ASK DR. BAUGHAN                                             August 15, 1998

GOOD POTATO, BAD POTATO

The complementarity of good and evil, yin and yang, night and day reached sublime and ridiculous heights with the publication of scientific studies in prestigious journals discussing the health risks and innovative health uses of the potato.  I hesitate to suggest the topic has become a “hot potato” of controversy in medical circles, but hashing over the issues is more edifying than such half-baked public debates such as whose french fries are better, McDonald’s or Burger King’s.

First the bad potatoes.  Beware the foil-wrapped potato!  The largest outbreak of botulism in 20 years was traced to foil-wrapped baked potatoes in El Paso, Texas, as reported in the Journal of Infectious Disease in July 1998.  Now we have become suspect of hamburger due to several well-publicized outbreaks of E.coli food poisoning in fast food restaurants, but need we fear the trusty potato as well?  The restaurant in question met all health department standards, so it took some clever sleuthing and experimentation to determine what happened.  The bacteria that causes botulism is named Clostridium botulinum.  This bacteria is not uncommon, but it requires an environment with no oxygen to multiply and cannot withstand high temperatures.  It seems that wrapping potatoes tightly with foil creates the environment with no oxygen.  During baking, the inside of the potato may cook thoroughly, but the foil keeps the surface moist and cool enough that the bacteria is not killed, but incubated.  Then if the potatoes are left at room temperature after baking, the bacteria multiply, and viola! - Botulism.  Refrigeration after cooking or heating thoroughly outside the foil wrap will prevent this potentially fatal food poisoning.

Now the good news potatoes.  The recombinant DNA revolution has allowed production of hormones, proteins and immune stimulating antigens that previously had to be laboriously made from animal proteins such as horse serum or chicken yolks.  The clever engineers that produce growth hormone and the genetically designed tomato have been busy at work developing vaccines that can be administered by eating plants.  Before this sounds too far fetched, remember that we have had an oral polio vaccine for decades, and a typhoid vaccine in a pill.  Developing a vaccine that is incorporated into a plant cell may protect it from degradation in the digestive tract.  One such vaccine against Streptococcus mutans may help prevent dental caries for four months, according to a report in the May 1998 issue of Nature Medicine.  They did not report whether this will be incorporated into a nutritious food or into a candy bar or sweet cereal.  Another group has produced an immunizing antigen against toxic E. coli in, yes, potatoes.  Expect this to be promoted in the french fries to go with the E. coli in the hamburgers.

It is hard to conceive how dramatically this can revolutionize health care.  It just won’t be the same to hear children say,  “Can we go to the doctor and get my potatoes?”  Parents will no longer have that abominable threat to use on their kids, “If you don’t behave, I’ll tell the doctor to give you a shot!” It just won’t have the same bite to say, “If you don’t behave, I’ll tell the doctor to give you a potato!”  Isn’t science wonderful?