Can you eat sprouted potatoes?

Potatoes are vegetables that people often eat, and they usually do not cause poisoning. However, when they turn green or sprout, they produce a large amount of solanine, also known as solanine. This is a very toxic substance. This toxin is not only present in the surface of potatoes, but also in its sprouts, eyes, roots and green areas. Sometimes people feel numb on their tongues when eating potatoes, which is because potatoes contain solanine. The solanine content in sprouts is 50-60% higher than that in potatoes. If people eat potatoes containing solanine, they will be poisoned: first, they will feel itchy in the throat and mouth, upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Mild symptoms can heal themselves after 1-2 hours of stopping eating; severe cases have repeated vomiting, resulting in dehydration, high fever, difficulty breathing, dilated pupils, coma, convulsions, and severe cases can even cause poisoning and death.

1. Cause of poisoning

Potatoes contain an alkaloid called solanine. The content of solanine in normal potatoes is relatively low, at 2-10 mg%. When the potatoes sprout and their skin and flesh turn green, the solanine content increases. People can be poisoned if they consume 0.2-0.4 grams at a time.

2. Symptoms of poisoning

Symptoms usually appear ten minutes to several hours after eating, including burning pain in the stomach, numbness of the tongue and throat, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and fever, headache, coma, sweating, and palpitations in severe poisoning. Children often suffer from convulsions and coma.

Precautions

Attention must be paid to preventing the occurrence of solanine poisoning in potatoes.

Do not eat unripe green-skinned potatoes.

The parts of the potatoes that have sprouted, turned green, or rotted should be completely removed. If the green area of ​​the potato is large and there are many sprouted parts, the potato should be thrown away.

Cut the peeled potatoes into small pieces and soak them in cold water for more than half an hour to dissolve the remaining solanine in the water.

Taking advantage of the weak alkaline nature of solanine, adding an appropriate amount of rice vinegar when roasting potatoes can use the acidity of the vinegar to decompose solanine, which can have a detoxifying effect.

When cooking potatoes, make sure they are cooked thoroughly and cooked at high temperature for a long time to partially decompose solanine.

If you feel a numbing sensation in your mouth when eating potatoes, it means that the potatoes contain a lot of solanine. You should stop eating them immediately to prevent poisoning.

Potatoes should be stored in a cool, ventilated place without direct sunlight to prevent them from sprouting and turning green.

It should not be eaten when there are too many sprouts or most of the skin and flesh turn black or green.

For potatoes with very few sprouts, the sprouts and the flesh around the eyes should be thoroughly dug out. Since solanine is soluble in water, soak the potatoes in water for about half an hour.

Health Tips

When eating potatoes, we must be careful to choose them. If we find that the potatoes have sprouted or the skin has turned green, the skin and flesh are purple or rotten, we must not eat them. For potatoes that have slightly sprouted and turned green, the sprouts, eyes and green parts should be dug out, and a little more should be dug around the sprouts. They must be cooked before eating, and do not eat half-cooked potatoes; let alone eat potatoes raw. When frying potato shreds, slices, and cubes, add a little vinegar and fry them thoroughly to accelerate the destruction of solanine.

When potatoes sprout, they produce a toxin called solanine (also known as solanine). Good quality potatoes contain only 10 mg of solanine per 100 grams, while the solanine content in green, sprouted, and rotten potatoes can increase by 50 times or more. Eating a very small amount of solanine may not be obviously harmful to the human body, but if you eat 200 mg of solanine at a time (about half a tael of green and sprouted potatoes), you will get sick after 15 minutes to 3 hours. The earliest symptoms are itching in the mouth and throat, pain in the upper abdomen, and symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Those with mild symptoms will heal themselves through their own detoxification function after 1 to 2 hours. If you eat 300 to 400 mg or more of solanine, the symptoms will be very severe, manifested as fever and repeated vomiting leading to dehydration, as well as dilated pupils, fear of light, tinnitus, convulsions, difficulty breathing, and decreased blood pressure. A very small number of people may die from respiratory paralysis. Therefore, patients with severe symptoms should be sent to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible.