Researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health published last Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine a study showing that potatoes, especially French fries, are the most fat inducing food.
Spud will join the lexicon of four letter words.
The Harvard researchers followed the eating habits of over 120,000 health professionals for 12 years. Therein lies the first problem with the study. Health professionals are not representative of the general public. What health professionals are going to double down daily on French fries?
The study found that by daily eating an extra portion of French fries an individual would gain an extra 3-4 pounds over 4 years. Potato chips will only yield 1.7 extra pounds. That should make Frito-Lay happy unless you delight in Pringles.
Duh! That’s the second problem with the study. If I eat an excessive amount of any food or consume too much daily of any beverage, I will gain weight. How much in federal grants did the researchers receive for this study?
How many adults will eat extra French fries daily? Teenagers going to MacDonalds for their salty fries I understand, but adults?
Forget soft drinks and red meat. According to Harvard, it’s potatoes. What does Yale think?
Does this mean we can go back to loading up on sugar and salt? Whatever happened to calories, fats, and trans fats?
The United States Potato Board, based in Denver (Why not Idaho or Maine?), responded by stating the Harvard study perpetuates unfortunate myths and misconceptions about the potato.
This vegetable, cultivated by the Incas in Peru, is now a staple of ¼ of the world’s population. It’s ubiquitous in our diet, and traditions.
Imagine Thanksgiving Dinner without the mashed potatoes and gravy? The turkey and dessert will probably yield more calories. Thanksgiving – a veritable cornucopia of all the foods we shouldn’t eat.
That’s right. The Harvard study did not measure caloric intake or exercise regimes – another problem!
Meat and potatoes – They’re already taking red meat away from us. Now it will be meatless and unpotato as our daily diet.
No more baked potato and cream cheese. If the potato doesn’t kill you, the cream cheese will
Lay off the Hungarian goulash
Don’t drink cream of potato soup
Pass on the hash browns
Don’t partake of the shepherds pie
Forget the potato dumplings
Think of this – If we don’t eat, we will most assuredly lose weight
Remember the British and the Irish. England let the Irish consume only potatoes. Grain was reserved to the British. Then came the potato blight, and millions of Irish emigrated, especially to the United States or died from the famine.
Don’t drink a Bloody Mary, White Russian, Black Russian, potato martini, or Vodka
If we no longer have the potato to eat and muse over, then we do not have to resolve the great spelling debate. Is it potato or potatoe – the Vice President Quayle spelling?
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