As our mutual friend often says, "you can be as stupid as you want to be," though I don't take it that he's referring to you.

Here's a couple of references.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato

http://www.cantaremusic.com/stories/potato_history.htm

Most of the food we eat, even meats, are selectively bread and cultivated by man and thus don't necessarily reflect the fact of our evolutionary heritage.

Even dogs and cats are "man made" in their present diverse form.

I assume, therefore, that they evolved from regular potatoes, probably due to natural selection. Mashed potatoes (being squishy and malleable) were better able to conceal themselves under rocks and hide from predatory llamas than were ordinary spuds. Potato chips evolved a tough protective container, or "bag" for the same reason, while their sour cream or bar-be-que coating made them more attractive to mates.

Evolution is a wonderful thing.

"What are those bananas doing there?"

At the time this was taken, I wasn't making any distinctions between fruit. And now, since the fasting I've lost appetite for most fruit. I still like the grapes, and most particularly blueberries.

"Mashed potatoes? What are those?"

I keep that (and other forms of potato) to a minimum, even more so now. Interestingly, bread used to be my most irresistible carb urge, but since the fasting, again, I can easily do without it. But probably a few bites of mashed or of a baked potato now and then isn't going to have a big impact.

Thanks for stopping by. You're welcome any time and I really enjoy keeping up with your very authoritative blog.

What are those bananas doing there?

Going to bed hungry is a good idea, you release more growth hormone and trigger repair gene expression.

Mashed potatoes? What are those? They did not exist until a few thousand years ago in Peru from whence the were exported to the rest of the world.