On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Alan Lundin wrote:

> > Growing up,  I would always scarf a whole potato or two that my mom had
> > just peeled and gobbled them down;  sometimes I probably ate several raw
> > potatoes  I loved the taste and texture and had absolutly no ill effects!
>
> I not only ate lots and lots of raw potatos as a child,
> I went for long periods of time in college where raw
> potatos were all I had to eat.  Turns out I didn't die,
> nor did I even get the slightest bit sick.

I have to say, this is pretty interesting.  I don't know much
about potatoes, and I have no experience eating them raw.  I took
Ray and Troy's word for it that raw potatoes are inedible, but we
have a surprising number of people here who have eaten them raw
without any discernible ill effects.

If people can eat them raw now without getting sick, then
presumably people in the Pleistocene could have done so, unless
the potatoes available to them were toxic in ways that modern
potatoes are not.  This is certainly a possibility, but do we
have any actual information about it?

Another thing about potatoes is that they are easy to cook with
minimal technology: you can impale them on a stick and roast them
over a fire, or drop them right into the coals.  If the
availability of fire goes back as far as some researchers are
suggesting then people may have been eating potatoes and other
tubers for a very long time indeed.

Personally, I am not inclined to eat potatoes just because they
are so high in carbohydrate.

Todd Moody
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