Which Potato Chip Is The Greasiest?

Key concepts Fat Nutrition Food Snacks Introduction Do you enjoy eating potato chips? If you do, you are not alone. Potato chips are a very popular snack food. In fact, many people eat the equivalent of more than one bag of chips per month. When eating potato chips, have you ever noticed that your hands get greasy? Maybe you have heard people explaining that potato chips are bad for you because they contain too much fat—some of it unhealthful. Is this true? Try this activity and find out—by spotting the fats in potato chips! Background Fats are actually a main component of our diet and are important for our bodies to work. A healthy diet consists of about 20 percent of calories from fat. Why is fat useful to us? Our body uses fat for storing energy and for digesting essential fat-soluble vitamins. Our brain also needs fats to function well. So why do we hear all these stories about bad fats? The reason is that there are different types of fats in foods and not all of them are healthy. If you have ever looked at nutrition labels of foods, you might have noticed that the fat category is subdivided into “saturated,” “unsaturated” and (sometimes) “trans” fats. The different names represent the various types of fats that result from each kind of fat molecule’s chemical structure. But which of these are “bad” and which are “good” fats? Unsaturated fats—mostly found in plant-based foods and oils—have been shown to be beneficial to your health. Saturated fats—which mainly come from animal sources—have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. “Trans fats,” in particular, which are artificially processed, should be avoided in a healthy diet. Most food we eat has some amount of fat in it, often in an invisible form so we do not even notice it. But did you know that potato chips contain up to 35 percent fat? Some of this fat is greasy, meaning it is partly melted and leaves a film on many things it touches.

Are Pringles worse than chips?

February 16, 2012 / 11:06 AM / CBS News AP (CBS) Pringles, the popular chips, are in the news today after cereal giant Kellogg announced a $2.7 billion deal to purchase the brand known for chips in a can, CBS Moneywatch reported. That got us at HealthPop wondering: What exactly is in the popular chip that’s different from all other chips? Is one kind healthier than the other? PICTURES: Yuck! 25 surprisingly salty processed foods Pringles Original contains 150 calories in a 14-chip serving, along with 9 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of Saturated Fat, 160 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, and 1 gram of fiber, according to the nutrition facts on the company website.

For comparison’s sake – as has been the case for many commercials over the years – Lay’s Classic potato chips contain 160 calories in a 15-chip serving, 10 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 170 milligrams of sodium, 1 gram of fiber, and 15 grams of carbohydrates. Miriam Pappo, director of clinical nutrition at Montefiore Medical Center, tells HealthPop, “When you look at the actual nutrition facts label, they appear the same as a regular potato chip.” “But there’s more to it,” she says.

Pappo says Pringles are only 42 percent actual potatoes, and the rest is a combination of wheat starch and different types of flours. She said other kinds of potato chips on the market, like kettle chips, are comprised of potatoes, the oil they’re fried in, and salt.

She gives kettle chips the nutritional edge to most other kinds of potato chips because they are high in healthier kind of fat, monounsaturated oils. Nancy Copperman, director of public health initiatives at North Shore – LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., says that both potato chips and Pringles aren’t exactly healthy, but Pringles contain 2.5 times more saturated fat per serving, a worse type of fat.

She said these days, most chips are trans-fat free and cholesterol-free (since they come from plants and cholesterol comes from animal fat), so there isn’t a huge difference between the types of chips.

What do potato chips do to your body?

High Blood Pressure – The sodium content in chips may negatively impact your cardiovascular health. A high intake of sodium can cause an increase in blood pressure, which can lead to stroke, heart failure, coronary heart disease and kidney disease. Potato chips generally have between 120 and 180 milligrams of sodium per ounce, and tortilla chips can have 105 to 160 milligrams of sodium per ounce.

Can potato chips be healthy?

Potato Chips Calories and Nutrition – Despite their popularity, greasy potato chips are an energy-dense food with little nutritional value. In general, eating chips and similar fried, fatty foods can lead to an unhealthy diet, resulting in weight gain and negative effects on your health. A standard serving of potato chips measures about 1 ounce and contains:

149 calories 9.5 g fat

1 g saturated fat

148 mg sodium 15 g carbs

1 g fiber 0.1 g sugar

1.8 g protein

Chips contain some B-complex vitamins like vitamins B5 and B6, as well as potassium. They also contain small amounts of fiber, protein and other nutrients.

Are potato chips unhealthy?

4/5 experts say no. Don’t even start with that “made from potatoes” business: chips are not a vegetable. Plain salted potato chips are “a low-nutrient, high-calorie food,” says Lindsay Malone, registered dietitian who works at the Cleveland Clinic. A typical 1.5-ounce bag will run you 223 calories, plus 14 grams of fat and 221 mg of sodium.

That might be fine if you’re having them once in a blue moon, but that’s often not the case—especially with kids. “The largest increase in children’s snack calories in the last 15 years has come from salty snacks,” says Dr. L enny Lesser, a research physician at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation who has studied adolescent eating behavior.

That’s bad news not just for our waistlines but for overall health, too. “Potato chips have been consistently reported to have the highest concentrations of acrylamide among all the foods tested,” says T. Koray Palazoğlu, an acrylamide researcher and professor in the department of food engineering at Mersin University in Turkey.

• Acrylamide is a chemical created in certain foods that are cooked at high temperatures.
• Because chips are sliced so thin and fried so hot, they’re even heavier in acrylamide than French fries (which, sadly, 7 out of 9 experts warn against ).
• Fries only have acrylamide in the golden crust, not the core, Palazoğlu says.

“Potato chips, being nothing but crust, therefore have higher levels of acrylamide.” Acrylamide still has unknown human health consequences, but the European Food Safety Authority said this summer that the chemical may raise the risk for cancer, Chips are also fairly addictive; even scientists who know better can’t always resist the crunch of a chip.

1. I have to admit that I really enjoy crisps,” says Sangita Sharma, professor of aboriginal and global health at the University of Alberta.
2. Even for remote Inuit communities in Canada, whose diets are still rich in traditional foods like fermented seal fat and fried caribou, 80% reported eating potato chips, Sharma found in her recent research,

We all succumb to chips—even Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. But here’s his trick: crunch carefully. “A well-chosen chip can be a good source of fiber,” he says. While a bag of chips will only give you just about 1 gram of fiber, the same 1.5 ounce serving of white corn tortilla chips chalks up 2.3 grams. Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME Read Next: Should I Eat Falafel? Write to Mandy Oaklander at [email protected],

What is the most popular chip in the world?

Top 50 Scanned: Potato Chip beta

Popularity
#1	Oven Baked Potato Crisps, Original Lay’s	1 package
#2	Classic Potato Chips Lay’s	1 package
#3	Oven Baked, Potato Crisps, Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles	1 package
#4	Potato Crisps, Original Pringles	16 crisps

What is the most popular chip in America?

America’s Most Beloved Chip Brand Is Though the competition among potato chip brands is fierce, it’s no surprise Lay’s is tops—the brand has been around for more than 75 years.

Are funyuns healthy for you?

Eat This, Not That! is reader-supported and every product we feature is independently vetted by our editors. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Remember when you were a teenager and you found yourself thinking: “When I’m an adult, I’m going to eat all the junk foods whenever I want and wherever I want! Even if that’s in my bed!” And then you reached adulthood.

You did what you promised yourself and quickly realized that after eating like that for a while, it just wasn’t as satisfying as you thought it would be. (Despite sounding like a dream, having Lucky Charms for dinner every night doesn’t just get old, it also isn’t sustainable. Hey, kids’ snacks aren’t meant to be filling,) But when things feel just a bit off (like, when you’re in the middle of a pandemic), you may find yourself craving those comfort foods again.

Maybe it’s the nostalgia for those good old days when the only thing you had to worry about was making sure you didn’t pee your pants. Or maybe it’s because kids’ snacks are just so darn good, and you want a food hug. And you deserve a food hug. If you want to indulge in your childhood snacks, go for it! If you realize your diet has evolved beyond consuming tons of sugar in different forms, but you still want to take a bite of nostalgia, go ahead and stock up on these healthy versions of your favorite childhood snacks. Eat This, Not That!: Barq’s Root Beer You’re not just saving yourself from sipping on 42 grams of sugar per can by opting for this over Barq’s Root Beer, but you’re also doing your digestive system a service.