I like french fries.
There I said it. I also know that they’re FREAKING TERRIBLE for you. Today I came across this article on Yahoo talking about which fast food fry is the worst for you.
They looked at seven kinds of french fries and compared them to one another. For whatever reason, they neglected to include waffle fries from Chik-fil-A (blasphemy) for us Southerners and In-N-Out fries for you West Coasters, so I did my own research to find out where on the spectrum they fit in. You can’t leave out those two and call it “research.” Southerners and West Coast peeps, you with me?
I went ahead and broke down the each fast food stop into an excel file which you can see here. The main columns to pay attention to are Serving Size (which differs BIG TIME between restaurants), and total calories per gram. I highlighted the eye-opening numbers in yellow.
Here’s your best and worst:
Calories:
The Best
In terms of total number of calories, the winers are Chik-Fil-A and and In-N-Out. Now, notice I said total calories…that just means their serving sizes are much smaller than the competition. If you see all the way in the right colum, these two companies are towards the bottom in terms of calories per gram.
The Worst
DING DING DING. Carl’s Jr, for both their regular fries and chili cheese fries. Holy crap. One serving of chili cheese fries is 1010 calories! Let this be a lesson to you, know matter how good it sounds, when you take something that’s bad for you already, and THEN add chili and cheese, you’re just asking for your arteries to say “I quit.”
In terms of Calories per gram, your best is Dairy Queen and Jack in the Box (However, Jack in the Box has one of the largest serving sizes and the most trans fat, so be careful). Once again, bringing up the rear…Carl’s Jr! Really a banner day for you Carl, Carl Sr. must be so proud. The amount of sodium in these things is enough to turn you into salt water, and each gram is so action packed with calories that your heart might just refuse to pump if you put these fries inside of you.
Now children, what did we learn today? French Fries are bad for you, but some are far worse than others. You might say “but they’re so good, how can I avoid them?” Well, your best bet is to avoid fast food all together, because your options are usually limited. If you have to eat fast food, or you’re going crazy for your one day a week of “eat whatever I want,” there is still hope yet. And as Andy Dufresne has taught us, “hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.” These fast food joints are starting to smarten up and are offering healthier alternatives. If you need to eat fries, order a small, and go please easy on the salt. Your body will thank you for it.
AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, avoid Carl’s Jr. like the plague.
-Steve
