This spud's for you: a two-month, tuber-only diet.

The potato is a versatile vegetable. You can boil it, broil it, fry it, roast it, bake it and grill it. You can dice it and have it with eggs for breakfast, slice it and have it with a burger for lunch, and mash it and have it with a steak for dinner. And if you are Chris Voigt, you have it all these ways and more — every meal, every day for two months. On Oct. 1, Voigt, the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, began a 60-day potatoonly diet, which he is documenting on his website (www.20potatoesaday .com). His plan is to eat 20 potatoes a day — no sour cream, no gravy, no cheese, just potatoes and a few seasonings. The purpose of his all-spud diet is twofold: to promote the nutritional value of potatoes and to demonstrate to the government that some of its policies restricting access to potatoes for school children or low-income families are unfounded. Voigt is now more than a third of the way to meeting his goal and says his health is fine. “I’m doing great. I’m three weeks in and have lots of energy and there are no side effects. The only thing I’m struggling with is weight loss, because I’m not getting enough calories.” Because potatoes are filling, Voigt is struggling to eat 20 of them a day. Three weeks in, he has lost 12 pounds, dropping from his original weight of 197 pounds to 185 pounds. Still, as Voigt notes on his website, he is getting plenty of nutrients. Potatoes are rich in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fibre, magnesium and vitamin B6, among other nutrients. And though few people realize it, notes Voigt, potatoes also contain protein. He acknowledges, though, that his twomonth diet is hardly balanced. “One food product is obviously not enough,” he says. His goal is not to promote a oneproduct diet, but rather to make a point. In recent years, the reputation of the potato has been unfairly maligned by people promoting low-carbohydrate diets, says Voigt. And many of the calories in high-calorie potato dishes come from toppings or oil, not the tuber itself. But the body needs carbohydrates, notes Voigt, and there are many healthy ways of preparing potatoes. The United States government, however, doesn’t appear to see the potato in such a positive light. It has been considering plans to restrict the number of potatoes that surface in federal child nutrition programs. The Institute of Medicine has recommended that potatoes be limited in the federal school lunch program and banned from the Women, Infants and Children program, a national supplemental food program. “I’m hoping to use my diet as a tool to convince the federal government to change some of its policies,” says Voigt. “I want the government to know that potatoes are not the scourge of the earth, and this is my way of saying, ‘I’ll prove it to you.’ ” According to Jennifer Sygo, a registered dietitian and director of nutrition for Cleveland Clinic Canada in Toronto, Ontario, the potato is indeed sadly misunderstood. “I think that the potato has, unfairly, gained a bad reputation,” she says. “In the movement away from carbohydrates, the potato has been an easy target.” Though she would never, of course, recommend that someone eat only potatoes, Sygo says Voigt’s point is valid. “Is it a healthy balanced diet? Of