Overview

• Eating three servings of French fries per week was associated with a 20% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• Boiled, baked and mashed potatoes showed no significant association with increased diabetes risk.
• Swapping French fries for whole grains was linked to a 19% risk reduction, while replacing other potato types with grains yielded around a 4% decrease.
• Meta-analyses of over 587,000 people across continents reinforced the cohort study’s findings on fried potatoes and diabetes risk.
• Given its observational design and largely white health professional sample, study authors call for follow-up research in more diverse populations to test causality and generalizability.