Carbs in Curly Fries

Curly fries are potatoes, cut with a twin-curl style cutter, fried in oil and seasoned with a number of ingredients. Curly fries are cooked in much the same way as regular french fries and can vary in nutritional value depending on the type of oils and seasonings used, although most leading fast food curly fries have similar nutrition values. Because they come from potatoes, curly fries are rich in carbohydrates, particularly starch.

Total Carbohydrates

One serving of a leading brand of medium-sized fast food curly fries, weighing 130 g, contains 46 g of total carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and contain about 4 calories per 1 g. About 184 of the 430, or about 43 percent, of the calories in a leading brand of curly fries comes from carbohydrates. Adults generally need between 225 and 325 g of total carbohydrates each day.

Fiber

A 130 g serving of a leading brand of curly fries contains 4 g of dietary fiber. Fiber is a complex carbohydrate, or a carbohydrate composed of multiple sugar molecules joined together. Fiber is important to the diet, lowering blood sugar and cholesterol levels, cleansing the colon and protecting against colon cancer. Adult men and women need about 38 and 26 g of fiber each day, respectively, so a medium serving of curly fries supplies about 11 and 16 percent of men and women's daily fiber needs.

Starch

While most nutrition labels do not report starch content, all potato products gain the majority of their carbohydrate content from this carbohydrate. Like fiber, starch is a complex carbohydrate and is composed of hundreds of attached sugar molecules. While starch content is difficult to find on most nutrition labels, the USDA reports that about 67 of the 76 g, or about 88 percent, of carbohydrates in a 208 g serving of regular-cut french fries come from starch. A typical brand of curly fries likely has a similar percentage of starch.

Sugars

While nutrition labels for most leading brands of curly fries report that the product is free of sugar, it usually contains a small, but negligible, amount of sucrose. The USDA reports that a 208 g serving of regular cut french fries contains 0.58 g of sugar in the form of sucrose, amounting to about 2.32 calories from this nutrient. Sucrose is a disaccharide, or a carbohydrate composed of two sugar molecules. Sucrose is composed of one glucose and one fructose unit, and is found in almost all foods that contain carbohydrates, including potato products.