Dietary Update on Potatoes Pt 1

Dietary Update on Potatoes Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. First, there were claims that potatoes weren’t vegetables. And now, certain advocacy groups have shifted their efforts and instead want potatoes categorized with grains.

Beth Johnson, CEO of Food Directions and consultant for the National Potato Council, says neither is correct …

JOHNSON … “I think there is definitely still a group of advocates that want to define certain types of food that might be higher in starch, for instance, as equivalent.”

But, Johnson says, from her perspective, potatoes and grains just aren’t the same …

JOHNSON … “There is no doubt that, from a nutrition standpoint, potatoes and grains are different. They have different nutrients. They have some of the same, but they also have very different nutrients.”

Johnson says from potassium to Vitamin E to the way they’re grown, potatoes and grains are very different …

JOHNSON … “Trying to define a particular food based on one component, like starch, just is inaccurate and inappropriate particularly for researchers.”

Listen tomorrow for more on the why potatoes are still a vegetable and why the research to categorize them with grains just doesn’t hold up.

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