, @05:32AM
Potato is potato. The process calls for cutting them up and boiling, so I'm not bothered about its original shape.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @08:49AM
With solanine (green skin) and acrylamide (frying potatoes)... sugar is IMHO the least thing to worry about when eating potatoes.
(Score: 2) by FuzzyTheBear on Thursday June 16 2022, @10:03AM (3 children)
if one takes care of reading the comment on the article and the article itself the main detail " which ingredient " is used for the real processing part is left unknown at this point. It's comercially and scientifically ethical to hold that back until medical trials are complete.
We can all imagine easily that naming the ingredient could result in people trying to reproduce the trials at home without waiting for studies to be complete and we all know we need peer reviewed papers before producing the processed potato and commercialising it. It will be an interrestring development if that works out.
Again .. it's a wise choice to keep that ingredient under the covers until research is complete. Promising , yes, but bulletproof science at this point it is not.
Quickly Robin , to the BatLaboratory ! ..
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Thursday June 16 2022, @12:27PM (2 children)
Nah. it's left off because gelling pectin with some calcium acid raising agent is trivial and obvious enough that it isn't worth mentioning. I mean, it's practically quick bread and noodles basics...
Anyhow, the same technique is commonly practiced in molecular gastronomy to improve french fries' texture. So, the novelty here is that the texture is now identified not only as tastier, but harder to digest thus mellowing down glucose spikes: https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/starch-infused-fries/ [modernistcuisine.com]
Neat.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @03:32PM (1 child)
The article mentions that they can tailor the size of the porosity in the gel, so maybe that's where they are looking to protect some IP before patenting it? Particularly if they are looking to see how they can apply it to different foods?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Thursday June 16 2022, @06:32PM
Most assuredly no. When the recipe I've linked before said:
The "crispiness" quality is the direct result of that very same gelling porosity. That is, you just need to mess around with the starch ratios and the acidity to get whatever porosity (= crispiness) you want. Here's a paper on that: https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc7813922 [europepmc.org]
All-in-all, pectin gelation is just esterification so you're not going to find any novelty there.
compiling...