Is a white potoato a vegetable?

Perhaps spurred by potential squabbles over school lunch nurtitional guidelines, TPP has been asked this simple question. The simple answer is, yes, the white potato is a

vegetable, which by definition is an edible root, stem, or leaf. The white potato (although they also come in pink, yellow, and blue skins & flesh) is a tuber, a modified stem. However this vegetable is in a special category that we call starchy staples. These are basically vegetables that supply a significant amount of dietary calories. So the white potato is heavy on calories (although low fat). When thinking in terms of balanced diets, the white potato is more like rice and bread than like kale or carrot. Tater tots are not even remotely like eating carrot sticks.