{"id":23081,"date":"2013-06-26T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T07:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=23081"},"modified":"2013-06-22T19:22:21","modified_gmt":"2013-06-23T02:22:21","slug":"what-causes-green-potato-chips-and-are-they-really-poisonous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/06\/what-causes-green-potato-chips-and-are-they-really-poisonous\/","title":{"rendered":"What Causes Green Potato Chips and are They Really Poisonous?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dan Lewis runs the wildly popular daily newsletter Now I Know<\/a> (\u201cLearn Something New Every Day, By Email\u201d). To subscribe to his daily email, click here<\/a>..<\/div>\n

\"green_chip_5\"<\/a>Every once in a while \u2014 less often than a few years ago \u2014 you\u2019ll open a bag of potato chips and see one which isn\u2019t like the others. It\u2019s green-ish, especially around the edges. It is safe to eat, though it is poisonous. Confused?\u00a0 Read on!<\/p>\n

Potatoes grow underground and are shielded from sunlight \u2014 usually. Sometimes, parts emerge above ground, and those sections turn green as chlorophyll develops. And for this to happen, the light need not be natural light. Most green potatoes don\u2019t make it to the stores \u2014 be it in the produce section or in crinkly foil bags \u2014 for a variety of reasons, but really, who wants to eat a green potato?<\/p>\n

That said, on\u00a0occasion, a green-tinted potato may find its way into a potato chip factory and, eventually, a slice thereof may sneak into a bag of chips. (It\u2019s less and less\u00a0likely\u00a0though, due to advances in technology.\u00a0Here\u2019s a video showing how potato chips are made<\/a>\u00a0in a large factory setting; if you fast-forward to about 2:50, you\u2019ll hear about the cameras used to identify and reject flawed chips.)<\/p>\n

Chlorophyll is non-toxic and harmless, but,\u00a0as mental_floss points out<\/a>,<\/p>\n

in the process of a potato going green … conditions are right for it to synthesize more of a glycoalkaloid (alkaloid + sugar) poison called solanine, which potato plants produce in their leaves, stems, sprouts and flesh as a defense against insects and other predators.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Solanine is not just bad for insects, in large enough amounts, it is really bad for you \u2014 it can cause \u201cvomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and even paralysis of the central nervous system,\u201d\u00a0per Snopes<\/a>.\u00a0 In the most extreme case, it can even cause death.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry too much. One would have to eat about 10-20 or so green potatoes in a day to fall ill. A medium-sized potato yields about 36 chips, per the video linked to above; it\u2019s safe to say that if you ate 360-720 potato chips in a day, you\u2019re going to get somewhat sick, even if the chips aren\u2019t of the green variety. And, of course, unless you purposefully made them yourself, you’re not going to encounter that many green potato chips perhaps even in your lifetime, let alone in a single day. So if you come across an occasional green chip, odds are you’re fine eating it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, don\u2019t eat the green sprouts or leaves from the potatoes themselves, as they have very high levels of solanine.\u00a0As the Straight Dope recounted<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a story which is likely apocryphal, but regardless, demonstrative \u2014 \u201cduring World War II some refugees broke into an abandoned house and found a quantity of old sprouted potatoes in the basement. The potatoes themselves were too dried out to eat, so the refugees made a stew out of the sprouts \u2014 and got incredibly sick as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, for perhaps the only time ever, this is one case where a vegetable\u2019s fried yellow chips are better for you than its green leaves.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n