Potatoes Are the Perfect Vegetable—but You’re Eating Them Wrong

In 1996 the United States deed highest potato. Americans were eating 64 pounds of the vegetables each year—more than astatine immoderate constituent since modern records began successful 1970. A record-breaking harvest had flooded the state with truthful galore spuds that the authorities had to wage farmers to springiness them away. In the White House, the Clintons were foisting potatoes—fried, marinated, boiled, garlicked—onto princesses and presidents astatine authoritative dinners.

“It was a brainsick time,” says Chris Voigt, whose agelong vocation arsenic a potato-pusher started successful the murphy frenzy of the precocious 1990s. “Literally you could bargain buckets of gallic fries.” But arsenic Voigt made his mode up successful the murphy industry, each the mode to enforcement manager of the Washington State Potato Commission, the American murphy was undergoing a melodramatic displacement successful fortunes.

The mean American is present eating 30 percent less potatoes than during the vegetable’s heyday, down to an all-time debased of 45 pounds per year. The driblet successful depletion of caller potatoes—for boiling, roasting, mashing, and steaming—has been adjacent faster. In 2019, frozen murphy depletion overtook caller potatoes for the archetypal time, opening up a gulf that has continued to widen since the pandemic. Most of those frozen potatoes are eaten arsenic gallic fries.

This has seen murphy fields go battlegrounds for the aboriginal of nutrient successful America. In December 2023, reports emerged that US dietary guidelines might change to declassify potatoes arsenic a vegetable, mirroring the attack taken successful Britain. There was specified an uproar that US Department of Agriculture caput Thomas Vilsack was forced to constitute a missive reassuring senators that his bureau had nary specified plans.

That reclassification whitethorn person failed, but the murphy has had a spectacular autumn from grace. Once this miraculous nutrient-dense rootlike was the substance of quality civilization. Now the spud successful the US has go synonymous with a garbage, industrialized nutrient strategy that pours profits into a fistful of companies astatine the disbursal of people’s health.

America’s favourite rootlike is facing a Sophie’s Choice moment. Should we judge that caller spuds person mislaid the combat against the tide of fries, hash browns, and waffles, oregon is determination anticipation for a murphy renaissance? Can the humble spud execute the rehabilitation it deserves?

The achromatic potato is simply a criminally underrated food. Compared with different carb-loaded staples similar pasta, achromatic bread, oregon rice, potatoes are affluent successful vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. They’re besides amazingly precocious successful protein. If you deed your regular calorie extremity by eating lone potatoes, past you’d besides transcend your regular extremity for protein, which is 56 grams for a antheral aged 31–50.

Chris Voigt knows this due to the fact that for 60 days successful 2010 helium ate thing but potatoes. And a small oil. And 1 clip immoderate pickle juice. But the constituent is, for 2 months Voigt didn’t conscionable past connected potatoes, helium thrived. By the extremity of his fare Voigt had mislaid 21 pounds, his cholesterin was down 41 percent, and he’d stopped snoring. “I deliberation I’ve personally proven that the murphy is highly nutritious, nary substance however you eat—whether you boil it oregon fry it, navigator it successful the oven, oregon steam it,” Voigt says.