Binging on French fries thrice a week may raise diabetes risk by 20%: Study

 Love to eat potatoes? Consume the starchy vegetable baked or boiled, but not as French fries, according to a study which showed that eating the popular snack item thrice a week may increase the risk of diabetes by 20 per cent.

The study, which tracked the diets of more than 205,000 adults over decades, however, showed that other forms of potatoes -- including baked, boiled, and mashed — do not increase the risk of diabetes.

The study, published in the BMJ, also found that swapping any form of potato for whole grains may lower the risk of diabetes.

“The public health message here is simple and powerful: small changes in our daily diet can have an important impact on the risk of type 2 diabetes,” said corresponding author Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Limiting potatoes -- especially limiting French fries -- and choosing healthy, whole-grain sources of carbohydrate could help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes across the population,” Willett added.

The new study examined the diets and diabetes outcomes of 205,107 men and women.

For more than 30 years, participants regularly responded to dietary questionnaires, detailing the frequency with which they consumed certain foods, including French fries; baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes; and whole grains.

Throughout the study period, 22,299 participants reported that they developed diabetes.

The researchers calculated, however, that eating whole grains – such as whole grain farro – in place of baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes could reduce the risk of diabetes by 4 per cent.

Replacing French fries with whole grains could bring diabetes risk down by 19 per cent. Even swapping refined grains for French fries was estimated to lower diabetes risk.

On the other hand, soft drinks, ketchup, jams, tinned fruits and potato chips — all these taste delicious and are convenient, but it is important to note that they are examples of processed foods and large quantities may be harmful to your health.

According to UK’s NHS, processed food is any food that has been altered in some way during preparation. Food processing can be as basic as freezing, canning, baking, and drying.

“Processed food is not “real food,” it is food that has been modified by chemical processes and contains additives, flavorings, emulsifiers and stabilizers.

The food is then assembled into ready-to-eat hyper palatable food called ‘Cosmetic food’.

The easiest way to judge how processed the food is to look at the length of the food label at the back of the packet. The longer the list, the more processed is the food in it,” Dr Tejal Lathia, Consultant Endocrinologist, Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi- A Fortis Network Hospital, told reporters. Natural sugars are found in fruit, cereals and vegetables along with fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and thus, they are healthy. Refined or processed sugar, however, lacks these accompanying vital nutrients and is found in most processed foods, even those that are not considered sweet like ready-to-eat soups and ketchup.

Notably, processed food includes packaged breads, breakfast cereals, confectionery (sweets), biscuits, pastries, buns, cakes, industrial chips and French fries, soft and fruit drinks or packed juices, packaged pre-prepared meals (frozen meals) and reconstituted meat products. As per the doctor, processed foods are harmful because they contain higher amounts of unhealthy fat, sugar and salt.

The extra calories - termed ‘empty’ calories because they lack nutritional value - consumed in the form of fat and sugar, from processed food, leads to weight gain and high blood sugar. Excess sodium, that comes from salt, in this type of food raises blood pressure and causes water retention.

The combination of high blood sugar and blood pressure with obesity increases the risk of heart diseases and cancer. Furthermore, most processed foods also lack fiber and protein, which are necessary for satiety or the feeling of being full after a meal. Failure to feel full results in consumption of large quantities of the processed food at one time.

Lastly, these processed foods contain little to no vitamins and minerals. If a large part of a person’s diet consists of processed foods, they can suffer from lack of important vitamins and minerals.

“A study from Brazil showed that preschool children who consumed excess ultra processed food (40 per cent of their daily calorie intake) had increased waist circumference by the time they entered primary school.

Two large European studies have studied the link between consumption of processed foods and health.

One study found that people who consumed even 10 percent more processed food, had increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“The second study showed that those who consumed 4 or more servings of processed food a day had a 60 percent increased chance of dying, when compared with those who consumed less than 2 servings of processed food per day,” Dr Tejal told reporters.

Indo-Asian News Service