third most commonly consumed food crop<\/a>, after rice and wheat.<\/p>\nNine out of 10 of the estimated 5.8 million people in the UK with diabetes have the type 2 version of the disease, which is closely associated with lifestyle, especially diet.<\/p>\n
The findings confirm potatoes do not of themselves pose a danger to health, but frying them to turn them into chips, and eating them regularly, does make a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes more likely.<\/p>\n
An international team of researchers, led by Seyed Mohammad Mousavi, a public health expert at Harvard University, investigated the relationship between potato intake and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. They based their findings on food questionnaires filled out by 205,000 health professionals in the US every four years between 1984 and 2021.<\/p>\n
Someone who eats chips three times a week was found to raise their risk of diabetes by 20%, but those who ate potatoes with the same regularity after baking, boiling or mashing them did so by only 5%.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe high starch content of potatoes, leading to a high glycemic index and load, combined with possible loss of nutrients and possible health risks resulting from various cooking methods, could contribute to adverse health outcomes,\u201d the study explains.<\/p>\n
Replacing potatoes with whole grains lowers the risk of diabetes by 8%, and if grains are eaten instead of chips specifically, that cuts the risk by 19%.<\/p>\n
Dr Kawther Hashem, a lecturer in public health nutrition at Queen Mary University of London, said: \u201cPotatoes can be part of a healthy diet, but it\u2019s how we prepare them that makes the difference. Boiled, baked or mashed potatoes are naturally low in fat and a source of fibre, vitamin C and potassium.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when we deep fry them into chips or french fries, especially in large portions and with added salt, they become less healthy with their high-fat, salt and calorie content that\u2019s much more likely to contribute to weight gain and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, replacing any form of potatoes with white rice is a bad idea as it leads to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, the paper found.<\/p>\n
Dr Hashem added: \u201cThis research reinforces the simple message, which is to enjoy potatoes \u2013 just don\u2019t rely on chips as your go-to option. And, where possible, try swapping them out for whole grains like brown rice, bulgur wheat, wholemeal pasta or even sweet potato with skin on, which are healthier and protective for long-term health.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers stressed their findings were observational and did not prove a cause and effect relationship between eating chips and type 2 diabetes risk.<\/p>\n
The Food Standards Agency and Department of Health and Social Care both declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love potatoes? Well, there\u2019s good news and there\u2019s bad news. Eating chips has been found to raise the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-323854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114984659640234843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}