POTATOES

Potatoes have about 620 mg of potassium-that's more than a banana. Potassium is essential to the body because of its role in attaining optimal muscle performance and improving the nerves' response to stimulation. Iron, essential in helping the body convert food to energy as well as resist infection, is also present.

Potatoes were first cultivated on the Altiplano of modern-day Peru and Bolivia, and after being introduced to Europe around in the 16th Century, potatoes are now the world's third biggest staple food. Amid the growing food crisis, potato prices have also remained relatively stable as they are not traded much across borders.

China now is the world's largest potato producer, growing 70 million metric tonnes in 2006, but potatoes are increasingly popular across Asia.

For convenience, potatoes are dried, flaked, cubed and otherwise made easy to reconstitute into mashed or hash browned. The are cut very thinly and fried to make potato chips, or for those who do not want the extra fat of the oil, they are blended with other ingredients and baked. The lowly potato is elevated in a Cosmopolitan way when cut and fried it is called a French Fry. Due to the propensity for baked potatoes to hold their heat due their moisture content, mankind invented the hot potato...so called for anyone or anything which is hard to hold in one's hand. There are games about potatoes played with fists piling on one another and starting to count, "One potato, two potato" We speak of immaturity as 'half-baked' and those among us who are lively, clever and witty as 'hot potatoes'.

One variety, the sweet potato (somewhat like a yam) gave birth to a series of a form of musical flute called a 'sweet potato' due its configuration.

No one wants the description of 'couch potato' though inactivity and too much sports watching on the TV will earn the label. Mr. Potato Head was NOT, as currenlty believed, named for our sitting President but, rather, refers to a game. However, he wears a double distinction as he is also often called a 'rotten potato'. Russert potatoes were not named for the illustrious, recently lost journalist,