Whether or not a potato is a vegetable depends on who you ask. “A potato is not a vegetable from a nutrition point of view,” Lilian Cheung, lecturer of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, tells CNBC Make It. “Potatoes almost behave like a refined carbohydrate. It increases your blood sugar.”
Harvard’s school of public health compares potatoes’ effects on blood sugar to that of a can of cola or a handful of jelly beans. Research also suggests the starchy tuber may be responsible for an increased risk in obesity and diabetes. But not all nutritionists share the same sentiment about potatoes.
According to Felicia Porrazza, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Pennsylvania, potatoes should absolutely be considered a vegetable: “Thinking about what a vegetable really is, a potato does fall under that. It’s just a starchy one.” Vegetables are ‘the edible portion of a plant’, she adds, and tubers like potatoes fit that description.
Botanically, potatoes are only vegetables because there isn’t any other category for them, says Dr. Qi Sun, associate professor in the departments of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But, “for us [at Harvard’s school of public health], vegetables mean healthy plant-based foods,” says Sun. “You can’t call a potato a healthy type of vegetable.”
For Diana Ushay, registered dietitian at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Erica Leon Nutrition, “there’s not a straightforward answer,” because potatoes are extremely different from traditional vegetables like celery or broccoli. “I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a vegetable like you would consider something else a vegetable, but I would more classify it as a starchy plant-food.”
Source: cnbc.com