The food you should never feed your child: New study bad news for lunchbox favourite

You connoisseurs of potato chips aren't going to like new research pinpointing the foods that are worst for a child's weight.

The humble crisp was singled out as one of the top obesity-promoting foods for children in a study conducted by a team from the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore.

The researchers pored over British data which recorded what more than 4500 children ate and drank while they were aged seven to 13, as well as logging their weight, height, and level of physical activity.

Potato chips were strongly associated with excess weight gain, along with other not-so-surprising foods: butter and margarine, battered chicken and fish, processed meats, white bread, sugary desserts and sweets, and soft drink.

Pernicious potatoes

Potato chips were deemed bad because, in short, they're full of a lot of bad things and not a lot of good things.

"Potato chips are very high in energy density (383–574 kcal/100g) and have a low satiety index, yet they are commonly consumed as snacks," wrote the study's authors.

Hot chips were blacklisted for the same reasons.

But the research team pointed out that potato itself is not bad: "when boiled or mashed without using oil, [they] are highly satiating and contain a number of essential nutrients."

One more reason to avoid potato chips

Potato chips aren't only bad for your waistline. They're surprisingly bad for your teeth too.

Potato chips are one of the worst enemies of good dentistry. The chips are notorious for getting trapped between your teeth – along with other starchy foods like soft breads – where nasty bacteria feast away on them.

The acid produced by those bacteria is what rots your teeth — not sugar itself, as is usually thought. The remnants of a chocolate bar will be washed out of your mouth faster than a bag of potato chips.