I love a good baked potato, plain with just a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt or totally loaded up. So imagine my chagrin when the New England Journal of Medicine released a report last month saying potatoes will make you fat. Dang it. Top that off with the fact that I write the Desperation Dinners newspaper column over a month in advance and guess what ran last week? You guessed it, Stuffed Baked Potatoes with sour cream, salsa and cheese - a perfectly pleasant summer dinner!

Here's the column:

For years, Beverly and I tried to figure out how to duplicate the potatoes at our favorite steakhouse, with the skin a little crunchy, and the middle, moist and fluffy. "Real" baked potatoes, we discovered, need to cook at 475 degrees F. for an hour. Ever since discovering the high heat secret, I practically shout it from the rooftops. I see complete strangers shopping for baking potatoes at the grocery and tell them, “You know for a steak house potato, you need to cook it unwrapped at 475 degrees.”
Oh sure, I’ve gotten plenty of crazy looks, but once I had a lady come up to me at the grocery and say, “You told me last month how to cook my potatoes and I went home and did exactly like you told me to. They were fantastic! You really should write a cookbook!”
I didn’t mention I had co-authored three cookbooks, but I did tell her how glad I was she liked the potatoes. Then I proceeded to buy a couple potatoes for myself, went home, and baked them just like I’d told her to do. (I always bake extras because they’re easy to warm again for leftovers. With the temperatures outside reaching nearly 100 degrees around here, I just topped my potato with salsa, sour cream and cheese, and poured myself a cool glass of Pinot Grigio. But you really can top these beauties with anything you like. And then there’s my absolute favorite way – serve them alongside an amazing steak.

So I headed over to the US Potato Board website to see what they had to say. Now, I know it's not like they were ever going to agree with Harvard, but I actually agree with the constructive criticism the board points out about the flaws of the study and have found the facts they list to be true in my life.

Facts about potatoes from the US Potato Board website:

"Potatoes are vegetables. In fact, they are one of the most naturally nutrient-dense vegetables available. One medium-size (5.3 ounce) skin-on potato contains just 110 calories per serving, has more potassium (620g) than a banana, provides almost half the daily value of vitamin C (45 percent), and contains no fat, sodium or cholesterol. "Fresh potatoes are frequently victims of guilt by association," says Tim O'Connor, CEO the United States Potato Board. "If you order a fully-loaded baked potato, the calories you should be worried about are coming from the toppings, not the potato."

You can lose the weight, without losing the potatoes. Research released by the University of California, Davis and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology in October 2010 demonstrates that people can include potatoes in their diet and still lose weight.
"The results of this study confirm what health professionals and nutrition experts have said for years; when it comes to weight loss, it is not about eliminating a certain food or food groups, rather, it is reducing calories that count," said lead researcher Dr. Britt Burton-Freeman, PhD, MS. "There is no evidence that potatoes, when prepared in a healthful manner, contribute to weight gain. In fact, we are seeing that they can be part of a weight loss program."
Overall diet quality is better when adults and children consume (non-fried) white potatoes. Research released in April 2011 using data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2008 demonstrates that meals that contain potatoes contain more servings of other vegetables, and are significantly higher in potassium, fiber and vitamin C.
To download a comprehensive review of potato nutrition facts and scientific research, visit www.potatogoodness.com and click on "Potato Nutrition Handbook."
What do you think? Will you give up on potatoes?