Potato skins

A baked potato is one of those all inclusive, easy foods that is easy to make, and good for you. Yes, I understand there are a lot of carbohydrates in them, but there is also a lot of potassium and other nutrients that your body needs. I didn't particularly like baked potatoes growing up. I seem to remember that we had them pretty frequently. I know we had potatoes at every meal, I'm sure they grew in our expansive vegetable garden. Potatoes can be made in so many ways. Baked has got to be the easiest, though: Poke them and shove 'em in the oven. Wait. Eat.

To me baked potatoes have always been simply a vessel for other things that aren't that good for you: Sour cream and butter. Oh yes, both. In fact, who needs the white chalky stuff in the middle? Give me the skins and fill 'em up with butter. That's exactly what I did. For some reason, my brothers wouldn't eat the skins. Whether they didn't like them, or they were just being nice to their little sister, I don't know. But the skins would pile on my plate at the end of the meal, when the boys had had their fill of the potato in the middle of the sweet, crunchy, earthy, delicious skin. I LOVED the potato skins. Full of butter. So delicious. So full of potassium.

I was sitting next to a colleague who was eating dinner the other day, and he was eating a baked potato. That's what took me back. I can't really eat potatoes that often anymore. Because of advanced polycistic kidney disease, I have to cut back on potassium in my diet. My kidneys don't process it very well, and too much or too little potassium is bad for your heart. And the skin of the potato is where are the nutrients are. So just the thought of eating that crunchy, sweet, earthy, potassium rich skin makes my heart flutter. And not in a good way.

I think of all the potato skins I ate when I was a kid. Probably a disproportionate amount, considering everyone gave me theirs to eat. So I guess I've had my fill of them, and shouldn't miss them. But I do sometimes. You don't miss something nearly as much until it's taken away. So here's the moral. Enjoy the food you can eat right now. Later, you may have to give it up.