The Bottom Line: Delicious facts about french fries.
The Full Story:
- The origin of French fries is Belgium. According to some historians, potatoes were being fried by 1680 in the Meuse Valley of Belgium. Locals often ate small fried fish, when the river was frozen they used potatoes as a substitute. They used to cut potatoes lengthwise and fry them in oil to use them as a fish substitute. Still, Both France claims that they invented French Fries. Belgians claim that their street vendors sold these 'Belgian frites' from pushcarts before the French adapted the idea in the middle of the 19th century.
- French fries were introduced in the US when Thomas Jefferson was President in 1801.
- One of the earliest references we have to British 'chips' (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dickens’ 'Tale of Two Cities' (1859): "husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil."
- According to reports, Americans eat more than 16-pounds of French Fries every year.
- Production of potatoes was more than 320 million tons in 2007, about 2/3 of this was consumed as food.
- French Fries are not called that in France. They are known as frites [[freets]], patates frites, or pommes frites in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.
- Potatoes are a great source of fiber and French fries are made from potatoes. Fiber helps pass waste through your system and lower cholesterol, consumption of a certain amount of fiber becomes inevitable. Your body may suffer from indigestion and stomach problems without fiber.
- When you eat French fries, you are also getting some potassium, a nutrient present in potatoes. The energy you require throughout the day can be obtained from potassium. You may become more tired, have slower reflexes, and have weaker muscles without adequate potassium.
- Steak fries tend to have lower fat content than normal French fries, due to the lower surface-to-volume ratio.
- Burger King’s French fries (and McDonald’s too) are sprayed with a sugar solution just before being packaged and shipped to the various franchise locations. This produces the golden color through caramelization of the sugar when it is fried. Without this, the fries would end up having about the same outside color as inside after being fried.