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The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries
Posted Mon, Jan 19, 2009, 12:18 pm PST
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Worrying about calories seems silly after you've consented to a French fry grease-fest, but sometimes you can't help it. During one such conflicted experience, I wondered if some fast-food fries were less hard on the body than others. Looking at the nutritional facts of some common French fry purveyors, I found that you can, indeed, save some serious calories if you know which fries to buy.
I looked at these seven:
-Arby's Curly Fries
-Burger King's French Fries
-Carl's Jr.'s Natural-Cut Fries
-Dairy Queen's French Fries
-Jack in the Box's Natural Cut Fries
-McDonald's French Fries
-Wendy's French Fries
Notes: The numbers below are estimated reports by each restaurant's official website at the time of this article.
Calorie-wise:
The Best
Dairy Queen wins with 2.69 calories/gram
Jack in the Box is close behind with 2.71 calories/gram
The Worst
McDonald's it is, with 3.25 calories/gram
Those stats may sound like just a few calories' difference, but that's a 21% difference, which adds up since a large serving tends to be around 190 grams.
But there are other stats to look at...
Here's the zero trans fat team:
Burger King
Carl's Jr.
Dairy Queen
McDonald's
Wendy's
This one is the trans fattiest:
Jack in the Box
How about saturated fat?
The Best
Dairy Queen (0.018g saturated fat/gram of fries)
The Worst
Arby's (0.037g saturated fat/gram of fries)
Also remember that a good deal in dollars, doesn't translate to your diet, and a "large fries" means something different to everyone:
Large Fries Serving Sizes
McDonald's: 154g
Carl's Jr.: 184g
Wendy's: 184g
Dairy Queen: 186g
Arby's: 190g
Burger King: 194g
Jack in the Box: 236g
Posted Mon, Jan 19, 2009, 12:18 pm PST
POST A COMMENT »
Worrying about calories seems silly after you've consented to a French fry grease-fest, but sometimes you can't help it. During one such conflicted experience, I wondered if some fast-food fries were less hard on the body than others. Looking at the nutritional facts of some common French fry purveyors, I found that you can, indeed, save some serious calories if you know which fries to buy.
I looked at these seven:
-Arby's Curly Fries
-Burger King's French Fries
-Carl's Jr.'s Natural-Cut Fries
-Dairy Queen's French Fries
-Jack in the Box's Natural Cut Fries
-McDonald's French Fries
-Wendy's French Fries
Notes: The numbers below are estimated reports by each restaurant's official website at the time of this article.
Calorie-wise:
The Best
Dairy Queen wins with 2.69 calories/gram
Jack in the Box is close behind with 2.71 calories/gram
The Worst
McDonald's it is, with 3.25 calories/gram
Those stats may sound like just a few calories' difference, but that's a 21% difference, which adds up since a large serving tends to be around 190 grams.
But there are other stats to look at...
Here's the zero trans fat team:
Burger King
Carl's Jr.
Dairy Queen
McDonald's
Wendy's
This one is the trans fattiest:
Jack in the Box
How about saturated fat?
The Best
Dairy Queen (0.018g saturated fat/gram of fries)
The Worst
Arby's (0.037g saturated fat/gram of fries)
Also remember that a good deal in dollars, doesn't translate to your diet, and a "large fries" means something different to everyone:
Large Fries Serving Sizes
McDonald's: 154g
Carl's Jr.: 184g
Wendy's: 184g
Dairy Queen: 186g
Arby's: 190g
Burger King: 194g
Jack in the Box: 236g
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