yep, sure is hun.. well, i dont think its as good for you as other veg, but you CAN count it as one.. as long as its not been soaked in fat and mixed with chemicals - fries..

The potato is part of the root system of the potato plant. That makes it a vegetable. However, when you fry potatoes, you change the chemical composition of the product, making it into 'something else'. I wouldn't count it as a vegetable once it's been fried. As to ketchup... Isn't that mostly sugar and salt?

You can if you want, but you won't be very healthy. French fries are more fat than potato and ketchup is more sugar than tomato. You can count a potato as a serving of vegetable, just be aware that it isn't the best vegetable choice. It is mostly starch, very little fiber (look what comes off on the beaters when you mash potatoes) and very little in the way of vitamins and minerals. The stronger the color of the vegetable, the more vitamins and minerals. You'd be better off eating a slice of watermelon than eating potatoes. So if you count them, make sure you are eating others as well. And don't choose fries. Even mashed potatoes are much healthier. In the last year, I've become painfully aware of food allergies. I've been diagnosed with somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 food allergies. My daughter already has ten. Almost every food I've proven to be allergic to is a vegetable I didn't like as a kid. I think I must have been aware that they made me feel bad and that was why I didn't like them. So my rule with my daughter is this: you have to eat vegetables, but not necessarily the ones on your plate. If that vegetable makes you feel nauseated, there are plenty more in the freezer and they need two minutes in the microwave. I can easily get you another.

Most diets consider potato in the same category as a bread, even though it is a veggie. The reason is its high starch or carb content. If you eat fries you must count the fat as a fat portion. You must count the fries as a bread portion, in other words, don't eat as much bread as you would normally. Cut out at least 2 slices for the fries.

The 5 a day campaign is to get you to eat healthy food. Not to cheat and eat food that has been made unhealthy.

It is a vegetable, but its starchy properties puts is closer to the grains than it does the vegetables in terms of the pyramid. The pyramid is BS, anyway; I haven't had more than a serving of veg a month for the last decade or so and I'm fit as a - {drops dead from not eating his veggies like his momma' always said he would}

Potatoes are vegetables. Tomatoes are fruits. But potatoes aren't the healthiest of veggies as it acts like a starch and if you fry them up, you're adding oil, fat, to the mix. If you want to steam or boil some potato and add some other veggies on top of that, then it might be healthier. Or just eat as you wish and make up your own rules. And ketchup doesn't qualify as a veggie since it's a sweetened stewed fruit, way too over processed to be anything useful to a diet.