Feds consider limiting potatoes offered to kids

[The Straight Story]

Feds consider limiting potatoes offered to kids

GLEED, Wash. – Potato growers are fighting back against efforts to ban or limit potatoes in federal child nutrition programs, arguing the tuber is loaded with potassium and vitamin C and shouldn't be considered junk food.

One Washington man is so exasperated by the proposals that he's in the midst of a 60-day, all potato diet to demonstrate that potatoes are nutritious.
"We're just really concerned that this is a misconception to the public that potatoes aren't healthy," said Chris Voigt, head of the Washington Potato Commission. "The potato isn't the scourge of the earth. It's nutrition."

Healthy food advocates said they're not anti-potato, but they think children need a greater variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains to fight a tripling of child obesity rates in the past 30 years.

"The potato is the most common vegetable," said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association. "My impression is that the goal is to increase the amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. I don't believe anyone is specifically attacking the potato."

With that in mind, the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, recommended that the U.S. Department of Agriculture stop participants of the federal Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, from buying potatoes with federal dollars. The institute also called for the USDA-backed school lunch program to limit use of potatoes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_on_bi_ge/us_food_and_farm_defending_potatoes

[napi21]

1. Isn't the problem ore likely to be that most kids eat "french fried"

potatoes which add more fat to their diet rather than just the potato itself?

[Catshrink]

2. The spuds aren't the problem - it's how they're cooked.

They're usually served fried which means loaded with fat. Even baked or mashed need butter. Mmmmm butter. Dang. Now I'm craving Sonic Chili Cheese Fries.

[shraby]

3. What they're missing in their evaluation of potatoes is that

they are an inexpensive filler to a meal that might not have much other nutrition to it for people needing food stamps and WIC. Fruits, other veggies, nuts and are not all that lasting in the tummy and hardly carry to the next meal. Since meat is not what one would call affordable that tends to be on the short end in a meal for people getting help with their food costs.