Why does a child eat raw potatoes? Benefit and harm

To most adults, raw potatoes seem unsuitable for nutrition. But the children have a different opinion, and many kids are happy to crunch a raw potato. In this regard, the parents have a question, is it not harmful whether raw potatoes, whether the child can eat it. We will try to answer these questions in this article.

Adults know for sure that they should eat potatoes boiled or fried, can be baked or stewed. Adults are so accustomed and do not otherwise think of ways to use this product. Children are not burdened with such knowledge and gastronomic habits, they intuitively choose certain products only because their taste seems pleasant to them.

There is nothing bitter or sour in raw potatoes (although some tokens successfully burst and lemons), its taste is almost neutral. In addition, the child often gets to the potato almost unhindered - in many families, it is stored in the kitchen and is clearly not in the refrigerator. Outwardly, it resembles an apple or a pear familiar to a child, and the first attempt to taste raw potatoes often occurs for this reason.

Do not forget that kids tend to learn the world through tactile sensations and taste. And because eating raw potatoes, if it happened for the first time, may simply be a sign of curiosity inherent to all tots of a certain age category — from one and a half to three years.

Supporters of raw foods believe that children choose raw potatoes intuitively, because in boiled potatoes, up to 70% of useful substances are killed by high temperatures during cooking, and in raw ones they are available.

Pediatricians ambiguously refer to raw potatoes in a child’s diet. Some do not support this addiction, citing the lack of the need for a child's body to obtain an excess amount of starch and other harmful properties of potatoes. Others see nothing harmful in it.

Known to all mothers on the territory of Russia and far beyond its borders, pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky claims that small quantities of raw potatoes are acceptable. The doctor does not exclude that the child acts on the call of nature and selects raw vegetables and fruits when he lacks certain minerals, elements and vitamins.

About a quarter of the root crop is starch, about 80% is water, 2% is allocated to proteins and only less than half a percent is to fats. Potatoes contain a large amount of organic acids. It is rich in potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and iron. That is why many children love to eat raw potatoes during the period of teething and the formation of the nervous system, when the needs of a small organism for calcium and magnesium increase significantly.

Raw potatoes have a fairly large amount of vitamin C, E, D, and K, B vitamins, and folic acid.

Due to the large amount of potassium, potatoes promote the removal of liquids and salts, accelerates metabolic processes. Potatoes help to neutralize the increased acidity in the stomach, if present, and improves the digestive processes.

Juice of raw potatoes helps with the tendency to constipation, and also has a pronounced anti-inflammatory and tonic effect. It normalizes the work of the heart and blood vessels, as well as a positive effect on urinary function.

Dangerous can be slightly green potatoes. Even if the green shade struck only a small part of the tuber, such potatoes are not suitable for food, and even more so in raw form. The fact is that in such tubers a toxic substance is produced - solanine, which can cause signs of food poisoning.

If the child eats raw potatoes, and the parents decide not to hinder this process, they are advised to take into account the relative toxicity of the root crop due to the alkaloids it contains. It is precisely to reduce the number of alkaloids that potatoes are usually cooked before eating.

Than alkaloids are dangerous, it is known to all who studied organic chemistry at school. If you eat a lot of raw potatoes, you may experience cramps, clouding of consciousness, hallucinations, vomiting and diarrhea. The flowers and leaves of the potato are especially dangerous if the child decides to try them too. The content of alkaloids in tubers is much lower, but not minimal.

Together with the raw potatoes, the child can get salmonella, E. coli or Listeria, if they infected the soil in which the roots were growing. We, alas, know little about the origin of potatoes, which we buy in the market or in the store. Heat treatment (boiling or frying) can destroy pathogens, but in raw potatoes they are alive and wait until they can get into the human body.

While staying at the vegetable store, potatoes and rats can run over the potato, they can urinate on it, and if the child grabs an uncleaned and unwashed potato, which, according to reviews, also often happens, he can get sick with hemorrhagic fever or other rodent-borne diseases.

Raw potatoes, according to nutritionists, are poorly digested. If a child practices eating raw potatoes every day or every other day, it is possible that problems with the liver, pancreas, and insulin can occur, because carbohydrates and starch may require more intensive production.

In some cases, the composition of raw potatoes can cause allergies in the child. It appears as red spots, erythema of various sizes, accompanied by itching and slight swelling.

In order for a raw potato not to harm a child, parents must understand that eating it on an ongoing basis is unacceptable. There must be a reasonable measure in everything. A small piece of raw potatoes once a week does not damage children's health, but eating it in large quantities daily can have negative consequences. This is perhaps the only rule. The rest is up to you.

The benefits of raw potatoes, see the following video.