Potato Proponents Speak Up for Study-Scarred Spud

Defenders of America’s most popular vegetable are deep in damage-control mode following the release of a highly publicized study blaming potatoes for long-term weight gain.

Among its many spud-disparaging findings, the study by Harvard University researchers contends that people who eat an extra serving per day of potatoes — fried, baked, mashed, whatever — pack on more pounds over time than those who drink an extra can of sugar-sweetened soda.

That news may once have spawned an Atkins-like crisis for the potato, still working to recover its image (and consumption numbers) from the hit it took back in 2004, when the low-carb diet was at its peak.

“If eating potatoes was so bad for you … I’d be dead by now,” said Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission.