One potato, two potato, three potato… stop! Medics reckon that eating three portions of chips per week may increase our risk of diabetes by a fifth (20%).

The warning comes as part of a study published in the British Medical Journal that reveals which ways of eating potatoes are best for our health.

Spuds contain fibre, magnesium and vitamin C, but the starch inside them is linked to diabetes, a condition where sugar levels in the blood get too high, causing someone to feel thirsty and tired.

If, instead of three helpings of chips, we eat the same amount of boiled, baked or mashed potatoes, the risk of diabetes only increases by 4%.

To reach their findings, researchers studied the potato-eating habits of people in three major US studies carried out between 1984 and 2021. They decided that spuds aren’t all bad, as growing them has a fairly low impact on the environment and eating them baked, boiled or mashed can be part of a healthy diet.

Dr Emily Leeming, a dietician at King’s College London, told The Times: “We’re a potato-loving nation! They’ve been unfairly [criticised] for far too long.” She said that the way we prepare them and what we eat with them can reduce the rate that they release sugar into our blood.