white potatoes making up for 80% of vegetable consumption in the America

[Liberal_in_LA]

USDA: Americans Are Eating Dangerous Amounts of Sugar, Not Enough Healthy Food
The USDA just published its 2015 Scientific Report of Dietary Guidelines.

http://www.alternet.org/food/usda-americans-are-eating-dangerous-amounts-sugar-not-enough-healthy-food
On Feb. 20th, the USDA published its 500+ page report:2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.The year and a half long study analyzed scientific, nutritional, agricultural and public health data to determine what and how Americans should truly be eating.


Two of the realities they found are pretty horrific:

"About half of all American adults—117 million individuals—have one or more preventable, chronic diseases, and about two-thirds of U.S. adults—nearly 155 million individuals—are overweight or obese."

Changes in diet and lifestyle could help most of our nation's population; intense methodology and evidence analysis proves that "The U.S. population consumes few vegetables" and falls short in many areas of nutrition. With white potatoes making up for 80% of vegetable consumption across the country, statistics show that access to nutritional food and education about what to eat is imperative.

But the big question is-- what should we eat? While the USDA doesn't create a specific diet or meal plan, general guidelines should help to improve the way many Americans eat and think about food.

Eat your veggies, enjoy a Mediterranean-style diet.
"Dietary patterns with positive health benefits are described as high in vegetables, fruit, whole grains, seafood, legumes, and nuts; moderate in low- and non-fat dairy products; lower in red and processed meat; and low in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages and refined grains."

[Brother Buzz]

1. I bet that figure would go down if the government classified ketchup and catsup a vegetable

[FrodosPet]

2. Or better yet, salsa

I've read and heard multiple times that salsa has overtaken ketchup in popularity.

It definitely has with me!

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. replacing sugar with salt. watch the sugar and salt content in these products

[Brother Buzz]

5. Works for me!

[AtomicKitten]

3. Michelle did an episode of Restaurant Impossible for the Food Network.

link: http://thehill.com/video/administration/232747-michelle-obama-delivers-mission-food-networks-restaurant-impossible-

I was shocked that the kids at Horton's Kids (see link above) could not identify most vegetables. The food deserts in this country are vast.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. kids in documentary at link couldnt identify veggies either. were experts about processed chip

[AtomicKitten]

9. The price is diabetes and coronary artery disease.

Tragic, really.

[KittyWampus]

7. Here's the thing, a lot of the delicious things you do to a potato you can do to a veggie>>>

you can coax amazing textures out of cauliflower, you can blend them into mashed potatoes or grains like quinoa

you can roast many veggies tossed with a smidgen of oil and salt and they become sweet… add garlic, rosemary and/or balsamic vinegar and they are even better

you can make crispy chips out of thinly sliced veggies roasted at low heat

you can make hash browns out of turnips or other root veggies

you can make spaghetti out of zucchini

Schools could add these sorts of things for kids, fast food could incorporate a lot, frozen food too.

At this point one has to really question a society's inability to make good food choices.

Part of it is class/economics

Part of it has to be just not being open to new things and sticking to habit

[daredtowork]

15. French fries and potato chips come ready made

all of your healthy choices involve a lot of work to make. The thing the "scolding classes" fail to grasp is how much addition bureaucracy and extra work they've managed to impose down over the years. People are making choices of food convenience, quick energy, and cheap pleasure n the only area where they can get something good for themselves.

We need more views from the ground up before we scold about ANYTHING.

Regarding vegetables - as I said below, when they are offered as the equivalent of french fries, then we'll see what happens.

[KittyWampus]

22. most/all of the choices I listed can also come as ready mades. And 'convenience'

is mostly a bullshit excuse.

For instance, I can crack open a can of chickpeas and throw it into a very small/cheap food processor with some carrot, onion and celery and then some mayo and have a highly nutritional, plant based meal within seconds.

Using a peeler, you can transform a zucchini into noodles within seconds.

Simply chopping a root veggie and tossing it in the roasting pan takes seconds.

It isn't about convenience. It's about people not caring enough to change the way they eat and their unwillingness to look at their eating habits.

Talking about eating habits is very difficult because so much of it is subconscious. We feel threatened when anyone talks about doing things differently.

Edit- Food choice is one of the most powerful things available to us humans to effect positive changes in our lives. Inertia is what keeps most people from making changes. I do acknowledge the instances in cities where there are food deserts.

[daredtowork]

25. I have a food processor

I gave up using it the first time I had to clean it.

You talk about "excuses" and "habits" and "choices", but at the end of the day it's about what's convenient and what tastes good for most people. If we can make healthy food fit into those latter two criteria, then people will eat healthier. Scolding does not work.

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. they make ittybitty processors that are simple to use and clean

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

39. or it could be about

people not realizing how easy it is. Many of our ideas about food are passed down from our parents/families etc. If Mom serves tater tots all the time, I grow up thinking this is what I eat............

[ND-Dem]

31. and time to learn how to do the cooking in a new way; and time and energy and motivation...

[Trillo]

8. I just bought 50 lbs of potatoes for less than $10.

20 cents per pound. It will take us a long time, probably 6 months, to use them up, but the point is their low cost.

Perhaps lowering the costs of healthier foods would be a good solution? When I was a kid in the 60s or thereabouts, vegetables were cheap. During the 90s, vegetable prices soared at the grocery. Whole grains are sill somewhat reasonable, but seafood? Ha. One of the most expensive items around.

My wife was just commenting on the price of almonds. It seems beef is less costly.

There's something wrong with a system which tells us we must be eating the most expensive foods around, when the masses of the population are very poor. It seems rather demeaning.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

10. Almonds are one of those water-intensive crops

that are getting seriously impacted by the California droughts, iirc. So don't look for those prices to go down any time soon, and probably to keep going up.

[Trillo]

11. I know, but what does that have to do with so many poor people being

inundated with media, in this case a government agency, constantly telling them that what they're doing to survive is not good for them?

[laundry_queen]

16. Also, potatoes keep for longer

I can't tell you how many times I've bought some veggies and had a specific dinner planned when something comes up a day or 2 later and on day 3 or 4, that vegetable had to be thrown out (well, we compost, but it's still throwing it out).

I've started to concentrate on buying vegetables that have a longer shelf life, like cabbage instead of lettuce, or carrots instead of fresh beans (still buy frozen though). I can see how people would prefer potatoes.

I think it's important to note that a lot of junk food is created from potatoes - like potato chips and french fries. That's why it's the most widely eaten vegetable. If they figured out how to do that with other vegetables and made them taste as good, that vegetable would also be as widely eaten. If it was a comparable price that is.

You are right, vegetables have really gone up in price. So has anything remotely healthy. Fruit is ridiculous. It's cheaper by far to buy prepackaged pudding or cookies than to buy apples for my kids' lunches. I still do, but geez. Things that used to be basics - apples in lunches - are becoming priced out of reach for a lot of families.

[Trillo]

20. I try to keep potatoes in a cool place.

Supposedly, the optimum storage temperature for potatoes is around 48-50 °F, somewhat warmer than the refrigerator. I just keep them in our garage during the winter, which at night is the optimum temperature, and unfortunately don't have a great place during the summer.

White flour is another long term storable, it will keep at room temperature for up to a year, though I've kept it longer and it still seems fine. If the flour has any germ in it, it will go rancid. I make my own whole grain breads, but I buy white flours in 50 lb bags, then purchase bran and raw germ separately, and mix them in ratio when I make the bread. Only the germ needs to be stored in the refrigerator.

Cabbages are another great vegetable, much more nutritious than lettuce.

Frozen vegetables seem to be the best for long term storage. A long time ago we obtained a chest freezer which does not have a defroster circuit in it, which means two important things occur. First is that it is low power use, there's no heating circuit to defrost the ice build up. The second is perhaps more important, the frozen food is always kept at below freezing temperatures, which means that your frozen items will last a lot longer. In a freezer that has a defrosting circuit, it occasionally (likely several times per day) goes above freezing temperatures for short periods of time, which melts any frost build up. The only hassle about the chest freezer is that various things get buried, thus it's a little inconvenient.

[panader0]

19. How do you preserve potatoes to last six months?

Mine start sprouting in a short time.

[Trillo]

21. See post #20.

Another thing that I like about the 50 lb bags. When their price drops to that price I indicated, it usually means a fresh crop. Older potatoes that the distributors themselves have stored for long time periods will sprout readily. I store them in the original bag they came in, which is some kind of breathable, woven plastic. Not in a cabinet, just on the floor of the garage, which tends to stay cool during most of the day, a big cement slab.

http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/POTATOES/potato_storage.pdf

[laundry_queen]

23. How my mom used to store our garden potatoes

is she had a big bin and put it in the cold storage in the basement (the cold storage was just a small room in the corner with concrete on 2 sides and no insulation on the outside walls, but insulation on the inside walls to keep the cool in. It was the size of a tiny closet).

The potatoes used to last nearly the whole winter. Yeah, the did sprout after 3-4 months but she would just cut those off. Closer to spring she would throw out the ones that were too soft and the sprouts were too big, and keep a few of the good ones for seed potatoes for the following year. We used to grow red potatoes, so a bit different than your typical russet. Plus, I think the freshness helped them last - the ones you buy in the store who knows how long they've been sitting already.

[Iris]

26. How so you store your potatoes?

Mine always sprout after a few weeks.

I'm not exactly hijacking thus thread. Potatoes are nutritious and cheap. Potato chips and French fries, which I suspect makes up a large part of the 80% figure, are cheap but not nutritious.

[Scootaloo]

12. Most veg are expensive, bulky, and spoil quickly, while people are working longer for less money

and after a long day of work, even the minimum effort of trimming a head of broccoli for the steamer incites a severe mood of "fuck it"

[laundry_queen]

24. So true

Since I've started working (I'm a single parent, was a stay at home mom then a student) full time, I feel that 'fuck it' feeling quite often. I have a 45 minute commute each way, so by the time I get home, cut up stuff, cook it, and eat, it's nearly time for my youngest (8 yrs old) to go to bed. So many times I'd rather get one of my teens to throw a frozen lasagna into the oven so it's ready when I get home and I can spend more times with my kids. Since I've started working we definitely eat more convenience food. It's not even just the cooking - cooking from scratch creates a much larger mess that takes a long time to clean up. After working all day, who wants to spend an hour and a half or so cooking and cleaning up the mess?

That's not to say I've given it up. We generally eat from scratch on the weekends and at least a few days a week. I try to plan in advance and get my teens to prep before I get home (washing and cutting up the veggies). It still takes up a lot of time. If I didn't have medical issues that require I watch my diet, then I would likely not give a crap quite so much. It's pretty labor intensive to eat healthy, from scratch meals.

[ND-Dem]

32. I have a hard time finding untrimmed broccoli anymore -- which i hate, because you can tell

how old it is better if it's untrimmed, and there's more edible portion untrimmed, and of course the price of trimming makes it cost more.

[daredtowork]

13. Just stop with the guidelines

It's not the guidelines. It's not the labels. It's not doctor's speeches. It's not the support groups. It's not the public service announcements. It's not the thought leaders.

What we need is the equivalent of french fries for other vegetables.

[ND-Dem]

34. i think what we need is more time, more money, more peace.

[Lancero]

45. Local stores deli occasionally serves fried green beans...

They are awesome.

[daredtowork]

48. Can't buy from deli on food stamps. nt

[Cleita]

14. Potatoes have saved not only the Irish, but the Andean indigenous people

of South America where the vegetable was developed. I eat potatoes every day even when at times it's the only food I eat. I believe the fast food reconstituted french fries are not healthy for you, but a boiled or baked potato is very nutritious.

[Iris]

27. ^this^

N/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. true

[marle35]

41. They are very close to a 'complete food'

Humans have survived and thrived on months of nothing but potatoes. People really make too much out of dividing certain fruits and vegetables into the best kind (kale, almonds, pomegranate) and the not-so-great kind (potatoes, peanuts, less colorful fruit/vegetables). They're all healthy, and we should eat whichever ones are convenient and enjoyable.

Now, I do think it is better to bake rather than boil veggies, because the nutrients tend to dissipate into water.

[no_hypocrisy]

17. Potatoes are not vegetables.

They are tubers.

[HereSince1628]

30. Vegetable often refers to vegetative parts not flowers or products of flowering

things we thing are vegetables may not be...tomatoes are fruits as are peas, corn and wheat kernels.

Leaves, stems and roots are vegetables... lettuce & collard, Lemon grass and asparagus, turnips and beets.

[ND-Dem]

35. The term "vegetable" is a non-biological one largely defined through culinary and cultural

tradition. Apart from vegetables, other main types of plant food are fruits, grains and nuts. The division between vegetables and other food types is somewhat arbitrary and based on culture. For example, some people consider mushrooms to be vegetables, even though they are not biologically plants,[2][3] while others consider them a separate food category;[4] some cultures group potatoes with cereal products such as noodles or rice,[5] while most English speakers would consider them vegetables.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable

as for potatoes being tubers, many non-edible plants are tubers, so if the point is to group edible plants, it's a fairly useless organizing principle.

[LWolf]

49. I think a more useful organizing principle

for edible plants would involve starches and sugars.

[enough]

18. As a potato lover and amateur potato grower, I have to put in a good word

for the nutritional value of potatoes.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2770/2

"The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Potassium and Manganese."

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. yes, but not when consumed as potato chips and fries

[magical thyme]

28. would you like fries with that?

Fresh veggies are expensive and short-lived, unless you can grow them yourself. Canned veggies have their vites cooked out of them, and are loaded with salt and sugar.

Flash frozen have nearly the same nutrition as fresh -- more if you live in the north and have fresh shipped in from CA in winter.

I live in Maine. I grow the more expensive veggies in the summer, and buy the cheaper ones fresh. Potatoes are the one cheaper thing I grow myself, but that's because I lucked out and got wild purple peruvian potatoes my 1st year and have been able to save my own seed from them. I freeze as much as I can from my garden for winter, but rely on frozen veggies and fresh carrots in the winter.

carrots: fresh organic are $1/pound, otherwise 75cents/pound
frozen broccoli: the small cuts are $1.39/pound
frozen spinach: $1.69/pound
frozen cauliflower: $1.69/pound
frozen corn: $1/pound
frozen peas: $1/pound
frozen squash: $1.25/pound
etc.
Many, many veggies are <$2.00/pound, so that's what I make the center of my winter diet, with the more expensive veggies in small amounts.

Right now I'm making colcannon. I have a pound of purple potatoes and a pound of carrots boiling. I'll be adding a couple other pounds of veggies, bringing the (non-white) potato content down to <25% or so.

It takes some forethought, but it is very doable to eat large quantities of vegetables without breaking the bank.

[Marr]

29. I wonder how much of that is french fries?

Americans tend to have horrible diets. It's often got nothing to do with food prices or availability, either-- they just go straight for the tastiest thing, and get a double portion.

[Cleita]

33. Probably half and the other half potato chips, both high in fat

and probably processed to the point of having no nutrition other than carbs.

[ND-Dem]

36. mcdonalds small fries have 9% of the rda for vitamin c & 12% of the rda for fiber. + some

iron, protein & calcium.

and they're somewhat filling.

not so non-nutritious as you might think, the problem is the high fat and salt content. but that's why you get the small.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fast-foods-generic/8054/2

[Marrah_G]

42. Potatoes, onions, carrots are all very cheap

I think that many people od not know how to cook. I think we need to bring back home ec to schools and teach the children nutrition and food preparation that goes beyond making mac n cheese from a box.

[Lancero]

46. Depends on how you cook them...

imo, baking em is the easiest way - Just peel/clean em, put em on a baking pan on foil and put it in the oven for however long you like.

Not sure how well this would work for the large onions, I only do this with the frozen baby pearls.

[Scuba]

43. Not to mention that the deep water wells needed for potato farming are sucking the aquifers dry.

[Wellingtom]

44. Rice is cheaper

People should eat more rice.

[Lancero]

47. It's a grain, not a vegetable.