The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries

[CandleVacation]

Saw this on yahoo and thought it was too good to not share.Who can't resist a fry every once in awhile?

 

The Best (and Worst) Fast-Food French Fries

Posted Mon, Jan 19, 2009, 12:18 pm PST

 

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

 

For more fast food finds, check out the Top 10 Guilt-Free Fast Food Finds.

[LND]

Jan. 29, 2009 at 12:47 PM

I like Buger King's the best. Mcd's are always cold when I get them.