The nutritional statistics Take a good look and you'll probably find that the nutritional stats of their fries are nothing short of horrifying. A medium portion of fries includes 340 calories, 16 grams of fat and 44 grams of carbs.
French Fries
Ingredients: Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Beef Flavor [wheat And Milk Derivatives]*), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (maintain Color), Salt.
In fact, McDonald's fries are literally coated in a sugar called dextrose. That's part of the reason they're so addictingly tasty—not to mention fattening. "These foods are high in calories due to the added sugars included when they are processed," Dr.
At the beginning of the potato season, when we're using newer potatoes, the naturally-occurring sugar content is very low and we do need to add a small amount of sugar dextrose to our fries to ensure they maintain that golden colour.
Yep. The most common potatoes we use for McDonald's fries include the Russet Burbank, Russet Ranger, Umatilla Russet and the Shepody—varieties known for producing a flavorful fry that's crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
We use a blend including canola and sunflower oils to cook with. Like all vegetable oils, it's cholesterol free. We use only 100% Aussie grown beef to serve you the best beef burgers, sourced from farmers across the country. Our Angus beef is 100% Aussie grown.
Not only do fried foods often contain extra sugar and sodium to make them dangerously tasty, but they also soak up some of the fat from the oil they're cooked in. That oil likely contains trans fats, an especially unhealthy kind of fat that's cheap to make and helps food last a long time.
Acrylamide is a chemical created in certain foods that are cooked at high temperatures. Because chips are sliced so thin and fried so hot, they're even heavier in acrylamide than French fries (which, sadly, 7 out of 9 experts warn against).
Eating those tasty McDonald's fries even releases dopamine in your brain, the neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of pleasure. So how does McDonald's do it? In addition to frying and seasoning the fries, McDonald's coats them in dextrose, a form a sugar.
"It's because McDonald's cooks their fries with beef flavoring mixed within their vegetable oil," divulged the content creator.
We stick to a gold standard that helps us ensure we deliver you a great tasting McDonald's fry. It starts with the right potatoes, which we cut exactly right, and then use a canola-blend oil with just the right amount of flavoring.
Why is this the case and why don't McDonald's fries mould? McCain Foods make McDonald's French fries to our gold standard specifications, which means that they are not quite the same McCain fries you find in the freezer section of your grocery store.
Unfortunately, there are no concrete numbers for what moderation means for different people. For some, having a plate of fries once a week might be fine. For others, twice a month may be a better idea. “Everyone should limit their intake of fried foods, but there is not a one-size-fits-all answer,” Cox says.
Similarly, eating fries everyday will increase your risk of experiencing negative health effects (not as much as smoking mind you), but doesn't guarantee you will experience any negative consequences. Another problem – yes, there are more problems – with nutrition is we don't eat in isolation.
"Sweet potato fries are often thought of as a healthier alternative to regular french fries. And while sweet potatoes themselves can come with a few extra health benefits, this is subject to change based on how they're prepared and cooked," says Emma Willingham, clinical dietitian at Houston Methodist.
But, alas, the fresh-cut potatoes, fried in peanut oil, were named the Worst Regular Order of Fries. The nutritional breakdown of a large order: 1,464 calories, 71 g fat (14 g saturated) and 213 mg sodium.
What was most unexpected about the results, is that even french fries cooked in oil came out higher in the carbohydrate health hierarchy than pasta and rice. Mashed potatoes were the real winner, with children consuming 30-40 per cent fewer calories at meals.
A medium portion of fries has more calories at 337 and only 3.3g of protein. When it comes to carbs, the burger has 31g while the fries have a whopping 42g.
McDonald's promote their food as 'nutritious', but the reality is that it is processed junk food - high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fibre and vitamins. A diet of this type is linked with a greater risk of heart disease, cancer,diabetes and other diseases.
Eating them once a week or less would likely have a negligible effect on your health. Portion size matters. This study didn't provide details of how many fries study subjects ate at one sitting, but an "official" serving is just 10 to 15 individual fries (130–150 calories).
Eat fried food no more than twice a week. When you do eat fried food, limit the portion at each sitting to no more than one serving.
Once at the restaurant our fries are simply cooked in dedicated frying vats in a non-hydrogenated blend of sunflower and rapeseed oil which is 100 percent suitable for vegetarians (McDonald's French Fries are officially accredited by the Vegetarian Society).
The potatoes we use to make our famous chips generally come from Tassie and Victoria and the high-oleic canola oil we use for cooking them is also Australian-grown.
Kentucky Fried Chicken will begin using low-linolenic soybean oil in their products in place of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, the chain's parent company, Yum Brands, announced Monday. KFC will make the switch to low-lin oil in its 5,500 U.S. restaurants in order to reduce trans fats in its fried food products.