I think we can all agree that potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables. You can mash them, bake them, or throw them in a stew, but obviously the most important type of potato is the french fry.

Even in the category of french fries there are so many styles. Shoestring, steak-cut, curly, wedges, silver dollar, and home fries are all delicious varieties that in most people's opinion are never out of place.

We all know that french fries aren't the most healthy foods to eat, so we have to be careful how often we indulge (or at least that's the theory anyways) but now one so-called expert has given a new restriction that is completely baffling.

Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, commented on an article written in the New York Times, and the crazy suggestion he made has everyone scratching their heads.

I get where Rimm is coming from, because he admits that it's hard to resist what the article refers to as "starch bombs" once they are in front of you, but his suggested solution is kind of ludicrous.

"I think it would be nice if your meal came with a side salad and six French fries."

Six french fries. SIX.

In what world would that be enough french fries? Luckily, I'm not the only person who agreed that this sounded absolutely ridiculous, because the internet exploded over it.

Needless to say, the internet was in a tizzy over this, but Rimm tried to make himself sound less like a robot who hates delicious food in a comment to Vanity Fair.

"Am I really a monster?" he wrote. "A lot of tweeters in the U.K. and the U.S. act like I just caused a third world war!"

He explained that he likes fries just fine though, it's just a self-control issue. When they show up on his plate, he claims he usually eats too many. "What to do? Send them back? Certainly not, because once they are in front of you, and you smell and taste just one, you fall down the slippery slope. Fifteen minutes after the meal, I am reminded (again) by the feeling in my stomach why I shouldn't eat a whole order and why I should have stopped at six."

He continued by reiterating that he just wants the option for a smaller size. "I was just suggesting restaurants could give much smaller options of fries for those of us who might need a taste but don't need a whole basket in front of us with a meal," he said. "For goodness sake, a large order of McDonald's French fries has 510 [calories]. That's almost four 12-ounce Cokes. How's your stomach feel now?"

As I said, I kind of understand where he is coming from, but six is way too few french fries. We all know that they aren't great for us, but it's up to us to make our own mistakes, right?

Source - Vanity Fair / New York Times / Hello Giggles

What do you think, should this "six french fry" rule become a real thing, or should we just never speak of it again?