Potatoes have had a rough few years in the world of nutrition headlines, with plenty of scary claims about everything from blood sugar spikes to weight gain.
However, a major new piece of research has changed the picture in a really interesting way. It turns out the problem isn’t really potatoes themselves, it’s how you cook them—and one particular potato dish stands out as a much bigger health risk than the rest. Here’s what the research actually found and what it means for your weekly meals.
The headline finding about chips is somewhat of a shocker.
A huge long-term study tracking the diets and health of more than 205,000 people over nearly four decades has uncovered something pretty striking. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, eating three portions of chips a week was linked to a 20% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. That’s a significant jump for something most of us tuck into without a second thought, whether it’s at the pub, at the seaside or as a quick weeknight side dish.
The same amount of potatoes prepared differently, including baked, boiled and mashed, didn’t show that kind of jump at all. The risk increase tied to ordinary potatoes was small and not statistically important. Chips, on the other hand, came out as a different beast, suggesting they really are the troublemaker in the potato family rather than the spuds themselves.
The cooking method matters for a pretty good reason.
The reason chips behave so differently in the body comes down to two things, the cooking method and what gets added in the process. Deep frying potatoes loads them up with extra fat and calories, and it also creates compounds that affect how the body handles blood sugar. Add salt, sometimes batter and often a side of something equally rich, and you’ve got a meal that lands very differently to a baked potato eaten with a bit of butter.
Boiling, baking, and mashing potatoes keeps them much closer to their natural state. There’s no added fat from frying, the texture stays simpler, and your body processes them in a slower, gentler way. So if you’ve been worried about whether your weeknight mash or your Sunday roast potatoes are quietly damaging your health, the new evidence suggests you can probably relax. It’s the chip pan, not the potato itself, that needs the side eye.
What do potatoes actually do for you?
Potatoes have been part of British dinners for so long that we sometimes forget how nutritious they actually are. A plain baked or boiled potato brings a decent hit of fibre, vitamin C, magnesium and potassium, all of which your body needs for everything from healthy nerves to a steady immune system. The skins are particularly useful, since that’s where much of the fibre lives, so leaving them on adds real value.
The catch is that potatoes are also fairly starchy and have a higher glycaemic index than some other vegetables, which means they can push blood sugar up faster. That doesn’t make them bad, it just means they work better alongside protein, vegetables and a bit of fat, all of which slow the release of sugar into the bloodstream. A baked potato with cheese and beans, or new potatoes with grilled fish and salad, are balanced meals that play to potatoes’ strengths.
What you swap them for matters, too.
One of the most interesting findings from the research is that the food you replace potatoes with makes a real difference. Swapping three portions of potatoes a week for whole grains, like brown rice, bulgur wheat, quinoa, oats or wholemeal pasta, was linked with an 8% lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Replacing chips specifically with whole grains was linked to a 19% lower risk.
White rice told a different story. Trading potatoes for white rice was actually linked to a higher risk of diabetes, since white rice has a very similar effect on blood sugar to potatoes do, with even less fibre to slow things down. So if you’re trying to cut back on chips, swapping them for a wholegrain side is a meaningfully better move than reaching for a bowl of white rice or white pasta.
How much is too much when it comes to chips?
Three portions a week was the benchmark used in the study, which is genuinely easy to hit without thinking about it. A Friday night chippy, a pub lunch on Saturday, and a quick oven-chip dinner during the week, and you’re already there. For plenty of households, that’s a fairly typical pattern, especially with kids who love chips on the side of nearly everything.
The research doesn’t suggest you have to give up chips entirely, but it does suggest treating them as more of an occasional treat than a regular weekly fixture. Cutting back to one portion of chips a week, or even one every fortnight, takes the risk back into the territory that other potato dishes sit in. The point isn’t to demonise a national favourite, it’s to be honest about how often we’re really eating them.
It’s possible to enjoy potatoes the healthier way.
If you love potatoes and want to keep them in your weekly meals, the good news is that the healthier ways of cooking them are just as easy and tasty. Baked potatoes are a brilliant lunch or dinner, especially loaded with chilli, tuna mayonnaise, beans, cheese, or a curry. Boiled new potatoes are gorgeous tossed in a little butter and mint as a side. Mash, made with a splash of milk and a bit of butter rather than drowning in cream, is comfort food at its best.
For something closer to chips without the deep-fat fryer, oven chips made from scratch are a brilliant compromise. Slice potatoes into wedges or chips, toss them with a small drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, paprika or rosemary, and roast at a high temperature until crisp. You get the satisfying crunch and golden colour without the saturated fat and calorie hit of deep-fried chips, and your body will thank you for it.
There’s a bigger lesson hiding in the research.
The study’s findings line up with a broader pattern in nutrition research, which is that single foods rarely make or break your health on their own. What matters more is the overall pattern of what you eat, how it’s cooked, and what’s on the rest of your plate. A diet built around vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats with a few baked potatoes thrown in is genuinely healthy. The same diet swapped for chips, white rice and white bread starts to head in the wrong direction.
This is also a useful reminder not to write off whole food groups based on scary headlines. Potatoes have been blamed for everything from weight gain to diabetes, but the truth is a bit more nuanced. Cooked well, eaten in sensible portions, and paired with other nutritious foods, they earn their place on the British plate without doing any harm. The chips are the bit to be careful with, not the spud itself.
What to take away the next time you cook
If you’re standing in the kitchen wondering whether to bake, boil, mash or fry, the answer from this research is genuinely simple. Anything other than deep frying is fine in moderation, while chips deserve to be treated more like the occasional treat they really are. The same goes for choosing what to put on your plate alongside them, with wholegrain options like brown rice and wholemeal bread coming out as the smarter pick over their white counterparts.
None of this means banning chips from your life forever, since the joy of a massive plate of fish and chips on a Friday night is part of the British soul. But knowing that three portions a week starts to nudge the numbers in the wrong direction gives you something useful to work with. Save them for the moments that really feel special, and let the humble baked potato take the everyday spotlight. Your taste buds, your wallet, and your future self will all be glad you did.
