Introducing Spud-U-Lite, the first low-carb potato
By Karyn Miller
(Filed: 30/05/2004) *Sunday Telegraph*

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 Atkins-friendly potato

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.

The Spud-U-Lite could also give a boost to the potato industry, which
is troubled by the Atkins diet. The British Potato Council denied
reports that sales fell by four per cent last year but its advertising
campaign, due to run for three months this summer, indicates concern.
It is called "Fab Not Fad".

In America the Atkins diet is believed to have contributed to a 4.7
per cent drop in potato sales last year. Dr Chad Hutchinson, a potato
expert at the University of Florida who has spent five years working
with HZPC, a Dutch seed company, to develop the Spud-U-Lite, said it
was "the future of the potato". The potato is the result of a breeding
programme, rather than genetic modification, but its low-carbohydrate
content was discovered by chance and believed to be the result of the
low density of the potato's flesh and the relatively short period over
which it matures.

Dr Hutchinson is working with a co-operative of Florida potato growers
who intend to mass-produce the potatoes and have them on supermarket
shelves early next year. It is not known when the Spud-U-Lite will
become available in Britain.

Dr Mike Storey, the research and development director of the British
Potato Council, was sceptical. He said: "These low-carb potatoes may
be similar to small, waxy salad potatoes, such as Maris Peer, Nicola
and Charlotte, that we have been growing for several years."