20 Potatoes A Day Part 2

20 Potatoes A Day Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Man cannot live by bread alone as the old saying goes but what about potatoes? Chris Voight is the Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission and has recently decided to go on a diet which would not normally be a news item with the exception that it's an all potato diet. But can one man live on only potatoes? VOIGHT: We've talked to a few nutritionists and essentially that's what they're saying, is actually you're probably going to do fine nutritionally. You'll be low in certain things but what I'm really going to suffer from is boredom of kind of eating the same thing day in and day out. Voight is undertaking a 60-day diet of nothing but potatoes in an effort to prove the value and nutrition of potatoes which have really gotten a lot of bad press in the last few years and even recently were excluded by the U.S. government from the WIC program. VOIGHT: I think back to the Irish, back in the 1850's where literally, I mean this is what they did for years and years, but if the Irish can do it, I can do it. The big thing between now and then is now you've got supermarkets that are open 24-7. You've got drive thru's that are open 24 hours a day. You are inundated with food advertising whereas the Irish back then did not have a choice. They had to eat potatoes because that's all that was available. Voight is not Irish but says that his German background has also helped prep him for this adventure. You of course will be able to follow Chris as he works on consuming up to 20 potatoes a day through a new website. VOIGHT: www.20potatoesaday.com and on it I will be blogging. Kind of letting people know how it's going, what my psychology is today, how I'm feeling. Do I have any energy, do I not have any energy, am I craving certain things. How's my health doing? We'll be tracking blood pressure and weight on a daily basis. I go in next week for sort of my baseline physical. And if you are thinking it will not be so bad with all the sour cream and assorted condiments well Voight will forego any of that and only eat the spuds with a few herbs and spices. VOIGHT: The intent really is to show the world that hey, remember that potatoes are actually so healthy and nutritious for you that you could literally live off them if you had to without any negative impact to your health for a period of time so that's kind of what we're doing. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.