Thai people love their street food, but too much “pa thong ko” (fried dough) and Thai iced tea can be bad for you, says the Health Department.

The department's Dr Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoenchai spoke after TasteAtlas, an online food travel guide, put pa thong ko on its list of 10 best Thai dishes.

But a 100-gramme serving of pa thong ko contains as many as 441 calories.

A lot of pa thong ko, the doctor noted, is fried with used cooking oil which can contain carcinogens.

“People should buy pa thong ko fried with new cooking oil which looks light brown and they should not have more than two pairs a day,” he said.

Dr Suwannachai also advises against having pa thong ko with sweetened condensed milk.

And if you like to wash down your pa thong ko with Thai iced tea, you might want to think again, Dr Suwannachai says of the sweet drink that TasteAtlas ranked the 40th best non-alcoholic drink in the world.

A 200-millilitre glass of the tea contains 430 calories and the equivalent of up to13 teaspoons of sugar, but a person should not have more than six teaspoons of sugar a day, he said.