What You Need To Know About Veggie Chips

Wow, although I never eat more than a few, I have fallen for this??????????....Thanks for the update.They are a thing of the past now.....Love U...snack girl.

Lois

Thank you for the information! I don't buy veggie chips to much, but I do buy bean and rice chips. Are those any better or just as bad as veggie chips?

Jennifer @ Peanut Butter and Peppers

"The deal is that these are just glorified potato chips, and not better for you than baked potato chips. The tomato puree and spinach powder isn't giving you any flavor or nutrients."

Great assessment, Lisa. In the past, I had a suspicion that they were healthy, but now I see that I was just falling for the "Natural? Vegetables? Must be good for me!" trick.

If I may put words into his mouth, I suspect that Michael Pollan (he's a very good health writer and his talk at Google http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-t-7lTw6mA is really good) would classify items like chips and cakes and cookies as "banquet food".

A long time ago, we used to only eat those types of foods at infrequent special events. Today, we can eat them five (or more) times a day.

His answer? If you want to eat cookies, cakes, chips, etc., fine. Only one requirement: you have to make it yourself.

Not only do you control every ingredient (and exclude, hopefully, additives with unpronounceable names!), but, he contends, you'll find that making stuff like this about once a month is all you have the patience for.

While his approach is also a "trick", of sorts, I think it's a far more healthful one than peddling colored, fried, potato paste. :)

Thanks again for all of these great articles on how to shift perspective and not just swallow (no pun intended) the marketing that's pushed on us.

Andy D

I love dehydrating my own veggies for a true veggie chip. Okra is by far my favorite.

Jennifer - I get bean and rice chips too and if it's Beanitos brand, those are pretty good in terms of real whole food ingredients.

Thanks for the post, I'm surprised by how many still consider "veggie" chips a healthy choice!

RC @ Just Add Cayenne

Say it ain't so.....I figured as much but I do enjoy them occasionally as do my kids. When I have time I love to make kale chips myself. The kids gobble those up. Thanks for the great info Snack Girl.

Moyra

No, I was not fooled!

To me, they bear no resemblance to a real vegetable, and the processed taste really turns me off.

I'll stick with the real thing, thank you very much!

Mary Ann MacKay

Technically, they're not even potato chips. By definition, potato chips have to be slices of potato, and these are more processed. I am happy to say that we didn't fall for this trick; we checked the label, realized they're mostly potato, and put them right back on the shelf!

Crysta

Nicely done, snack girl. I may not be Ellie Krieger (that's exciting), but as a fellow RD, this sort of misleading marketing irks me. Thanks for clearing things up!

Katie at Mom's Kitchen Handbook

How about the veggie chips that are made from sliced sweet potatoes, beets,taro, batata, and parsnips cooked with canola oil? They advertise them as a full serving of vegetables per ounce. Of course there is additional calories because of the oil and added salt (35mg/serving). But, they make a tasty alternative to potato chips. The brand I purchase is Grandessa from Aldi's. Another brand is Terra.

Dawn Higgins

I'm sorry to say that I was fooled into buying them once, but as soon as I tasted them I knew. They don't taste like veggies at all! Just potato chips, which I don't even really like. Btw, Crysta, you aren't from Austin by any chance are you? Because I have an old friend who spelled her name that way and have never met another in my life :)

Diana

I was talking with someone who actually thought Pirate O's were a reasonable substitute for veges! They are nothing more than junk-food with the word vegetable on the outside of the bag.

Robin

Nope, not from Austin. But I've never met anyone else who spells it this way either!

Crysta

Yep, I fell for it. Then when I tasted them and really studied the ingredients I figured it out, too. My kids wouldn't even eat the green and red ones but I did enjoy them a bit. We haven't bought them since, though. I shop at Aldi but haven't noticed the Grandessa chips made from veggies that Dawn mentioned above. Those sound yummy and I'll have to check those out! I'm also in love with the sweet potato chips from Aldi. They are SOOOO good. Yep, they're still chips, and I treat them as such, but oh what a treat, and with a bit more vitamins than white potato chips, who can argue with that? I still prefer, overall, tortilla chips with salsa, or as I prefer to say, some salsa with a few chips. I LOVE salsa. I'm in Texas, so of course, it's a requirement when you live here. ha ha.

Angie M.

I used to eat these but stopped due to the reasons you mentioned.

Are you familiar with the chips made out of Lentil that Trader Joe carries? I occasionally eat those and think they are better for you...they have a few chips made out of beans and there are Falafel chips (Falafel is a little more fattening though) What are your thoughts on those?

caren gittleman

A chip is a chip - no matter what the name on the package says.

Rebecca S

Good to know! I saw these recently and was going to stock up -- now I'll stay away

Stephanie G

I find it sad that post like this have to be written. It seems like companies are always telling half truths when it comes to "healthy alternatives". I have not tried these before. I appericiate you posting these. I probably would have fell for this.

Patricia

I don't know of any healthy store bought chips. However, I am hooked on Kale chips that you make at home.

Tear up some fresh kale.

Baste with olive or coconut oil.

season lightly with sea salt and/or pepper

bake on flat sheet at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes or until the kale edges get crispy.

YUMMY!

Carol

Oh sad!!!! I was fooled. Lesson learned is to read ingredients. Always.

Andrea

Thank you for posting this, I was an avid veggie chip eating and I do like them. However, i eat them because I thought they were more beneficial. Thank you for your post!

Shirley

Junk health food, right?

Carrie @ Season It Already!

For me, these are convenient vehicles to convey the dip du jour to my mouth. There is no other "health" benefit to them. The sticks pictured are particularly good with my Greek yogurt dip. i prefer the roundish chips for my husband's salsas (too liquidy for a stick). If I could neatly eat dips with my hands, I would. In the meantime, I eat chips and sticks along with certain vegetables that lend themselves to dip (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, daikon, jicama). But I'm generally eating more dip than stick/chip because they're the food equivalent of a spoon, the more dip the better. My favorite dips are homemade salsas, homemade hummus, and homemade greek yogurt with herbs.

Anne

Thanks, Snack Girl, for answering my email a few weeks ago about these - and then even posting about them! After I received your reply, I stopped getting them. I now realize that they're just like most other things in the chip aisle - treats, that need to be mostly avoided! My grandma introduced me to them originally, thinking they were tons better than regular chips, but we both learned pretty fast that it's hard to stop with just a few, and the whole bag can be gone in less than an hour! I'm gonna try sticking to REAL veg from now on, maybe try making some kale chips!

Sam

Thanks a bunch for the info's I ate them a long time ago. A friend of mine gave them to me. They tasted good, but I would not buy them.

Sigrid Rogowski

Big Lots! store. Saw several types and brands of the chip-type in the article.

Looked at the bag of each brand/type and they were mostly carbon copies of the ingredients in the pic above (I wonder if the younguns' know the meaning of "carbon copy"?"

All were on sale for $2 per pack.

Nope. No sale.

Thoroughly scrutinizing the ingredients led to the conclusion reached in the article above.

I agree that, again, corporate USA is resorting to sleazy marketing to coerce folks to spend their money.

BAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obbop

Those don't look so hot! Ill contiune to buy bags of the REAL deal, Thank you...

Christina

I like the Terra chips. Not these. Thank goodness.

sarah

Has anyone tried veggie chips from nuts.com? they have taro, beets, squash, carrots, green beans, and non-hydrogenated canola oil. Are there any other sources people would recommend (I am not into potato chips)

Joy

Yall make them sound soooo bad. There no worse than Pringles, corn chips, cheeezits and so on. There not the ultimate healthy but there better than most out there.

lolmoma90