(NewsNation) — If you’re a French fry lover, new research suggests you may want to start limiting how much of them you eat.
In the study published in The British Medical Journal, Harvard researchers found that eating French fries three times a week was associated with a 20% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in comparison to having them once a week or less. According to the American Diabetes Association, there are 1.2 million Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each year.
Researchers analyzed data from 205,107 adults in the U.S. spanning 40 years who didn’t have diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer when the study began. They found that the risk of developing diabetes was not from the potato itself, but from the method in which they were prepared, with the deep-fried side dish having the worst health outcome.
A previous study found that other ultra-processed foods and drinks led to higher risks of type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer when having them at least once a week.
According to the USDA and HHS’s 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, potatoes are considered a vegetable and can be included in a healthy eating plan.
Health experts said that potatoes can still be part of a nutritional diet if they are prepared in other ways that don’t have harmful chemicals attached to the process of making them. They say the best cooking methods would be to leave the potato’s skin on to retain nutrients and either boiling, roasting, air frying or baking them.