Healthy french fries? Isn’t even a concept of healthy french fries is pretty much an oxymoron? One would think so. Healthy french fries cannot possibly exist because, well, we are talking about french fries after all. Certain foods cannot be healthy. I cannot image healthy twinkies or corn dogs, for example, and healthy french fries is no exception.

Having said that, let’s go over what has recently happened in the world of fast food. Wendy’s may be the country’s third largest fast-food chain, but it is the first to virtually zap artery-clogging trans fats from its french fries. Wendy’s has switched to non hydrogenated cooking oil for its french fries and breaded chicken items. The new oil, a blend of corn and soy oil, slashes trans fat in those menu items by a whopping 95 percent and cuts saturated fat by 20 percent.

This means a large order of fries has dropped from 7 grams of trans fat to 0.5 grams, and a kids-size portion has dropped from 3.5 grams to 0 grams. So, could it be that Wendy’s has found a way to introduce what can be considered healthy french fries? Sure, what they did is a commendable improvement, but do not confuse Wendy’s fries with health food.

The large fries still have 590 calories, 5 grams of saturated fat and very little, if any, nutritional value. Nutrition aside, assuming you are only concerned with the calorie count, a better choice at Wendy’s is a broccoli and cheese baked potato, with 340 calories and only 1 gram of saturated fat.