Introducing Spud-U-Lite, the first low-carb potato

[Champ]

At last, some good news for Britain's dieters reeling from gloomy predictions of a soaring obesity problem: American scientists have created a type of potato so low in carbohydrates that it could be used in the Atkins diet.

The potato, developed with a Dutch seed company, has yet to be given a formal name but has been nicknamed "Spud-U-Lite". It is yellow and waxy with a smooth skin and has an "exceptional" flavour, according to scientists who have sampled it. Its carbohydrate content is only two-thirds that of other potatoes.

"Normally, we wouldn't recommend potatoes," said a spokesman for Atkins Nutritionals. The potato has yet to be evaluated by Atkins scientists but the spokesman said: "It sounds as if you could eat these potatoes in larger quantities during the later stages of the Atkins diet, once you have reached your target weight."

The Atkins diet, which shrunk the figures of Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones, the Hollywood actresses, admits carbohydrates only in minute quantities.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/30/nspud30.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/05/30/ixportal.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Not exactly low-carb

Potatoes are not just high-carb, but the carbohydrate turns into sugar in the body very quickly.

Two thirds of a lot is still more than a low-carb dieter would want to calculate.

--bkl

[Ksec]

2. looks like an egg on steroids