Dr Oz: Baked Chips vs Fried Potato Chips & Rice Chips vs Veggie

Dr Oz: Low-Calorie Potato Chips Nutrition

There’s a good chance you’ve seen or even tried the latest food trend taking over pantries across the country. Low-calorie potato chips are a dieter’s dream come true because they promise the same salty bite with half the calories and fat. But are they really all they’re cracked up to be? Food journalist Mark Schatzker set out to find out.

Dr Oz: Are Low-Calorie Chips Healthy?

There’s no denying Americans love their potato chips, and according to some of the women Mark spoke to, many families have turned to low-calorie chips in hopes of making healthier choices for themselves and their families. Because the chips are low-calorie, the moms tend to eat more of them or reach for them more when they’re hungry or have a craving. They liked the idea of munching on chips without the guilt.

When Mark spoke to nutritionist Maya Feller about the snack craze, she explained that people are confused about low-calorie potato chips because they think they’re healthy when they’re “absolutely not.” It turns out, a chip is a chip. If you look at the nutrition labels, you will see the same things: sugar, fat, and salt. Potato chips, unfortunately, are a major source of calories, but yet people just can’t seem to stop eating them.

Dr Oz: Are Baked Potato Chips Healthier?

Just because a label says low-calorie, doesn’t mean it’s okay to consume a load of them. For example, there are baked chips being marketed as healthy snack options. It turns out than baked potato chips may actually be worse than the fried versions we used to eat. Once again, if you look at the ingredient list for fried chips, you’ll see potatoes, vegetable oil (sunflower, corn and/or canola oil) and salt. The ingredient list for baked chips include potatoes, cornstarch, sugar, corn oil, salt, soy lecithin, and corn sugar.

Additionally, baked chips contain acrylamide, which is a potential carcinogen. The FDA has found that there is three times as much acrylamide in baked chips as there is in the fried version.

Dr Oz: Are Rice Chips Good For You?

What about rice chips? Could they be a healthy snack option? It turns out, rice chips may have less fat than regular potato chips but they often have the same amount of calories. Rice chips also scored really high on the glycemic index at 82. Even higher than potato chips! That means you can be hungry just an hour after eating them, causing you to go back for more.

There also seemingly healthy veggie chips, which should be a healthy option, right? The truth is that you’re getting powdered vegetables and there’s a good chance you’re getting a very small amount of it. It’s not true vegetables like you may have thought.

Dr Oz: Tip To Buying Healthy Chips

When buying chips, the first ingredient on the label should be the vegetable the chip is supposedly made of. It should also look like the vegetable it came from.