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The Fry Lie: McDonald's Fries for Better Or... · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: This episode is called the fries. Why McDonald's
• 0:06
  fries don't taste the same anymore.
• 0:09
  They were crispy, golden,
• 0:12
  perfect, the gold standard of fries. But
• 0:15
  Sometime in the 1990s, something changed.
• 0:18
  McDonald's fries just didn't taste the same
• 0:20
  anymore. So what happened? Was it the
• 0:23
  potatoes? A, uh, secret ingredient?
• 0:26
  Government overreach? A, uh, food activist with no
• 0:29
  medical training. Today, we dig into
• 0:32
  the story of America's most iconic fast
• 0:35
  food and the battle between flavor,
• 0:38
  fear, and facts.
• 0:40
  Today, we'll talk about fries, the
• 0:43
  legendary McDonald's fries, and what
• 0:46
  made them go from crispy perfection to,
• 0:49
  well, just. Okay.
• 0:53
  I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry Simpson,
• 0:56
  and this is Fork U Fork University,
• 1:00
  where we make sense of the madness, bust myths, and
• 1:03
  teach you a little bit about food and medicine.
• 1:09
  Back in the day, meaning pre1990,
• 1:12
  McDonald's fries were cooked in a blend of
• 1:14
  7% cottonseed oil and 93%
• 1:17
  beef tallow. That's right, rendered
• 1:20
  beef fat. The flavor was rich,
• 1:23
  meaty, and unmistakably good.
• 1:26
  Why beef tallow? Well, Ray Kroc
• 1:29
  wanted his fries to taste like the ones at the
• 1:32
  original McDonald's in San Bernardino, and they
• 1:34
  did, for decades. Then
• 1:38
  came Phil Sokoloff, a, uh,
• 1:40
  Nebraska millionaire who survived a heart attack and made
• 1:43
  it his mission to rid America of saturated
• 1:46
  fat. But let's be clear. He
• 1:49
  wasn't a doctor, he wasn't a scientist.
• 1:52
  He was an early food activist, the kind
• 1:55
  who would have thrived, um, on Instagram with a handle like
• 1:58
  Artattackhero. Armed with millions
• 2:00
  of dollars, he took out full page ads in the New York
• 2:03
  Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal with
• 2:06
  headlines like the poisoning of America or
• 2:09
  McDonald's your hamburger has too much fat.
• 2:12
  He scared the public, and, uh, McDonald's caved.
• 2:15
  In 1990, McDonald's switched to
• 2:18
  100% vegetable oil, claiming it was a
• 2:20
  heart healthy change. But here's
• 2:23
  the part they don't tell you.
• 2:26
  That vegetable oil was partially
• 2:29
  hydrogenated, which means it was loaded with something
• 2:32
  we call trans fats, which are
• 2:34
  considered worse for heart health than
• 2:37
  saturated fats ever have been.
• 2:40
  In trying to avoid saturated fat,
• 2:42
  McDonald's served up fries with stuff
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  that actually clogs arteries and raises
• 2:48
  LDL cholesterol far more than
• 2:50
  saturated fat. It wasn't until
• 2:53
  2018 that trans fats were finally taken out of
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  the United States food supply. So you don't have to worry
• 2:59
  about them in today's fries or vegetable oils.
• 3:01
  But for two decades, we were fed a, uh,
• 3:04
  healthier fry that was actually worse for our hearts.
• 3:08
  So much for progress. But let's point out
• 3:11
  who were the people that were opposed to trans
• 3:14
  fats. It was the doctors. We
• 3:17
  had been warning people from the 1950s
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  on about how trans fats led to
• 3:22
  more problems than saturated fat.
• 3:25
  Doctors with careful research in peer review
• 3:28
  publications have been warning America, but
• 3:31
  America listened to a food activist.
• 3:34
  After the 1990s. Customers complained about the new bland
• 3:37
  taste and McDonald's added something called natural
• 3:40
  beef flavoring back in their french fries.
• 3:43
  So they removed beef fat, replaced it with
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  beef flavor and this led to
• 3:48
  lawsuits from vegetarians and Hindus who
• 3:51
  assumed that fries were plant based.
• 3:54
  They weren't. Today, United States
• 3:57
  McDonald's fries still aren't vegan, but they
• 4:00
  are in the United Kingdom where they just use potatoes,
• 4:03
  oils and salt Today. Let's
• 4:05
  enter Steak n Shake who recently announced
• 4:08
  they were bringing back beef tallow for their fries
• 4:11
  and got a wave of free publicity from RFK Jr.
• 4:14
  Who applauded the move. Now, RFK
• 4:17
  Jr. Much like Phil Sokoloff,
• 4:20
  is another Froude crusader with
• 4:22
  exactly zero medical
• 4:25
  training. In fact, he's never taken a
• 4:28
  college level science course. But that doesn't stop
• 4:31
  him from weighing in on vaccines, food dyes, or
• 4:34
  apparently deep frying methods.
• 4:37
  Here's the inconvenient
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  Beef tallow is not healthier
• 4:43
  than vegetable oil. It is loaded with
• 4:45
  saturated fat and while that may please your
• 4:48
  palate and your nostalgia, it does no
• 4:51
  favor for your arteries. This idea of
• 4:54
  switching back to beef tallow being somehow
• 4:57
  reclaiming a healthier past is fiction
• 5:00
  wrapped in fat. Just because something
• 5:02
  tastes like your childhood doesn't mean
• 5:05
  it's good for your future. So
• 5:08
  beware of the modern food babes, RFK
• 5:11
  Juniors, Paul Saladino's and other people
• 5:13
  who are trying to sell you something that isn't for your
• 5:16
  health.
• 5:21
  This podcast was written and researched by me, Dr. Terri
• 5:23
  Simpson, and references can be found on my substack
• 5:26
  channel@tsimpson.substack.com or
• 5:29
  yourdoctorsquarters.com and while I am a
• 5:32
  doctor, I am not your doctor. Before
• 5:34
  you make any changes to your diet, please consult a real
• 5:37
  Western trained physician and a registered dietitian, not
• 5:40
  a chiropractor and not some Eastern trained
• 5:43
  shaman. For Q is distributed by our friends at
• 5:46
  Simpler media and the pod God himself, Mr.
• 5:48
  Evotera, have a good week everyone.
• 5:55
  Hey Evo, what's your favorite fry?
• 5:58
  Before they ruined them or now that they're
• 6:01
  re beefing them?
• 6:04
  >> Speaker B: I never met a fried spud I didn't like.
• 6:08
  Oh, and I saw what you did with the whole, uh,
• 6:10
  inconvenient Truth thing there.
• 6:11
  Nice.