Sixty days ago, Chris Voigt decided to undertake an unusual publicity stunt. To battle public perception of the potato as an unhealthy food unfit for consumption with every meal, Voigt decided to eat nothing but potatoes. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack, it was potatoes all the way for the head of the Washington State Potato Commission. At the end of his diet, a physical revealed Voigt lost 20 pounds (he’s a healthy 176) and lowered his cholesterol 60 points by eating nothing but spuds.
After Voigt’s stunt, the WIC program added potatoes back on the menu. Until then, potatoes were the only vegetable not covered by WIC, which considered them a low nutritional value food. However, the USDA school lunch program still limits potatoes, so the work is not quite finished.
“If we are successful in convincing USDA to put potatoes in the programs, then I’d call it a 100 percent success,” Voigt said. “But it’s been great that the publicity and the general awareness the public has now and how it’s drawn some attention to the nutritional value of potatoes. I just consider that gravy.”
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