Sunday, December 4, 2011

Scientifically making McDonald’s French fries Healthy.

Digestion of food and the transit of the resultant substances to and through the wall of the digestive tract have a significant effect on the rate and efficiency of their absorption.

There is a significant influence of viscogenic agents and of the components of the mucus layer on flow, mixing and mass transfer within and from the lumen.

Digestion subcategories are fragmentation, solution, enzymatic breakdown and mass transfer, all of which include characteristic time constants or rate kinetics.

"Carbohydrates, mostly glycogen, are present in animal tissues. Carbohydrates include a broad range of substances other than starch and simple sugars, notably gums and celluloses (Roger G. Lentle)."

Mcdonald’s French fry ingredients:French Fries:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.


Starch granules are digested relatively slowly over a period of hours, the morphological sequence of breakdown varying with the species of plants from which the granules originate.

Amylase accesses the pores of the granule surface.

A broad range of carbohydrates, including resistant starches, non- starch polysaccharides, oligosaccharides and mucins, reach the large intestine were they undergo microbial fermentation that produces an array of short chain fatty acids. Only 10% of the energy requirement for humans is derived from these SCFAs.

The future results of digestion experiments will include controlled, developed processes that customize the physical characteristics of starch granules tailoring the rate of liberation and absorption to be compatible with the physiological dynamics of the consumer.


Roger G. Lentle, Patrick W. M. Janssen. The Physical Processes of Digestion. Science Chemistry General: SPRINGER, 2011, illustrated.

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