Ok, I need a botany lesson.

I've been meaning to look this up on Wikipedia, and I probably will at some point, but I'd like to hear the Paleo perspective.

How are tubers different from other root vegetables? In both botanical and culinary terms? Why are they not allowed (and by whom?) How can you tell if a vegetable is a tuber?

Wikipedia really is a good place to start

I think the easiest way to tell in the wild is by grabbing the base of the plant and pulling it up:

A root vegetable will be attached and there will be just the one. It is the taproot of the plant and integral to the structure. It the plant dies, the root dies also.

Tubers will usually remain underground and you have to dig for them. There can be more than one. Tubers are storage pods in the root system and the other roots can be pulled away from the tubers. These plants die off each winter and the tubers grow new shoots in spring. For this reason tubers must contain a bunch of toxins to stop the tuber from rotting or being attacked over winter while buried underground.

Bulbs (ie. onions) are different again.


Internally a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells and they are basically just carbohydrates. Tubers contain anti nutrients like Glycoalkaloids, which are bitter tasting, and produce a burning irritation in the back of the mouth and side of the tongue when eaten. Most tubers require cooking to make them palatable as it breaks down some of the toxins.

Root veggies can be eaten raw and can taste sweet.

We will not eat any tubers (my wife reacts quite badly to them). We do not consume many root vegetable either, but will eat them on occasion.

Can you point me to some information that explains why/how raw potato and arrowroot are toxic, and in what amount?

Irish and Irish-American children used to eat raw potatoes as snacks, instead of apples. This is mentioned in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." The juice is also a common folk remedy in many cultures.

And this site says that arrowroot can be eaten raw.

Potatoes contain anti nutrients (saponins/glykoalkaloids) - solanine and alpha shikonin, which increase gut permeability.


Autoimmune diseases are an unintentional vaccine against your own tissue (ie. celic, Type I diabetes, MS)


An adjuvant (additive) is added to vaccine to promote immunity - common adjuvant are cholera, LPS, aluminium hydroxide. Saponins are very powerful adjuvants.


Adjuvants + gut bacteria can cause inflammation and possibly autoimmune disease (as they mimic the bodies own tissue).


MS = T cells fail to recognize and attack nerve and brain tissue (auto antigens ie. Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG)/Myelin basic protein (MBP)) = movement and sensory impairment.


So potatoes are toxic, increase gut permeability and then also act as adjuvants, which may cause the body to develop auto immune diseases.

Arrowroot is also a tuber (though not a nightshade) and shares similar properties. It can be eaten raw (ie. you won't die straight away) - that doesn't mean it is good for you.

There's a lot of plants in my yard that need investigating... could you all drop by and see if they're tubers or root vegetables?

*Tries to score some free weeding*

All vegetables, raw and cooked, contain toxins. Having done the FAILSAFE elimination diet (to detect food chemical sensitivities), our family is very much aware of this unfortunate reality.

My question was specifically: what are the toxins in raw potatoes and arrowroot, that are destroyed (or reduced to negligible levels) by cooking?

And do we have evidence that these toxins actually constitute a serious health hazard, compared to the ones found in other vegetables?

So cassava and sweet potatoes are root tubers, not stem tubers like potatoes. Do they have the same antinutrients?

Solanine can be destroyed partially by cooking potatoes. Deep frying and microwaving are the most effective methods.

Solanine poisoning can be serious but is very rare; there haven't been any potato-based cases reported in the last 50 years according to Wikipedia. The long term effects of chronic low doses may be nasty though.

Sweet potatoes and yams don't contain solanine like potatoes; I'm not sure if they share any other antinutrients.

Is it any wonder they (we) seem to be more prone to food intolerances & leaky gut syndrome?

I found it!

Quick Reference: What Am I Reacting To?

Wow, that's a great page, Nancy!

I was thinking of the same ploy...

GMTA!

Yes, it's definitely interesting. Maybe it goes back to the famines (including the big one in the 19th century) that are part of Ireland's past. The Irish, like other Northern Europeans, are more prone to celiac/gluten intolerance also. Our optimal diet is probably fatty fish from the North Sea and meat.

As I understand it, the gluten/celiac connection was discovered in WWII in the Netherlands, when (due to grain shortages) the people had to base their diet on potatoes and other root vegetables. The celiac children got better, despite such a high tuber consumption. I'm sure the potatoes were cooked, but it seems as if those folks were still likely consuming a lot of solanine and other not-so-great stuff. What with the limited supply of food, I'd guess that they would have been reluctant to throw out potatoes that were a bit iffy by the usual standards. And they certainly weren't zapping them in the microwave.

In any case, I've looked for references as to how much solanine is destroyed by cooking, and the amount appears to be small. In fact, all of the sources I've found -- like this one, and this one, and this one -- say that cooking doesn't decrease glycoalkaloid levels at all. So my question -- i.e., why, specifically, are raw potatoes and raw arrowroot supposed to be far more toxic than cooked ones? -- is still looking for an answer.


BTW, from various sources I've seen, the traditional Irish diet (up to the 1500's, when the English started taking the best stuff for themselves) was heavily based on pork and cow's milk products, along with fruits and nuts, some cultivated grains, and honey which they made into mead. It's quite reminiscent of other mixed agrarian cultures, such as those in Africa. Wikipedia even says that they used to bleed their cattle and mix the blood with milk, like the Maasai do.