WP -- should potatoes really be considered a vegetable? That’s the surprisingly polarizing question under review by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, as part of its mission to assess the latest research and issue new health recommendations to the government every five years, with the next edition set for 2025. While most nutrition experts and botanists say that potatoes are a vegetable, a years-long debate over whether they should be considered a grain or part of another food group has raged on, often in the name of public health — and especially in the United States, where more than 40 percent of people age 20 or older are considered obese.