More Green Potato Questions!

Factual Questions
1

I know that in the recent as well as the more distant past, there have been threads about Green Potatoes and their potential danger, but I can’t get the search engine to work, so I can’t find them at the moment.

I can’t recall whether these concerns of mine were answered in those threads or columns…

Before I read those threads, I had always assumed that the potatoes were green because they were unripe, and had used many of them without a second thought (but am still here to tell the tale). The grocery stores sell bags and bags of green potatoes! But now I am worried that I have been putting my family at risk all this time!
So my questions:

  1. If the green skin of the potato is peeled off, does that eliminate the potential danger?

  2. Does heat kill the toxin? Will it cook or bake out?

And since I can’t get the search engine to function for me, does anyone have a link to the other threads on this subject? I can’t remember them very well, and would like to refresh my memory.
Thanks!
JoWallaby

2

Hello? hello hello hello hello?
Echo!! echo echo echo echo!

Is anyone there? there there there?

Well, Gotta go… I am off to cook some green potatoes for dinner.

3

Geez, Chrome, keep yer shirt on!

Cecil covered this back in More of the Straight Dope. Also, it’s in the archives here:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_055b.html

The short answer is that like most other toxin scares, it would practically take a ton of green potatoes to kill you. As for why they’re green, it’s not because they’re not ripe. Frequently it’s because they broke the surface of the ground while growing and chlorophyl started kicking in.

When someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles to frown. But it takes only 4 muscles to extend your arm and whack them in the head.

4

From what I have learned from Organic Gardening:

The green is caused by exposure to UV rays. If you were to have an immediate reaction it would likely be an upset stomach, not severe. But the chemical is believed to be carcinogenic.