Wendy's Natural Cut French Fries With Sea Salt?: Let's Get Real!

Have you all seen/heard the latest ad by Wendy's all over the media?   "Try Wendy's New Natural Cut French Fries with Sea Salt?"  This is the latest attempt by the fast food industry to try throw buzz words at the public to get the perception that a new item is healthy when in fact it is not. 

1.  "Natural Cut" has nothing to do with the product's ingredients, it is merely referring to the look of the product.  They have decided to leave some of the skin on, and the thickness of the fries has changed. 

2.  These fries are ANYTHING but natural.  Dextrose (also known as SUGAR) is the 3rd ingredient.  These "Natural Cut" French Fries undergo several  treatments,which include being sprayed with a chemical called Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (the 4th ingredient listed), which prevents the potatoes from browning during the two deep frying sessions they go through (once at the factory and once again at the restaurant).

3.   Another unnatural ingredient called Dimethylpolysiloxane, can be found in these "Natural Cut French Fries with Sea Salt".  Dimethylpolysiloxane is a silicone based anti-foaming agent is added to the fries that helps to stabilize the frying oil, which would otherwise become foamy after repeated uses.


4.  Then there is the salt.  Sea salt and table salt have the same basic nutritional value — both mostly consist of two minerals — sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl).  Sea salt is not any healthier than regular salt.  However, sea salt is often marketed as a more natural and healthy alternative. The real differences between sea salt and table salt are in their text, taste and processing, not their chemical makeup. Table salt is more heavily processed to eliminate trace minerals and usually contains an additional additive to help prevent clumping. Most table salt also has added iodine.  Sea salt produced through evaporation of seawater, usually with little to no processing.  Some trace minerals and elements are left behind depending on the water source.
A medium sized portion of this product (142g) still  has 500 mg of Sodium. Just for comparison McDonald's Medium Fries (117g) have 270 mg of Sodium while their large sized fries (154 g) has 350 mg of sodium.

5.  Finally, just for the finally dose of reality:  a medium sized portion of these fries has 420 kcals and 20 grams of fat.  Wendy's Nutrition

As you can see, what a company may call "Natural" may not be so "Natural".......