Potatoes beat other staple foods in water usage

Today is the 'world waterday' and a diversity of organisations are making use of this day to check the water use in the production of a wide variety of food stuffs, reports Belgapom.

The Belgian website www.watervoetafdruk.be has provided information on certain food stuffs and their relation to water.

It is remarkable that potatoes have a very good score in this exercise, certainly compared to other staple food like rice and cereals.

Potatoes, cereals and rice are worldwide considered as the main staple food, which is logical, taken into consideration the fact that these food stuffs can be considered as the daily fuel for our body.

Preferably we get up to 60 per cent of our energy out of carbohydrates. There are a large number of carbohydrates. Especially complex carbohydrates play an important role in our diet. They also provide fibres, vitamines and other nutrients. Starch is an complex carbohydrate mainly available in potatoes, cereals, legumes and certain vegetables such as pumpkin.

In this group potatoes have the lowest water footprint. They contain a lot of starch (20 per cent) and quite some full proteins. On top potatoes contain nearly as much vitamin C as a similar amount of most fruits.

A portion of 200 gr potatoes meets 40 per cent of our daily need of vitamin C. This portion meets also 10 to 15% of the daily need of magnesium and iron and 50 per cent for potassium. Conclusion : an extra potato is good for your water footprint and for your health !