I NOTE with interest Steven Camley's cartoon (The Herald, October 26) in which a man with newspaper in hand displaying the headline “Scots encouraged to eat more veg” is giving two guisers a potato – a great idea. Most unusual, though, as the Government’s five a day do not include potatoes. It begs the question why?

The common spud, which has fuelled Europe’s population growth since the mid-18th Century and now the fourth most important food crop throughout the world, is still not classed as a vegetable. A potato (175gm) is packed with Vitamins C and B6, more iron than two helpings of spinach, as much potassium as three bananas, and is a good source of fibre and carbohydrate with no cholesterol.

When we went guising it was with a turnip lantern, the contents of which we had devoured raw whilst digging out with bent spoons.

John Marshall,

36 High Road, Auchtermuchty, Fife.