A recent Harvard study has revealed that even slightly increasing the number of servings of 10 foods has a direct impact, for the better or worse, on weight in people participating in the study.  The findings show that over a four-year period, diet was the main factor to which weight gains and losses were attributed in participants in two control groups, each instructed to consume one serving more per day of a given set of five foods.

During the twenty year study, two groups of people were given special foods to consume “one extra daily serving” of each day.  Their weights were taken every four years throughout the study.

One group was given a group of five foods consisting of sugary beverages, red meat (unprocessed,) processed red meat, chips, and potatoes.  All they had to do was add one extra serving of one of these foods each day than they would normally consume.  Every four years, the people in this group gained  between 1.5-3 lbs.  Yes, each time!

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and yogurt made the Harvard study’s good list.  Remember, this study was not about replacing currently eaten foods with the good ones:  it was about adding one extra serving daily to what these people were already eating.  People who added a serving each day of fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grain products, and yogurt actually lost weight.  It was a very small amount:  less than one pound for any of the given foods — but it was not a gain.

Chris Voight, head of the Washington State Potato Commission and ADT Promotions, rushed to the defense of the humble spud.  You may remember him from December of 2010, when, in an effort to curb the potatoe’s increasingly bad reputation as a fattening food, Voight embarked on a 60-day diet of nothing but potatoes, and lost 21 lbs.  That’s real dedication to a job!  But more than that, it proved that the carb-phobic subculture of American dieters were wrong in their assertions that starchy vegetables like potatoes were the direct cause of the nation’s obesity epidemic.

During his diet, Voight ate around 20 potatoes a day prepared in various ways.  During an interview with Matt Lauer from the TODAY show, Voight revealed the secret behind his potato only weight loss:  “No toppings, no sour cream, no butter. It was literally just potatoes and seasoning, and oil for cooking,” he explained.

So, are potatoes really all that bad?  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.