LogFAQs > #984587345

The whole point of potatoes was that they had higher caloric value than many other foods. Hence the last paragraph here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato#Production

It's part of why a lot of people tend to argue that the potato being transported to Europe from the "New World" was a huge spur that helped kickstart the Industrial Revolution.

It's also the reason behind the Irish famine - once the potato was introduced, it was so much more efficient than farming prior crops that it became the staple crop, and helped grow the population beyond previous limits. So once it began suffering crop failures, there wasn't really an alternative to switch to to support the existing population.