What is the difference energy wise between eating a plate of chips and a Jacket Potato?
There are two issues here—one is the carbohydrate (which includes starches, sugars and fats) content, the other is the nutrient content. (BTW, “nutrient” is just “a substance which nourishes”—this includes vitamins AND minerals) The spud and the chips will have a similiar starch (slow release carbs) content, but the chips will have a lot of extra fat (fast release carbs) as well. Frying fat also tends to be higher in saturated fats (especially if it’s animal fat), so leading to production of more of the so-called “bad” cholesterol once it gets into your body (and of course being a lot easier for your body to store as excess fat tissue). Frozen ‘oven’ chips from the supermarket are only marginally healthier than fried chips, as they’ve already been part-fried at the factory before being frozen. The only good thing you can say about them is that you don’t have to fry them twice. There’s also the separate issue that most cafe-style food outlets use industrial deep-fat fryers and (to save
