A famous fast-food brand has just added vegetable fries to its menu in France as an alternative to the traditional potato version. The advertisements accompanying the new offer feature local producers highlighting the merits of eating more veg. But is eating vegetable fries really a good, nutritional alternative?
The reality is the vegetable fries have more calories than regular fries. 100 grams of conventional potato fries contain 289 kilocalories against 313 kilocalories for the same amount of vegetable fries. The biggest discrepancy, however, is in the amount of salt. In the same quantity, there will be 0.47 grams of salt for potato fries and 1.3 grams for vegetable fries. That's almost three times more.
"Vegetable fries are fattier and more caloric than conventional potato fries,” confirmed nutritionist and dietician Véronique Maindiaux in an interview with RTBF. "This is probably due to the fact that they absorb more oil during the frying process. They are also much saltier than classic fries. It depends on the amount of salt added, perhaps to counterbalance the sweet taste of the vegetables that are used to make these vegetable fries."
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"They are vegetables, but the way they are cooked means that we must still recommend limiting their frequency," she added. "Fried foods are known to have an impact on health. They are correlated with an increased risk of certain pathologies such as diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, among others."
In summary, vegetable fries are not a better alternative to regular fries. If you want to eat vegetables this way, it may be better to make your own veggie fries by baking them.
