Editorial: Call them po-TAY-toes or po-TAH-toes, just don’t pretend they’re grains

Behold the noble potato — that most adaptable of comestibles, inspiration for Apopka’s name and Flagler County’s official seal. (No, seriously. It’s a potato with a circle around it.)

Does that look like a grain to you?

The answer is obvious. If grains are the Taylor Swift of the food world — tall, slender and into the whole amber-wave aesthetic — potatoes are its John Goodman: Lumpish, beloved and far more versatile than they appear to be.

Yet a federal committee that sets the country’s nutritional guidelines is considering reclassifying the potato as a member of the grain family, under the well-known scientific theorem “starchy food is starchy.”

That’s just silly talk. Yes, both are undeniably high in carbs and, if eaten to excess, prone to contribute to obesity. But potatoes are nutritional powerhouses (and sweet potatoes even more so) packing fiber and a long list of critical vitamins and minerals into a food that can be consumed with minimal processing and bought for pennies apiece.

The committee, a joint production of the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, is in charge of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a food-recommendation source that is heavily relied upon when setting food policy across the nation. The guidelines are up for revision every five years, and form a basis for federal school-lunch funding and the benefits allocated to participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps.

It’s no secret that the guideline-writing process is often influenced — some might say infected — by political concerns and industry lobbying. For far too long, they emphasized consumption of simple carbohydrates and meat-based protein. But recent revisions have often been sensible, shifting Americans toward vegetable-intensive diets that are better at sustaining health and reducing the impact of food production on an increasingly crowded planet.

This one, needless to say, is not sensible. Not in the least. And we can’t help but wonder whether the real inspiration is to keep the price of food benefits down.

As the Seattle Times points out, the impact on Washington’s economy — a state that produces 29 billion helpings of potatoes for people globally each year — would be palpable. And while Florida doesn’t produce as many potatoes as it once did, spuds are still the fourth-biggest row crop produced here, worth about $205 million a year.

This won’t be the first time the panel has released guidelines that took startlingly illogical leaps. The most well-known was the Reagan-era dictate that ketchup counted as a vegetable. Now it wants to add French fries to the list of historic misclassifications?

If the committee really wants to weigh in for the benefit of American waistlines, it can produce additional guidelines that help consumers better evaluate their diets as a whole, or adjust the breakdown of federal food-related funding to make the most nutritious food more affordable.

But across the nation, too many Americans are going hungry. An estimated 44 million Americans — 13% of American households — suffer from food insecurity, the federal term for households that can’t meet the nutritional needs of everyone in the household. That’s a sharp increase from pre-pandemic numbers. Households with children fare the worst, with adults often foregoing their own nutritional needs in favor of feeding their kids.

The potato may not be a perfect food. For those who are hungry, however, it can be a fast, affordable and filling source of calories.

One thing it’s not, however, is a grain. No amount of official pretense will change that.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com