3-19 IAT WIC and Spuds

The Idaho Statesman, via the Washington Post had an article that headlined “WIC mashes potato lobby again.” And as it turns out, this federally mandated nutrition program for women, infants and children is specifically banning white potatoes for their consumption. Potato lobbies have not been able to convince the feds what the national potato Council has been suggesting for years and that is to get an equal shot for the white potato in this federal food assistance program. Here’s a chat I had with Frank Muir, Executive Director of the Idaho Potato Commission: “You and I Frank have talked about this before, the absurdity of excluding the potato from the WIC program knowing that the potato is cheap, filling and extremely nutritious. If you actually wrote down all of the objectives of the WIC program, white potatoes would check off every single one of them. The guidelines for the USDA are to get women and children their nutritional needs and eat more food that have potassium and fiber, which of course potatoes are full of, also there is no cholesterol or fat in a potato. It's like 110 cal for a medium potato and it is loaded with other micronutrients and vitamins.