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If you store potatoes for too long they will start to sprout, some say that sprouted potatoes are perfectly safe to eat as long as you cut the sprouts off. Some others believe that potato sprouts are very toxic and easy to cause food poisoning, even leading to the risk of death.1. Why are sprouted potatoes dangerous?
Potatoes are a natural source of solanine and chaconine, which are two naturally occurring glycoalkaloid compounds found in some other foods like eggplant and tomatoes. In small amounts, glycoalkaloids can provide health benefits. These benefits include antibiotic properties, hypoglycemic and cholesterol-lowering effects. However, in high concentrations, they can become toxic.
As the potato sprouts, its glycoalkaloid content begins to increase. Therefore, eating sprouted potatoes can cause you to accidentally consume too much of these compounds leading to poisoning. Symptoms of poisoning usually appear within a few hours to a day after eating sprouted potatoes.
At low doses, excess glycoalkaloids often lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. When consumed in larger quantities, they can cause low blood pressure, rapid pulse, fever, headache, and in some cases even death. Also, a few small studies have shown that eating sprouted potatoes during pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects. Therefore, pregnant women should avoid eating sprouted potatoes completely.
Khoai tây mọc mầm chứa hàm lượng glycoalkaloid cao gây nguy hiểm đến sức khỏe người dùng
2. Can you remove toxic compounds from sprouted potatoes?
Glycoalkaloids are concentrated in leaves, flowers, eyes and potato sprouts. In addition to sprouting, the potato is crushed, the green color of potatoes is also a sign of high glycoalkaloid content. Therefore, removing sprouts, eyes, greening or bruised parts will help reduce the risk of poisoning from eating potatoes.
Besides, the way you cook it can also reduce the glycoalkaloid content in potatoes. Specifically, if you fry, the amount of glycoalkaloids can be reduced. However, if you boil, bake or use the microwave, it will not bring the above effects. However, these results still require more in-depth studies to confirm. So some experts defend their opinion that it's best to throw out potatoes that have turned green or that have sprouted.
3. How to avoid sprouting potatoes?
One of the best ways to avoid ingesting sprouted potatoes is to avoid stockpiling them and only buy them when you plan to cook them up in the next few days.
Người dùng nên lựa chọn khoai tây không mọc mầm để sử dụng
If you are going to store potatoes, you should first make sure that you have removed any damaged potatoes and that the potatoes you are storing are kept completely dry (water can stimulate germination). of potatoes). Then store these potatoes in a completely dry and cool place.
Some scientists recommend that you avoid storing potatoes with onions, as placing the two close together can speed up the germination process. Although, there is currently no formal research on this phenomenon, but you can try and observe the results.
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Reference source: healthline.com
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