Vegetable chips, a good alternative to regular chips?
A handful of parsnip, a few bites of beetroot and some tasty slices of carrot—that sounds like a healthy snack. Vegetable chips are wafer-thin slices of these vegetables, deep-fried and sold in a bag. So are they actually a healthy alternative to regular chips?
Regular chips are made from potatoes, deep-fried and seasoned with a little salt. Nothing complicated, and so addictively delicious! And unfortunately, a considerable number of calories per serving: the Netherlands Nutrition Centre calculates 216 kcal for a 40-gram bowl. We don’t dare calculate what you’re consuming if you crunch your way through the entire bag. Could it be different?
Vegetable chips: a good alternative?
Maybe vegetable chips are a good alternative. Enjoying beetroot while watching Netflix, nibbling parsnip in the car or having a bowl of carrot chips with drinks. Good idea? According to the Netherlands Nutrition Centre, they contain fewer calories than regular chips, but you can hardly call it dieting: the difference for a bowl is… 1 kcal. One. That’s it.
Almost a kilo of chips
You don’t have to eat them for the vitamins either. An expert calculated for AD that you would have to eat 800 grams of vegetable chips to get enough vitamin C. Not happening. There’s no point starting for the fibre either, and all the vegetable chips tested by a panel for the newspaper were fairly salty. And the price: almost twice as expensive as regular chips, while the bags are even smaller.
Bananas? Wrong!
If you think you’re being healthy by snacking on a bowl of banana chips, you’re completely mistaken. 210 kcal per 40 grams, which is roughly two handfuls. The alternative lentil chips from EkoPlaza aren’t a bad option: 160 kcal. And those so-called light oven-baked chips? 176 kcal per serving, but we all know that bag can also be finished in one sitting.
Tasting panel
Still craving vegetable chips? The ones from Hema and Kettle came out best in the tasting panel’s test. ‘Crunchy, nicely and lightly baked, and they taste fresh,’ was the verdict on the Kettle chips. Going for regular chips? The Favorflav editorial team tasted those a few months ago, with Lidl’s own-brand chips as the favourite. Make the most of it.
