The French Fry Myth That You Were Right To Not Believe
The world is full of fictions, like the idea that swallowed gum takes seven years to digest and the myth that aging olive oil makes it better. Neither claim is accurate, yet they remained "common knowledge" for years, and some people still believe they are authentic truths to this day. One myth regarding McDonald's best-selling menu item was so far-fetched that when it hit the interwebs only a select few got aboard the fantasy train carrying the load of absurdity which said that eating an order of McDonald's french fries was just as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes.
Just seeing that assertion probably raises some alarm bells regarding its credibility, and it should. Still, like any good myth, this one has grains of truth sprinkled into the broader claim. A few years back, the psychologist and social media influencer Dr. Paul Saladino took to the internet to inform folks that an order of McDonald's french fries contained a significant quantity of carcinogenic aldehydes — an amount proportionate to what's contained in 25 cigarettes. And in a sense, he isn't wrong.
@paulsaladinomd2 Fries = cigarettes ?!?
The problem is that Saladino explicitly says eating an order of french fries is just as harmful as smoking a pack of cigarettes, but that conclusion doesn't cut the mustard from a scientific standpoint. From the fact that eating and inhaling are two very different things to the massive number of other chemicals besides aldehydes in cigarettes which cause health problems, the whole idea that the two are equally bad for your health is ridiculous.
French fries and cigarettes are not equally bad
One of the major flaws in Dr. Paul Saladino's conclusion that eating an order of french fries is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes is that the silver bullet he identifies, aldehydes, aren't even close to the only carcinogenic chemical in tobacco. A pack of smokes also contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, and arsenic, just to name a few. There are around 70 different chemicals in cigarettes that can cause cancer, not to mention the thousands of other chemicals that can generate heart and lung diseases. The amount of carcinogens absorbed by the body from a cigarette is far greater than what someone consumes when eating crispy french fries.
And therein lies another failing in Saladino's reasoning. The human body processes things we eat and things we inhale in different ways. When something is inhaled, it quickly ends up in the bloodstream, while things that are ingested end up in the digestive tract where enzymes break them down. The body deals with chemicals differently depending on how they enter the body.
That's not to say french fries are healthy. Over time, eating fried foods can also cause health issues. Still, smoking is a well-known cause of various types of cancer and can provoke health problems immediately. Consuming french fries may have long-term consequences, but equating an order of McDonald's perfectly cut french fries to puffing down a pack of butts is a misleading myth about fried foods.