I was browsing through the USDA Food Search system for data on various foods, when I noticed they include how much of a food is water. What really perplexed me is how 81.1 grams out of 100g of russet potato is water… when 88.1g of 100g of milk is also stated as water.
Obviously a potato isn’t liquid like milk, and my intuition would say that 100g of potatoes seem far denser and “drier” than 100g of milk. I mean can you imagine sating your thirst with just solid potatoes, as opposed to say a glass of milk?
But yet I can’t make sense of why one is solid and the other is liquid when they’re nearly the same in water content, or why one would seem to sate thirst more.
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Bonus question: does this mean you poop about as much from 100g of milk as you would from 100g of, potatoes? I guess you could blend the potatoes…
In: 7
I can’t say for certain about potatoes, but other foods in cooked form do indeed contain mostly water. Take for example oat flakes 300g dry cooked with 1500g of water yield a product that has about 80% water. The water is stuck between molecules of starch to form something like a gel.
Living plant cells contain the water within a relatively tough cell membranes that resist breaking. Fresh fruit like apples are mostly water.
The amount of feces depends on the kind of material consumed and the amount. Plant cellulose is impossible to break down. Other forms of so called fiber attract water and doesn’t let it being absorbed into the blood. Protein in milk can mostly be broken down in reasonably amounts if the person doesn’t have intolerance against milk.
Most of the water will ultimately enter the blood if the person doesn’t have diarrhea and replenish lost water, and cause one to wake up to go to the bathroom after a big dinner.
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