The great potato debate: potatoes ARE vegetables

In Britain, each person eats 207lb of this versatile vegetable every year and surveys suggest two-thirds of us believe in the case of the jacket spud at least that it qualifies as one of our recommended 'five portions of fruit and veg a day'. 

But, surprisingly, it doesn't, according to the Government at least. 

Despite the fact that the potato is 100 per cent natural, fat and cholesterol-free and packed with vitamins and minerals, the Department of Health (DoH) has never included it in the 'five a day' criteria since it launched its healthy-eating campaign in March 2003. In fact, it doesn't even class the potato as a vegetable at all. 

'Potatoes are botanically classified as a vegetable, but they are classified nutritionally as a starchy food,' says a DoH spokesperson. 'This is because when eaten as part of a meal, they are generally used in place of other starchy carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta or rice. 

'As such, they have a different role to vegetables in the average diet and do not count towards the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.' 

This is something that the potato industry wants to change and the Fresh Potato Suppliers Association is stepping up its campaign to have the potato included in the Government's healthy-eating scheme. 

The DoH says it hopes at the end of this year to extend the five-a-day criteria, but it remains to be seen whether potatoes will be included.