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Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by Cthulhu_ on Monday November 30, 2020 @09:45AM (#25254214)
I think the main factor for those - and lots of other 'traditional' chip shops in both Belgium and the Netherlands - is the use of beef tallow instead of the generic 'frituurvet', which is mostly sunflower oil.

I mean don't get me wrong, at home we have a fryer and we make the odd load of homemade chips as well and they are the tits, but it's not the same.

We used to be able to get solid blocks of frying fat, probably was beef tallow or something like that, but it's all saturated fats (I believe) and bad for one's health and the like. According to the wisdom of the time anyway; I don't know, there may have been some lobby behind it (like how the wheat lobby made fat the boogeyman, and now someone is making the sugar / carb industry look bad).

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by echelon on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:37AM (#25254827)
The evidence seems pretty compelling that sugar / carbs are bad.

A lot of the things humans put in their mouths just aren't safe long term. We're pretty good at making suboptimal long-term choices.

Without being able to run experiments on real human bodies over full life spans like I suggest here [1], it's impossible to quantify.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235013 (I advocate for this rather frequently)

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by toast0 on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:33AM (#25255559)
Sugar is bad, carbs are bad, fat is bad, animal protein is bad, soy is bad. Not a whole lot left to eat.
Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by jfengel on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:52AM (#25255831)
There are a lot of vegetables, whole grains, and beans. You can make an excellent diet just from those.

Small amounts of any of those "bad" things is just fine. The problem is that many people have come to see them as the core of their diet, with vegetables as an unpleasant supplement to be minimized. Learn to cook vegetables well, and vast frontiers of interesting, delicious food open up.

Indian food is an excellent starting point[1], for either vegetarian or vegan eating. For that matter most authentic Asian cuisines are heavy on the vegetables, with small amounts of meat for flavor, which is also a very healthy way to eat (especially if you substitute whole grains for the white rice).

Plenty of other cultures have thrived on vegetable-based diets. It's really not that difficult. You just need to get over the notion that "food" consists of a meat main dish, a starch, and a desultory, obligatory vegetable side.

[1] https://www.priyakrishna.me/indianish is a current favorite of mine.

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by claudiawerner on Monday November 30, 2020 @12:17PM (#25256177)
The problem, generally, is that people are accustomed to certain tastes, and often "healthy" options are overloaded with things to make them taste good. Mayo on salads, tenderstem broccoli roasted with olive oil, corn cobs on a BBQ, etc. - and Indian food, at least as it's known in the West, is no exception. Curries tend to use a lot of ghee or oil, and I'm fairly sure that people skimping on the fat at home is why home recipes (usually from health-conscious/vegetarian/vegan recipe sites) never quite hit the mark. Vegetables can taste great! ...So long as you smother them with the junk that actually gives it the flavor and texture you like.

Think of a dish composed mainly of "vegetables, whole grains, and beans" with minimal carbs and even more minimal butter/oil. What is the recipe? Then, consider if it tastes good - as good or better than similar recipes where more carbs and oil is used. I've been cooking a variety of meat and vegetarian dishes of various cuisines for years and I know of no such dish I'd want to eat with regularity. Brown rice, steamed chicken breast, and cauliflower just doesn't cut it for my palette, and I suspect the same for the majority of people who know how good a Sunday roast or pizza tastes.

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by jfengel on Monday November 30, 2020 @12:40PM (#25256468)
There's nothing wrong with a dish containing a fair bit of fats. A lot of plans call for getting 30% of your calories from fat, which is about 12% of food by mass (since fats are about twice as calorie-dense as carbs or proteins).

Controlling total calories is important in weight loss, and that's a matter of portion control. A diet with a good proportion of fat will be fairly satisfying; you just need to limit the total amount of it. That'll still leave you a little hungry. There's no magic that makes calorie deficit pleasant. Tweaking the ratios can make it less unpleasant, a matter of personal taste.

It doesn't need to be junk. You don't even necesarily need a calorie deficit, if you're happy with your weight. There exist good vegetarian and vegan diets with appropriate amounts of fat and appropriate total calories, and they don't at all resemble "brown rice, steamed chicken breast, and cauliflower".

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by toast0 on Monday November 30, 2020 @01:12PM (#25256925)
Vegetables usually have carbs, and some have a lot of sugar. Whole grains are carbs.

If carbs are bad, you can't have those.

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by jfengel on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:39PM (#25257967)
Carbs aren't "bad". You should be getting around 40% of your calories from carbs.

The problem is that some foods have nothing but carbs, and if you eat a lot of those, you'll either consume too many calories overall or fail to get necessary nutrients. So eat fewer white, starchy foods like potatoes, and more leafy foods, squashes, and other colorful foods.

Similarly, whole grains bring a lot of vitamins and fiber, while refined grains like white rice are reduced to just the starch. It's just fine that those whole grains also have carbs in them. That's actually a good thing, becuase you do need calories for energy. You just need more than that.

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by mywittyname on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:59AM (#25255937)
Lack of exercise is Most Bad. If healthy living were a decision tree, amount of exercise each day would absolutely be the root node.

Most people can get away with eating whatever they want with a modest amount of rigorous exercise each day. Granted, they still need to control their food intake and ensure they are getting required nutrients, but that's pretty straightforward.

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by acomjean on Monday November 30, 2020 @10:41AM (#25254879)
Potatoes are pretty much pure carbs.

You can get calories from protein, fats and carbs, so choose a balance diet.

“Life ain’t worth a dime without a little colesterol” Leah Chase

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Chase

Re:My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe by cbozeman on Monday November 30, 2020 @11:24AM (#25255433)
Yeah, new research seems to show its the opposite... animal fats are extremely good for you, and its plant fats - specifically linoleic acid - that promote metabolic dysfunction.