What Happens When You Try to Light Fritos On Fire? (VIDEO)

October 27, 2010   13 Comments

CLICK ON PHOTO TO WATCH VIDEO!

Snack Girl heard a rumor about Fritos that she just had to test. Fritos were recommended for starting fires!

I found this post on a camping message board: Fritos....food or survival tool?

Fritos can save your life. You can eat them of course but did you know that you can use them for starting a fire?

Keep a small bag of them in your pack with some waterproof matches and they burn better than paper or grass to start a fire! If it is wet this may save your life. Try it they burn like a candle!

Just a tip that is simple to include into your pack.

Wow! A food that you can use as external fuel instead of internal fuel. Well, I just had to try it and the video above is the result of my incredibly scientific experiment (not).

I chose to test the Frito against some other processed snacks to see if there was anything particularly special about the Fritos themselves. Fritos contain just corn, corn oil, and salt. They have 10 grams of fat per serving (1 ounce = 160 calories).

Here are my three tests:

• Potato Chip versus Frito - potato chips can be made with just potatoes, oil, and salt so this seemed like a good test of Fritos potential "specialness"

• Baked Potato Chip versus Frito - this baked chip has just 2 grams of fat compared to Fritos' 10 grams. Is it the oil that make Fritos so flammable?

• Wasa Cracker versus Frito - this cracker is made with 9 grams of whole grain per serving with just a little oil. Will it catch fire too?

Well, if you watch the video you will see the results.

The analogy here is that the FLAME is like your DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. If the chip burns easily it may mean that your body can burn it easily converting the food into energy QUICKLY. If it burns slowly, it means it will keep you satiated longer and enter your bloodstream SLOWLY.

Why is slower better than quicker? You won't get a big sugar bump and then a crash that will make you hungry again.

The more processing the food undergoes OUTSIDE the body, the less processing it has to undergo INSIDE the body.

Why is that a problem? Well your body is converting starches into sugar, so it means that you are getting a bunch of sugar when you eat Fritos (even though it doesn't say sugar on the bag).

This is why so many nutritionists are focussed on getting us to eat whole grains (Wasa) versus refined grains (Fritos).

Now, before anyone goes bezerk and tells me how my "experiment" doesn't prove anything, I just want to be clear that this is an illustration. This is not meant to be interpreted as real science. I'm just having some fun :)

Please do not attempt without adult supervision and a fire extinguisher near you.

Please share your thoughts on the meaning of the Flaming Frito experiment.

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