IT'S NO MYTH. GREEN POTATOES ARE POISONOUS.

     On the day after Christmas, I woke up feeling fine and in anticipation of my daughter Kim and son- in law Gary arriving later in the day from Canada to spend a couple of days, decided to cook breakfast for my wife Marilyn and myself. I was just recovering from having sinus problems a few days before. But that can be a normal thing for me.
     I busied myself in the kitchen making breakfast.
     Marilyn wanted a large pancake with it's additional niceties and I decided to have some homemade hash browns and fried eggs.
     From previous experience I have found that to microwave whole potatoes before shredding them avoids the fresh spuds turning dark while you're frying them. Blanching them in boiling water for 10 minutes will accomplish the same task. At least it works for me.
     I sometimes leave the skins on when I'm in a hurry to do this process. This time I left the skins on.
     As I took the potatoes out of the sack, I noticed both of them were exceptionally green. Normally that isn't so, but trusting the fact they were purchased at the store a couple of days before, I assumed it was just "the nature of the beast", sort of thing.
     Anyway, once I shredded them, I convinced myself to ignore the green part, fried them up to a golden brown and after frying two eggs and basting them lightly, devoured everything including 2 slices of toast.
     All was well for a couple of hours until later I began to have indigestion. With that came a slight headache as well as being stuffed up again. I couldn't let that spoil the time we were going to have visiting with my daughter and her husband, so with a swallow of antacid along with a tablespoon of Cough syrup, I managed to maintain myself without getting sick. But I definitely was not feeling exactly chipper.
     Along with dizzy spells, tricky vision and trouble balancing, I definitely wasn't feeling myself.
     They left to return to Canada and I continued to feel "not right".
     As the rest of the day went on, I began to feel more and more nauseous and sleepy and began vomiting, slight headaches, diarrhea, hallucinations when I closed my eyes and wondering if I might be better off dead than alive. It continued for three days along with walking stupidly from one end of the house to the other.
     As I thought about what was happening to me, something came to mind that I might have been poisoned by something.
     I finally started feeling better yesterday, Jan. 3rd, and after taking two sleeping pills last night, feel a lot better today. Thinking about the poison part, I remembered some time ago somebody mentioned that green potatoes could be poisonous.
     So I looked it up on Wikipedia to find they definitely are!! It fits my condition to a "T".
     The green version of the potato(unripe or non ripening) contains a natural toxin called Solanine. The greenish hue that should warn you away from the spud is actually Chlorophyll, but it's presence indicates concentrations of Solanine are present in the tuber. (seed potato)
     A glycoalkaloid  poison found in species of the nightshade, Solanine is a nerve toxin produced in the green part of of the potato. (the leaves, the stem and any green spots on the potato skin)
     This bitter, poisonous crystalline alkaloid is part of the plant's defense against insects, disease and predators. Potato leaves and stems are naturally high in glycoalkaloids. So ingestion of these parts of the plant must be avoided at all costs.
     Solanine develops in potatoes when subjected to light or either very cold or warm temperatures. It interferes with the body's ability to use a particular chemical that facilitates the transmission of impulses between cells. Ingested in large amounts, it can cause vomiting, hallucinations, diarrhea, headaches and even paralysis of the central nervous system.
     Of the average potatoes sold in stores, one would have to ingest 4 1/2 lbs. in one sitting to be affected. However, one exceptionally green potato can make up for more than 4 1/2 lbs. and then some. Even death has been known to occur.
     Avoid green potatoes!!   Just sayin'.
 





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