According to the American Heart Association, saturated and trans fats raise the level of cholesterol in your blood, which increases your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. A single serving of deep-fried, restaurant style French fries contain 24 grams of fat.
Trans fats, or trans-unsaturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, are a type of unsaturated fat that occur in small amounts in nature, but became widely produced industrially from vegetable fats for use in margarine, snack food, packaged baked goods and frying fast food starting in the 1950s.
Trans fat has been shown to consistently be associated, in an intake-dependent way, with increased risk of coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in Western nations.
Deep frying french fries makes them very high in fat, and a high-fat diet increases your risk of becoming overweight. Also, a study by the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence at the University of Washington in Seattle found that a high fat diet may injure nerve cells in the brain that control body weight.
French fries are one of the most readily available foods throughout the country. Because french fries are deep fried in oil, they are very high in fat and calories, which can pose a number of serious health risks if consumed regularly. French fries also contain a lot of salt and acrylamide, a chemical that has been associated with cancer.
French fries are particularly high in carbohydrates and thus should be consumed in moderation or avoided all together. Carbohydrates are necessary for the survival of all living things. However, the excessive consumption of carbohydrates can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. A serving of restaurant style fries contains roughly 63 carbohydrates.
As with most things, eating in moderation is the general rule of thumb. Another way to get around the health risks of consuming too much fried food is to bake them.
If you’re worried that baked fries wouldn’t be as crispy as the ones dipped in hot oil, use this quick trick. Mix some olive oil, sea salt and pepper and rub it all over the fries before you bake them in the oven. This will ensure a crispy skin and fluffy insides and you can even feel good about eating them.
Yes, it’s painful but unfortunately true. Munching on those golden sticks of starchy goodness will most certainly accelerate your demise.
An 8-yearlong study, published in the Journal American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has found that regular consumption of fried potatoes is linked to an increased risk of death. French fries are obviously not the healthiest snack to binge on (deep fried potatoes plus loaded with carbohydrates), but the findings of this new study make it a bit more complicated.
As shattering as it may sound, but those delicious fries that you enjoy quite often may put your life at risk. Foods like French fries that are high in fat and refined carbohydrates are likely to be additive but weight gain is not the only health risk they pose.
Making the ominous observation that the risk of death from eating too many french fries is double than those who do not consume the delicious yet greasy food, the new study has called on potato lovers to prepare their favorite tuber another way, perhaps by steaming or boiling.
A team of researchers analysed the eating habits of more than 4,400 people in North America who were between the age of 45 and 79 years. They kept a track of how often the participants ate fried and unfried potatoes during the course of the study.
It was noted that 236 people died by the end of the study. Researchers revealed that participants who ate fried potatoes, be it at restaurants or homemade fries or in the form of hash browns, twice a week or more had double the risk of early death than those who did not eat fried potatoes at all.
It is important to clarify that the increased mortality risk was associated with the regular consumption of fried potatoes and not potatoes in general. Therefore, participants who ate boiled or grilled potatoes did not face any health risks.
Potatoes are packed with fiber, magnesium, potassium and antioxidants. They have no fat, sodium or cholesterol and so, they are not really unhealthy. But, it is the way you cook and consume them that makes all the difference.
The study only finds an association between consumption of fried potatoes and an increased risk of death. It does not suggest that they can, by themselves, cause death. There can be many factors at play here such as high consumption of fried foods, the quality of cooking oil used or perhaps the effect of frying on the nutritional value of potatoes.
Therefore, more research is required to validate these findings. Some previous studies indicate that when certain foods are cooked at high temperatures by frying they produce a chemical called acrylamide which may be a potential cancer-causing agent, although the effect of acrylamide on human health is not definitive yet.