I road a long ride yesterday with another guy, he brought along (among other things) a large, raw, cleaned potato, with the skin still on. I thought it was odd, but he read this was a good idea as potatoes have potassium and sugar. In my quest for bringing along "real food" I have thought about a lot of things...but potatoes???

I am all for natural foods but raw potatoes are nasty tasting.

Raw potatoes are incredibly gross. But, the starch is fairly quickly digested (depending on the type of potato). The GI of these starches varies a lot depending on cooking (increases GI) and type (amylose/amylopectin content).

Do yourself a favor and bake that potato. I did a 60+, 14000 foot mtn bike ride last year and quarted two potatos before hand. Sealed in foil, baked for 30 minutes and gave 'em a good dash of sea salt. After they cooled, I bagged them up and stuck them in the camel back. They did a good job of supplementing calories and mixed in well with the other energy bars/gels/pb&j sandwiches. This was a 12 hour ride though, so I pigged out. I could see a plump 250 calorie potato and three bottles of 100calorie drink covering a nice 60 mile ride.

Raw potato is toxic. The skin contains the poison solanine. Potatoes with green skin from being in the sun have higher levels of solanine. I wouldn't eat raw potatoes. Besides: yuck.


Cooked (cooking destroys the poison) potatoes OTOH are great food on longer rides.

Yeah raw potato's are toxic. Yet another example of our society losing even basic food knowledge.

Cooked (baked) potato's used to be a staple on road food for professional cyclists and there were many pro cyclists who were feeding on baked potato's given to them in the feed bags.

Anthony

Potatoes have way more potassium than bananas ... they're a good choice for cycling.

And raw potatoes are NOT toxic ... the plant itself is toxic, and possibly any green areas on the potato, but not the main part of the potatoes themselves ... plus with a little salt, they taste good.

https://www.food-info.net/uk/qa/qa-fp97.htm
https://www.botanical-online.com/patatasangles.htm

i'm not aware of potatoes being toxic. The plant is in the same family as nightshade, and the leaves are similarly toxic, though.

As far as I know, Garmin-Chipotle still does this.

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yeah, i'm pretty sure solanine poisoning from one or two potatoes is really unlikely. Being a plant alkaloid, it's bitter-tasting, and you'd almost certainly notice that flavor in a dangerous potato. If you don't, that's called natural selection.

There was a video somewhere of a team cook preparing potatoes for the team. Boiled them with skin on, removed the skin and coated with a bit of olive oil then rolled in a mixture of a bit of salt and parmesean cheese. Wrapped in foil, ready to eat. He said the riders claimed they were like rocket fuel later in a ride. Wish I could remember the link.

Here you go link There are also other recipes there. I specially like the rice one.

Potatoes are awesome for long rides, specially when weather is crappy. Also bananas or baked sweet potatoes hit the spot.

UD

Both those links talk about how the tuber can be toxic. It's the skin and "eyes" which can contain the toxin.

Yes, it depends on the potato and you are not likely to get poisoned by one or two, but if you're often eating raw potatoes on rides....

Besides, yuck.

Baked potatoes on rides FTW!!!

My food dictionary says baked potatoes run about 26 calories/oz., compared to a Clif Bar at 100 calories/oz. So a good bit of water there - it's nice to have a team car. Or your jersey pockets are going to look pretty funny on a long ride. Let's see - 260 cal/hr X 6 hour century = 3.75 lb. potatoes.

They get green skins if the skin grows above the ground. I've heard the green is toxic. Otherwise I don't believe a raw potato will harm you. I hear some people like them raw.