Potatoes (Liver Healing)

Potatoes are vilified but shouldn't be feared. Steamed is the best way to eat them. Was there ever a time, maybe in your childhood, when you got in trouble for someone else’s mischief—when you were judged as guilty by association? Then you understand the plight of the potato. Potatoes have gotten a bad rap for far too long. As victims of the war on foods mistakenly categorized as “disease-producing,” potatoes have been blamed for ills they never caused. Potatoes are wrongly accused of contributing to obesity, diabetes, cancer, Candida overgrowth, and many other conditions, while in truth these miraculous tubers can reverse these illnesses. That’s right! Potatoes are actually good for people with diabetes, because they help stabilize blood sugar. One common misconception is that potatoes are poisonous because they’re nightshades. Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and other edible nightshades do not aggravate conditions such as arthritis; you can put aside the worry that potatoes are inflammatory. (For more on this, see the chapter “Harmful Health Fads and Trends.”) Truth is, the toxic oil that potatoes are fried in, the cheese sauce ladled on top, and the butter, milk, and cream mashed in are what have the world convinced that potatoes are bad for us. The frying process and the high-fat/high-sugar content of dairy products are the real instigators of insulin resistance and A1C levels that reach the diabetic zone. This combination of fat plus lactose also feeds every type of cancer. Potatoes don’t cause health issues; the other ingredients served with them do. We should also be careful not to lump potatoes in with the fear of grains and processed foods. If you’re avoiding “white” foods such as processed white rice, white flour, white sugar, and dairy products (such as milk, cheese, yogurt, and cream), don’t cut out potatoes! After all, a potato in its whole, natural state isn’t white—it’s covered in nutrient-rich red, brown, gold, blue, or purple skin. This skin of the potato is one of the best nutrition sources on the planet—it’s a miracle of amino acids, proteins, and phytochemicals. Only once you cut into a potato might you see a white interior—which doesn’t mean it’s lacking in value. After all, we don’t think of apples, onions, or radishes as white and therefore useless, even though when you cut into them, they’re devoid of color. And a cultivated blueberry is colorless inside (whereas wild blueberries tend to be rich in color inside and out); this doesn’t mean the cultivated blueberry shows up on white food lists. Instead, we picture these foods in their whole forms, which is exactly how we need to start thinking of potatoes. The entire potato, inside and out, is valuable and beneficial for your health: potato plants draw some of the highest concentration of macro and trace minerals from the earth. Potatoes are also high in potassium and rich in vitamin B6, as well as a fantastic source of amino acids, especially lysine in its bioactive form. Lysine is a powerful weapon against cancers, liver disease, inflammation, and the viruses such as Epstein-Barr and shingles that are behind rheumatoid arthritis, joint pain, autoimmune disease, and more. Potatoes will be your allies if you’re looking to fight any chronic illness —to fend off liver disease, strengthen your kidneys, soothe your nerves and digestive tract, and reverse Crohn’s, colitis, IBS, or peptic ulcers. In addition to being antiviral, they’re antifungal and antibacterial, with nutritional cofactors and coenzymes plus bioactive compounds to keep you healthy and assist you with stress. Further, potatoes are brain food that helps keep you grounded and centered. As a kid, did you ever do that science project where you stick some toothpicks in a potato, balance it in a cup of water, and watch it sprout on the windowsill? How many other foods can transform and thrive like that, coming to life before your eyes? That’s the power of a potato—a power that’s not to be underestimated—and we witness it firsthand as children. How does it happen that when we’re adults, we’re taught that it’s a weak, empty, ridiculous food, as though we’re supposed to forget the miracle we witnessed way back when? What we should really be saying about potatoes is, “Where would we be without you?” They are that vital to our existence. Maybe you’ve steered clear of the potato misinformation all these years. If that’s the case, your body thanks you for it—and now you have even more reason to appreciate potatoes. On the other hand, if you’ve been led to believe that potatoes are nothing but starch that will add to your waistline, it’s time to see this root vegetable in a whole new light. If you’re bold enough to overcome the conditioning of popular food culture to appreciate the potato in its unadulterated form, you will give yourself one of the greatest gifts on this earth.