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Nearly five years ago, Potatoes USA set out to answer a deceptively simple question: What is being said about potatoes? Since 2021, traditional and social media coverage has been tracked quarter by quarter to understand how the potato story is being told. As the five-year mark approaches, the data tells an encouraging story. There’s stronger recognition of potatoes as a whole, nutritious vegetable that can fuel workouts and everyday life.
Every news article and social post is sorted into one of four message categories: Health, Affordability, Cooking/Prep, and Culture/History. Think of categories as the wide-angle lens. They show which broad conversations are driving coverage.
Beneath each category sits a set of more specific topics, from Nutrient Profile and Weight Loss to Fries & Chips and Versatility, which provide further insight into exactly what people are discussing in greater detail.
Of the four categories, Health has the greatest challenges and opportunities. It’s where potatoes have historically faced the toughest scrutiny — outdated takes on the glycemic index, misinterpreted studies, the perennial “sweet versus white” comparison. It’s also where accurate information matters most, because perceptions of nutrition shape what people put on their plates.
Across nearly every Health topic, two things happened at once: The volume of coverage grew, and the tone held steady or improved. More people are talking about potato nutrition, and they’re talking about it more positively.
A few topics stand out. Disease Prevention (coverage of how the properties of potatoes may prevent or cause diseases), Starch (particularly the growing conversation around resistant starch), and Glucose/Diabetes (how potatoes affect blood sugar and fit into the diets of people managing diabetes) — all areas that once skewed neutral or negative — have shown some of the most significant tone improvements.
These aren’t small wins. Conversations around starch and blood sugar have long been a source of potato misinformation, so watching them shift in a positive direction is a meaningful signal that the broader narrative is changing.
This positive pattern isn’t unique to Health. When widening the lens to the top 10 topics across all four message categories, the trend holds: Volume is up, and tone has largely improved. Starch and Disease Prevention post notable gains, reinforcing that these aren’t isolated bright spots but part of a broader, durable shift.
That consistency is the real headline. A single topic improving could be an outlier. An entire landscape moving in the same direction over nearly five years is a trend — and it aligns with Potatoes USA’s annual consumer research showing more people recognize potatoes as a nutrient-dense vegetable.
For years, much of this work was defensive: catching inaccuracies and setting the record straight. The data now suggests media coverage increasingly on the front foot — shaping the conversation rather than chasing it. Growing coverage volume means more opportunities to tell the potato story proactively, and improving tone means the ground beneath is firmer than it’s been.
There’s still work ahead. Misinformation hasn’t disappeared, and a handful of topics remain mixed. But the direction is unmistakable: The potato conversation is growing and becoming friendlier at the same time.