WIC and Spuds

Our state produces a fairly important amount of potatoes. But potatoes have been discriminated against by the Institute of Medicine for a long time as being not heart healthy. That just changed, to the delight of the potato state’s president and CEO of the Idaho potato commission Frank Muir. “The Institute of Medicine has finally affirmed what most medical professionals and nutritionists have always known and that is that potatoes can be part of a heart healthy diet. Loaded with potassium, vitamin C, other micronutrients, no fat, no cholesterol and really low in calories. I call it the world’s largest multivitamin. I just came back from an event with the American Heart Association and Idaho potatoes are certified by them as heart healthy. So, it has been a great day and reaffirms again the great benefits you get from eating Idaho potatoes. You and I have been talking about this for years. It’s amazing. When you think about it, the rationale that has been given to us all these years was that people already eat enough potatoes and when do you use that logic for not eating something that is nutritional? Tomatoes, apples, bananas were all included in WIC and folks eat a lot of those versus potatoes as well. That was never a good argument to keep potatoes off. This is a feather in the cap of the potato industry To finally get that recognition that potatoes are heart healthy and should be part of everybody’s diet.”