What is the impact of the potato grain strategy on us?

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture said that China will launch the potato staple grain strategy and promote the processing of potatoes into staple foods such as steamed bread, noodles and rice noodles. in the future, potatoes will become the fourth staple food crop besides rice, wheat and corn. The news aroused widespread concern. What is the significance and influence of the main grain of potatoes on us?

Traditionally, potatoes are regarded as vegetables in our country. However, in terms of nutritional composition, potatoes are closer to rice and wheat, but far from other vegetables. From the production point of view, as staple grains, rice, wheat and corn have high yields and are easy to preserve, so they have unique advantages as food. In terms of nutrition, they all provide carbohydrates efficiently. In particular, milled rice and white noodles, which are easy to process and digest, have made a great contribution to solving the problem of "satiety".

With the development of society, people are no longer satisfied with "eating". Healthier, safer and more delicious have become our pursuit. Many grains, such as corn, eat less and less and are converted more into meat, eggs and milk as feed. This transformation meets people's higher pursuit, and the price paid is the decrease in the utilization rate of food, so the demand for food increases. In addition, the increase in population also needs more food. "Food security", that is, how to ensure that people have an adequate food supply, has become a global problem.

Potato is also a crop with high yield and wide adaptability. It can provide or even superior nutrients from rice, wheat and corn. For example, many people's diets are too high in calories and lack of dietary fiber, while potato starch contains some resistant starch, which is difficult to digest and absorb, which is healthier than milled rice and white flour. In addition, the solid content of these foods contains about 10% of the protein, although the content is not high, but as a staple food consumption, it is considerable. The amino acid composition of rice and wheat protein is quite different from that of human body, while the amino acid composition of potato protein is much better, which can be used as a source of "high quality protein". In addition, potatoes contain quite a lot of vitamin C, potassium and several B vitamins.

In recent years, the pollution of cadmium and arsenic in rice has caused widespread concern. On the one hand, there are factors of environmental pollution, on the other hand, it is also related to the plant characteristics of rice itself. Although controlling pollution and strengthening testing and supervision are the main solutions, individuals can make more active choices by increasing food diversity and reducing their dependence on a single food. Replacing part of the rice flour with potatoes can also reduce the risk of eating foods with excessive contaminants.

Of course, both national strategy and nutritional advantages are of only theoretical significance. Whether or not to take potatoes as a staple food depends on individual choice-the state takes it as a staple food and does not require everyone to eat it; if it is not used as a staple food, it cannot prevent people from eating it every day. As for the so-called "staple food", it is not difficult to formulate a "strategy". What kind of "tactics" to make people eat more is the key to success or failure.

The "tactic" of promoting the processing of potatoes into staple foods such as steamed bread, noodles and rice noodles is of course a direction of effort. However, the core of "staple food" should be the increase in people's consumption, not necessarily through daily "staple food". It may be possible to make potatoes into steamed bread, noodles or rice noodles through certain technical public relations, but they must be different from the usual steamed bread, noodles and rice noodles, and it is unclear whether people can accept them. Relatively speaking, it may be easier to actively promote the deep processing of potatoes. With the development of society, the daily consumption of processed food is increasing, and through deep processing, potatoes are decomposed into starch and protein, and properly improved, so that they can be applied to a variety of processed foods, which is also a direction that can not be underestimated.