This year side effects of metformin hcl 500mg potatoes were one of several of our crops which took off quickly and grew unexpectedly, big and lush.

We’re harvesting them now, and are enjoying them very much. The flavor of the potatoes is distinctly better than the flavor of store-bought spuds, and it’s nice to know that they are free of the chemicals usually used to preserve the commercial harvest.

Another thing I enjoy about our own potatoes is that I dig them out of the ground just before dinnertime, so they have no green portions.

Green potatoes have always made me nervous. I remember hearing my mom tell me how during the Irish potato famine people had to eat green potatoes to survive, and many died of liver failure as a result.

Could something as ordinary as a potato cause all that much harm?

Before buying potatoes, I have the habit of holding them up carefully and checking for green. Despite this effort, I sometimes miss green spots, or allow my potatoes to get green before they reach the dinner table.

Yesterday my husband uncovered one store-bought potato which had been sitting around for weeks while we were enjoying our home harvest. It had noticeable green areas, and was rapidly growing sprouts.

Thrifty woman that I am, I cut off the sprouts and the green and put it in a soup.

However, the story of the poor Irish people kept nagging at me, and I ran downstairs to make an Internet search. It was time for me to know the truth. Should all green potatoes be discarded, or is it OK to cut away the bad parts and eat what is left?

The first site I came to suggested strongly that all such potatoes should be immediately thrown away, so I went and dumped the soup I had started.

Another search today indicated that the matter is not this clear-cut.

The fact that everyone can agree on is that the green on potatoes is not itself poisonous, being just chlorophyll, but rather indicates exposure to light, which stimulates the tuber to form a poisonous substance — solanine. This is the same substance which is found in the potato plant itself, and is why the upper part of the plant is poisonous.

Apparently, an estimated 15 percent of the potato crop in the United States is discarded each year because of greening.

Most sites I found said that it is OK to occasionally salvage greening potatoes, but it is probably not wise to make it a regular habit.

It would take quite a lot of solanine to make a person acutely ill, but no one knows the effects of small amounts of solanine over long periods of time.

I also learned more about storing potatoes. I already knew that they should be stored in a dark place, but I found they should not be stored in plastic bags, but rather in breathable containers.

I’ve found from my own experience that potatoes left in the grocery bag in a lighted room begin to get green within days, so it’s wisest for healthy eating to find an alternate way to store them, even if one plans to eat them within the week.

Happy and safe spud eating.