What you need to know about French fries and diabetes

I have to admit that my own personal guilty pleasure is potatoes — from French fried to twice-baked, I am a potato lover through and through.

However, more often than not, I feel I have to skip over my preferred side dish to avoid carbs, eat healthier and keep my blood sugar in the green zone.

But what if I told you that a new study is providing good news for potato lovers like me everywhere — revealing that there is a way to eat potatoes, without significantly impacting your diabetes risk.

And it’s even offering insight into just how often it’s okay to go all out and enjoy some French-fried goodness…

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Boiled, baked, mashed or fried, oh my!

Scientists reported in the BMJ that while past research had linked eating potatoes to an increased risk of blood sugar problems, no one had ever determined if how the potatoes were prepared made a difference to that risk.

So they set out to fill that gap in our nutrition knowledge…

To begin, they analyzed data collected over a 40-year period from 205,000 health professionals who participated in three extensive U.S. studies conducted between 1984 and 2021. These participants were free of diabetes, heart disease or cancer when it started, and completed detailed food questionnaires every four years.

After measuring the risk of type 2 diabetes based on the intake of different preparation methods of potatoes — boiled, baked, or mashed versus French fries — here’s what they found…

• Eating three weekly servings of total potatoes increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 5%.
• However, eating French fries three times a week skyrockets that risk to 20%.

All in all, they say that choosing baked, boiled or mashed potatoes was not associated with a significantly increased risk. But you might think twice or thrice about having French fries three times a week.

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Wise choices keep your risk low

This means keeping potatoes on the menu — especially if your guilty pleasure is creamy mashed potatoes or a baked potato with a pat of butter and topped with chives — doesn’t present a significant threat.

It also appears that the risk of diabetes is most significantly impacted by French fries when consumed three times a week. That means you may still be able to indulge once a week without losing control of your blood sugar.

So what could you replace those other two servings of fries with to help keep your type 2 diabetes odds low?

The researchers found that substituting baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes with whole grains lowered diabetes risk by 4%. But replacing French fries with whole grains lowered it by 19%.

You know what else would make for a great substitution? Berries.

• Previous studies have shown that people who consume the most anthocyanin-rich foods, like berries, are least likely to experience chronic inflammation, a condition long associated with metabolic syndrome and blood sugar issues.
• Berries also contain flavones, a phenolic compound, shown to improve levels of a protein (adiponectin) which helps regulate several metabolic processes, including glucose levels.
• Some berries, such as the Amazonian Jaboticaba berry, can help lower postprandial glycemia (blood sugar levels after meals).
• Best of all, most berries are antioxidant powerhouses. That’s a big deal because antioxidants guard against the development of diabetes. They support overall glycemic control by improving insulin sensitivity and slowing carbohydrate digestion.
• Berries are also excellent appetite suppressants.

So, don’t be afraid of the potatoes, as long as you choose good substitutes to keep your French fry habit to one or fewer servings a week. And when you do eat fries, make them at home. This video from America’s Test Kitchen shows how to make them from scratch in an air fryer.

But, whatever you do, steer clear of rice. The researchers found that white rice, as a substitute for potatoes, increased type 2 diabetes risk.

Sources:

What scientists discovered about french fries and diabetes — ScienceDaily