You think ice cream and cake are the ultimate diet busters? Think again! A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that the least waistline-friendly food of all is. . .potatoes! Over a four-year period, people who consumed potato chips put on a whopping 1.69 pounds. So put down that bag of Lay’s, turn off the TV and take heed of the other most fat-forming foods and habits:

Potato chips: 1.69 pounts*

Potatoes: 1.28 pounds*

Sugar-sweetened drinks: 1 pound**

Quitting smoking: 5 pounds*

Watching four hours of TV daily: 1.24 pounds*

Drinking one alcoholic drink daily: 0.41 pounds*

* pounds gained over four years

**Another new study by the University of Texas also shows that diet soda drinkers aren’t immune to packing on the pounds. In a decade-plus experiment, those who downed diet sodas had a 70 percent greater increase in waist circumference than those who abstained. And people who guzzled two or more a day? A 500 percent greater increase in waist circumference!