It's not just because they look gross, but they also contain highly concentrated toxins. One of these such toxins is solanine. Solanine affects the nervous system and can cause weakness and confusion. Another tell-tale sign that your potato is more potent is if it starts turning green.
The starchy part of the potatoes also contains the toxin, but in smaller amounts. The reason is they tend not to cause any harm to people nowadays is most of us store our potatoes in dark, cool areas. Storing potatoes in these types of areas postpones potatoes from growing "eyes" or turning green. As you can probably guess, if you cut off these areas they are still be safe to eat.
Retrieving potatoes from the basement also tends to be the main reason mom or grandma sent you there as a kid. Think about it, going in that scary basement as a kid was a learning opportunity to make sure you didn't poison yourself later in life. Cheers to that!
My co-worker pointed out this morning that they don't taste as good. Quick fix: do what I did. Cut them up (about half inch pieces), add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and one envelope of dry onion soup mix. Throw this in a baking dish (you may want to coat in cooking spray) and cover it in foil. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Stir them up half way through the cooking time. These go great with grilled and broiled red meats. In the case you are grilling: put them in a foil pouch, throw it on the grill, and rotate it every so often.
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