Chris Voigt's Potato diet almost over

The Potato Man proudly lined up a bunch of them on a counter in his family's kitchen: a really nice assortment of russets that, in the next days, would end up in his belly.

In what's indisputably a masterful promotional campaign for a product as bland as a potato, Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, made worldwide news by announcing that, beginning Oct. 1, his diet for 60 days would consist only of potatoes.

His diet ends at midnight, and by then he'll have eaten some 1,200 potatoes that total up to some 400 pounds.

He estimates he's done 150 interviews — the BBC, ABC, NPR, radio shows from all over, including, not surprisingly, Ireland.

After 60 days of potatoes, Voigt, 45, will have come out of it trimmer (he's 6-foot-1 and has gone from 197 to 180 pounds), and with considerably lower cholesterol and blood-sugar levels (all documented on 20potatoesaday.com and on a Facebook page).