Chips and crackers are simply the most addictive – and unhealthy – snacks out there. Are there any good alternatives at all?
Ever Heard Of Acrylamide?
Heating carb-rich foods like potatoes creates acrylamide, a dangerous by-product that’s tasteless and invisible. Studies have shown that acrylamide increases risks of various cancers, nerve damage and other neurotoxic effects. Even if big corporations like Frito-Lay settled to reduce the acrylamide levels in their products to a level low enough to avoid mandatory cancer warning labeling, the World Health Organization warns that these levels can vary from batch to batch, which makes it virtually impossible to know if your bag of chips is dangerous or not.
Note: Unfortunately, baked chips are not a good alternative. According to the FDA, baked chips contain more than three times the levels of acrylamide found in regular, fried chips.
Fake Chips Are Even Worse
To avoid paying extra taxes in the UK, The Pringles Company (owned by Procter & Gamble) argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they could not be called potato chips. While the judge saw through this stratagem and made the company pay $160 million in taxes (applicable to all potato chips products in the UK), Pringles was right on one thing – these chips do not contain a lot of potatoes. Pringles contain less than 40% potato flour, the rest of the product being filled with cheap rice, wheat, corn and trans fat-laden refined oil.
“Natural Chips”?
PepsiCo – who owns Frito-Lay – expects to boost their nutrition business from $10 billion to $30 billion by 2020. That’s why they are slowly changing ingredients used in their chips manufacturing process. Hydrogenated oils are gone, replaced for not-sobetter refined canola, soybean, corn, sunflower or safflower oils; artificial petroleum-based colors are replaced with beet juice, purple cabbage and carrots, and dangerous seasonings like monosodium glutamate (MSG) with molasses and paprika. While this clearly shows that consumers do have some power in choosing what they want to see on the supermarket shelves, don’t forget that “all-natural” chips are still chips, and that they will never become magically healthy.
Craving Something Crunchy?
Caution – there are very few good alternatives out there…
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Go Ahead And Binge on This
I know: Kale chips are nothing like potato chips. They aren’t as addicting, and will never taste as good. But if you care about removing very unhealthy foods from your diet, they represent a good alternative you can snack on all day long without changing your pants size or making yourself sick. Bonus, kale chips are a superfood that show a ton of benefits:
- Low in calories and fat, high in fiber. Kale chips are filling and diet-friendly, if you don’t use too much oil when preparing them.
- Tons of vitamins and minerals. Kale contains more iron per calorie than beef and great amounts of cancer-fighting vitamin K. It also contains vitamin A and C, and is a good source of calcium.
- Detoxifying and anti-inflammatory. Contrary to potato chips, kale chips help you get rid of the nasty chemicals you put in your body and will make your whole body function better.
Homemade Kale Chips
Ingredients
- 1 bunch (about 6 oz.) kale
- 1 tbsp. melted expeller-pressed coconut oil (much
- more stable than olive oil)
- Sea salt, to taste
- Spices, to taste
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2.Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs.
3. Cut into large pieces, toss with coconut oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt and spices, to taste.
4. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet.
5. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.
