Three Vegetables with Notable and Interesting Facts Associated with Them
Good for you but maybe not as good as advertised; here are some short facts on several vegetables that you may find interesting.
Is it a Sweet Potato or a Yam?
Low in sodium and both Saturated Fat and Cholesterol, the sweet potato is abundantly healthy. Sweet potatoes are rich in Vitamins B6, Vitamin-A and Vitamin-C and a source of Manganese, and are a source of dietary fibre as well.
Distantly related to the common potato, the orange fleshed variety of potato called “sweet potato” and somewhat incorrectly sometimes also called a “yam” are grown in various parts of North America. The United States Department of Agriculture (”USDA”) allows North American-grown sweet potatoes to be marketed as “yams” so long as they are also labeled as “sweet potato.” Yams (the African and Asian-grown variety) do not grow as well in most agricultural North American climates because the growing season there is not quite long enough. True yams require a longer growing season that North America has. So if you see signage in the grocer’s store for “Yams, product of America” they are really Sweet Potatoes. Conversely, “Yams, product of Africa” means that they are imported, and are true yams.
Sweet potatoes have more vitamins and minerals than imported yams so consider this when buying vegetables. Besides, one should buy produce locally whenever possible which reduces transportation costs and the pollution associated with global transporting.
Carrots for Better Night Vision?
Long associated with better eyesight and improved night vision, the beta-carotene they provide can help restore the poor vision that acute lack of Vitamin-A causes, and it really does improve night vision to a normal degree. But it does not provide super see-in-the-dark abilities.
There is a contention that eating large quantities of carrots causes one to acquire true night vision, which is not exactly true but this contention was utilized in the war effort. During World War II, British gunners were shooting down German aeroplanes in the dark and a Royal Air Force propaganda story was purposely released about the RAF’s consumption of large amounts of carrots being behind this success.
It was in fact the emerging technologies of radar and the use of visible red light in cockpit instrumentation (red light does not cause constriction of the retina as much as normal white light) that had much to do with this success with nighttime air combat and missions. This news release is said to have reinforced old folklore tales in Germans about carrots and the alleged improved vision, and may have for a time diverted attentions away from the possibility of new technologies being used against the German forces.
This propaganda news campaign although not completely factual as was released did have a beneficial effect upon the Britons too; it encouraged them to cultivate and consume carrots in an effort to better endure the regular blackouts which occurred due to power outages and of course, during air raids when lights were intentionally turned off.
Spinach
The edible flowering plant that is native to central and southwestern Asia and almost universally disliked by children is an interesting candidate for this list. This dark green leafy plant can be eaten raw, chopped, or boiled and in a variety of other ways. It has many health benefits but some caveats as well.
A rich source of iron, a serving of boiled spinach has about 150% more iron than a weight-comparable hamburger patty. But against spinach is the fact that the bio-availability of the iron it contains is much less than optimal. The type of iron spinach contains is called ‘non-heme‘ iron, which the body cannot absorb efficiently. Meat on the other hand contains the ‘heme‘-type of iron, which is readily absorbable by digestion. Consuming spinach with other vegetables high in vitamin-C makes better use of the iron it does contain.
Spinach is also a plentiful source of calcium but again with the deleteriousness of other compounds in spinach (oxalates, mainly) the calcium becomes bound in a water-insoluble solution and is actually swept unused from the body via elimination. For comparison, broccoli is also high in calcium and some 50% of its calcium is absorbable whereas closer to 5% of the calcium in spinach is bio-available for metabolizing. For correcting iron deficiency in the diet, eat meat not spinach.
Over all, spinach is still healthy and worthy of inclusion in the diet but often overstated are the virtues this dark green vegetable offers. From children’s cartoons “Popeye the Sailor” is shown in times of need for bursts of physical strength and endurance to obtain it from consuming a can of spinach. Presumably it is the iron in spinach responsible for his increased stamina. This depiction is possibly based upon a simple clerical error dating back to the 1930s when a German scientist by the name of E. von Wolf, Dr. whom was studying the benefits of spinach had inadvertently misplaced a decimal point in his calculations of the amount of iron present. This made an apparent ten-fold overstating of the actual value.
Further damaging the reputation of spinach but in more recent years were the E. Coli outbreaks back in 2006 followed by the Salmonella outbreaks in 2007. Both incidences were in the United States and being zoonotic pathogens were ultimately traced to fecal residue of either domestic and feral animals seen in the vicinities of the production fields. Probably the contamination was vectored through irrigation water and also directly from the animals trespassing through the agricultural field. Typically, commercial vegetable produce for human consumption is fenced and patrolled to keep both domestic and wild animals out partly for this very reason.
The three types of spinach are Savoy (dark, curly and convoluted leafs and harder to wash clean), Flat/smooth leaf (smaller, flatter leaves and thus easier to clean) and Semi-Savoy which is of course, intermediate between the first two varieties. Washing fresh spinach leaves prior to use is always advised and deemed of benefit but this does not entirely remove the risk. Spinach is a very important vegetable to include in your healthy diet despite all these factors. Just know and be aware of both the benefits, myths and the risks.
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10 Comments
drelayaraja, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
It was sweet potato. Well written.
Glynis Smy, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
I am a good girl and eat all my vegetables. I have never had a sweet potoato though. They have now arrived in Cyprus so I will get some next time I shop, your information was the motivator for this. Thanks.
martie, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
great article. I love sweet potatoes!
B Nelson, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
I love all three, we grow carrots, but our season isnt long enough for sweet potatoes which need even more time to grow than regular potatoes. and deer ate the spinach the one time we tried growing that.
veges are good! good points!
Sourav, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
Good information. Really helpful.
Lauren Axelrod, posted this comment on Nov 22nd, 2009
I had all three of these yesterday. I love vegetables and now I know why!
Bernard Pollack, posted this comment on Dec 3rd, 2009
Just wanted to flag an article published today about the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania written for the Worldwatch Institute’s blog called Nourishing the Planet [http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/].
Breeding Vegetables With Farmers in Mind
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/breeding-vegetables-with-farmers-in-mind/
As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there’s a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice. And while these crops are important for food security, providing much needed calories, they don’t provide much protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, iron, riboflavin, thiamin, niacin, other important vitamins and micronutrients—or much taste. “None of the staple crops,” says Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director for Africa, “would be palatable without vegetables.” And vegetables, he says, “are less risk prone” than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods of time. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize often scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize which need a lot of water and fertilizer.
Unfortunately no country in Africa, according to Dr. Tenkouano, has a big focus on vegetable production. But that’s where the Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Center (which is a part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers’ needs.
Despite the focus on staple crops, vegetable production generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises, according to the Center’s website. And unlike staple crops, vegetable production is something that benefits urban and rural farmers alike (See our posts on urban farmers in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya).
In addition, vegetable production is the most sustainable and affordable way of alleviating micronutrient deficiencies among the poor. Often referred to as “hidden hunger,” micronutrient deficiencies—including lack of Vitamin A, iron, and iodine—affect some 1 billion people worldwide. They lead to poor mental and physical development, especially among children, and cause poor performance in work and in school, further crippling communities already facing poverty and other health problems.
But by listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, the Center is helping to alleviate these problems. Watch for more blogs about our visit to the World Vegetable Center and their efforts to raise nutrition and income in Africa.
— You can also follow Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack’s travels on our personal blog Border Jumpers [www.borderjumpers.org]
thestickman, posted this comment on Dec 3rd, 2009
Wow! -What a detailed follow-up! You should write this as an article! Good response, -thanks!
Bernard Pollack, posted this comment on Dec 4th, 2009
2nd in our series of articles published today about the World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania written for the Worldwatch Institute’s blog called Nourishing the Planet [http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/].
Listening to Farmers
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/
The World Vegetable Center is focusing on “building a sustainable seed system in sub-Saharan Africa.” What does that mean? According to Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, Director of the Regional Center for Africa, it requires “bringing farmers voices into the choices of materials they are using.”
The Center does this not only by breeding a variety of vegetables with different traits—including resistance to disease and longer shelf life—but also by bringing farmers from all over eastern, western, and southern Africa to the Regional Center in Arusha, Tanzania, to find out what exactly those farmers need in the field and at market. Mr. Babel Isack, a tomato farmer from Tanzania, was at the Center when I visited, advising staff about which tomato varieties would be best suited for his particular needs—including varieties that depend on fewer chemical sprays and have a longer shelf life.
The Center works with farmers not only to grow vegetables, but also to process and cook them. Often, vegetables are cooked for so long that they lose most of their nutrients. To solve that problem, Dr. Mel Oluoch, a Liason Officer with the Center’s Vegetable Breeding and Seed System Program (VBSS), works with women to improve the nutritional value of cooked foods by helping them develop shorter cooking times. “Eating is believing,” says Dr. Oluoch, who adds that when people find out how much better the food tastes—and how much less fuel and time it takes to cook—they don’t need much convincing about the alternative methods.
Dr. Oluoch also trains both urban and rural farmers on seed production. In fact, one of the women farmers we met in Kibera slum in Nairobi had been trained at the Center and is selling seeds to rural farmers, increasing her income. “The sustainability of seed,” says Dr. Oluoch, “is not yet there in Africa.” In other words, farmers don’t have access to a reliable source of seed for indigenous vegetables, such as amaranth, spider plant, cowpea, okra, moringa, and other crops. As a result, the Center is working—partly with CNFA, an Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) grantee—to link farmers to input or “agro-” dealers who can help ensure a steady supply of seed.
In addition, the Center is providing how-to brochures to farmers in Swahili and other languages to help them better understand how to grow vegetables in different regions.
Stay tuned for more about our visit to the World Vegetable Center later this week.
— You can also follow Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack’s travels on our personal blog Border Jumpers [www.borderjumpers.org]
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R J Evans, posted this comment on Nov 21st, 2009
Some interesting facts about these vegetables I didn’t know!