Hold it, how much fat? How much salt?

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Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00a.m.

Mmmmmm... hot chips

Mmmmmm... hot chips

New Zealanders eat about seven million servings of hot chips every week - that's nearly two servings of chips per week per person.

Last year the fast-food industry spent more than $55 million on TV advertising - nine times more than was spent on TV ads for fruit and vegetables.

So who has the healthiest chips? Is there such a thing?

Consumer New Zealand tested the chips for fat and salt and found some have lower contents, which could have an impact on health.

Consumer bought and tested hot chips from eight fast food outlets and two independent takeaways to see how they stacked up.

The thinner the fries, the higher the fat content, because they have more surface area and absorb more fat.

Consumer's test results show some companies are better than others at serving healthier fries.

Fast food giants McDonalds and Burger King topped the fat stakes.

McDonalds had 16.5% fat
Burger King 15.1% fat, of which nearly half was 'bad ' unsaturated fat

Pizza Hut did okay in the total fat stakes but they were let down by being cooked in palm oil which is high in saturated fat

The winners are Burger Fuel, Burger Wisconsin and Nando's. All of their hot chips had less than 10% fat and were cooked in canola oil or a vegetable blend.

Consumer found that since they last tested in 2004, there had been improvements.

Sodium is another thing to be aware of when you buy hot chips.

High sodium is associated with high blood pressure, risking heart disease and a stroke.

The sodium content varied greatly among the outlets we tested.

Of those that salted their chips, the lowest were McDonald's and Burger Fuel with 80mg.

The highest was Domino's pizza at 430mg.

Consumer said they would like takeaway outlets to serve smaller quantities of chips and to make sure they were banging and shaking their chips to rid extra fat content. They would also like salt to be an optional extra for the consumer.

Campbell Live

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Comments

05 Sep 2008 02:33p.m.

Gail Maree Naidu wrote:

yes mc donalds, kfc, all fast food is fattning. too much is not good for the body. it should be more fruit and veges. eating too much fat foods can cause diabetes, heart, obesity. so more excercise, drink lots of water, more fruit and veges.