French fries are believed to have originated in 19th century Belgium, spreading later into France and then into the greater part of the Western world. Today in Belgium they are still prepared from fresh potatoes and sold on the streets from many french-fry shacks. You may credit American fast-food chains for making french fries a fixture in casual cuisine.
A study from Harvard questions potato-eating, linking it as a leading contributor to long-term weight gain. It’s not that you can’t eat potatoes, you simply need to eat them in a much more healthy way. Baking a potato with the skin on and eating yams and sweet potatoes include the healthy options. Most French fries can increase your LDL cholesterol while they reduce your HDL, which can increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Some french fries may still be deep fried in trans fats. These saturated fats also remain in the body longer and raise circulating blood triglycerides that lower “good” cholesterol. Damage caused by saturated fat is found in margarines, vegetable shortening, and anything that says “partially hydrogenated”.
America’s battle appears to be the potato, not sweets, sodas, or burgers. French fries lead the list for weight gain: Increased consumption of this food alone was linked to an average weight gain of 3.4 pounds in each four-year period. Other important contributors were potato chips (1.7 pounds), sugar-sweetened drinks (1 pound), red and processed meats (.95 and .93 pound, respectively), other types of potatoes (.57 pound), sweets and desserts (.41 pound), refined grains (.39 pound), other fried foods (.32 pound), 100-percent fruit juice (.31 pound) and butter (.3 pound). It might not sound like much, but after some time this adds many pounds that your body doesn’t need.
McDonald’s french fries have acquired a reputation for being delicious but unhealthy. We are all aware that french fries aren’t the best thing for you on any restaurant menu. A medium order of McDonald’s french fries has 19 grams of fat with 2.5 grams of that being saturated fat. With 170 calories coming from fat and a total of 380 calories in a medium order, 45% of the calories come from fat. This is not a good ratio. The 2011 award for the best fast-food french fry, health wise, goes to Sonic Drive-in’s regular fries, which are lowest in calories, fat grams, percentage of calories from fat, and total amount of “bad fats.” (And also second lowest in sodium.) The runner up is McDonald’s small fries, which ranked second lowest in calories, fat grams, and “bad fats.”
There’s another significant health issue associated with french fries that’s less well publicized. Research shows that many fried foods, particularly fast food french fries, are high in a substance known as acrylamides, which are thought to be associated with an increased risk of cancer. Some acrylamides information from ScienceDaily.com: Acrylamide is a chemical formed when frying, roasting, grilling or baking carbohydrate-rich foods at temperatures above 248°F. Acrylamide is thus found in a number of foods, such as bread, crisps, french fries and coffee. Tobacco smoking also generates substantial amounts of acrylamide. “Animal tests have shown acrylamide to be a carcinogen, but until recently no studies have demonstrated a link between acrylamide in foods and cancer in humans. Ours is the first epidemiological study using biological markers for measuring acrylamide exposure, and the first to report a positive association between acrylamide and breast cancer,” says Henrik Frandsen, senior scientist at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark.
Fast food french fries are easy, filling, convenient, and cheap. Few people can eat only one. There’s something addictive about munching on french fries as evidenced with the growth of fast food places serving mega-size orders. Don’t get into the habit of eating this tasty, but unhealthy treat. Save them for a special occasion.

March 28th, 2012
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