NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Veggie chips may seem like a good way to squeeze more vegetables into your (and your kids’) daily nutrition, most store-bought veggie chips really aren’t any much different than regular potato chips.
Options on store shelves are expanding, though, with more and more real, whole-veggie ‘chips’ showing up on shelves. In today’s FUELED Nutrition & Wellness, Molly’s sharing the rundown of the best and the worst (nutritionally speaking) for an episode of Love It, Like It, Hate It, dedicated to all things veggie chips!
All are Gluten Free and Grain Free
LOVE IT!
Brad’s Crunchy Kale Chips | GF, grain free, vegan
- Air-dried, dehydrated kale. Not baked or fried, so all nutrients are retained
- Ingredients: Kale, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, chickpea miso, carrot, nutritional yeast, spices, Himalayan salt
- 2 servings per container; per serving: 80 calories – 6 grams carbs – 2 grams fiber – 4 grams protein
Rhythm Foods – Cauliflower Bites, Mushroom Crisps, Carrot Sticks, Beet Chips + more| GF, grain free, vegan
- Low-temperature crisped, not baked or fried, so all nutrients are retained
- Ingredients: Vegetable (a huge array of vegetable chips available, from carrots to cauliflower, mushrooms, beets, jicama, kale, shishito peppers and more – see options here), plus salt, spices, seasonings
- 2 servings per container; per serving: 80 calories – 6 grams carbs – 2 grams fiber – 4 grams protein
IWON Protein Sticks + Puffs | GF, grain free, vegetarian
- Less of a veggie chip; more of a ‘protein rich’ chip centered on plant proteins
- Ingredients: IWON protein blend (green pea, brown rice flour, navy bean, brown rice protein), sunflower oil, spices + seasonings
- Per serving (1 ounce): 120 calories – 150 mg sodium – 14 grams carbs – 3 grams fiber – 7 grams protein
LIKE IT!
Neither are great sources of green veggies, but at least they’re both made with quality ingredients for a chip
Hippeas Chickpea Puffs | GF, grain free, vegan
- Ingredients: Chickpea flour, rice flour, yellow pea flour, sunflower oil, can sugar, seasonings + spices
- Per 20-piece serving (1 ounce): 130 calories – 220 mg sodium – 19 grams carbs – 3 grams fiber – 4 grams protein
Terra Mediterranean ‘Real Vegetable Chips’ | GF, grain free, vegetarian
- Ingredients: Root vegetables (sweet potato, batata, taro, parsnip), canola oil, sea salt, seasonings + spices
- Per serving (1 ounce): 160 calories – 190 mg sodium – 16 grams carbs – 2 grams fiber – 1 gram protein
HATE IT!
Both are similar nutritional stats to regular potato chips; ingredients are slightly better quality, but still low veggie content for the name, branding and marketing of these products
Cauliflower Tortilla Chips by From the Ground Up | GF, grain free, vegan
- Ingredients: Cassava (starchy flour), sunflower oil, cauliflower, chia seeds, sea salt, vegetable blend (spinach, broccoli, carrot, tomato, beet, shiitake mushroom), garlic, parsley, celery seed
- Per 10-chip serving (1 ounce): 140 calories – 135 mg sodium – 19 grams carbs – 2 grams fiber – 1 gram protein
Veggie Straws by Sensible Portions | GF, grain free, vegetarian
- Ingredients: Potato starch, potato flour, canola oil, seasoning; more ‘rice syrup solids’ and cane sugar than veggies. Spinach powder and beetroot powder are on lines 15 and 16, of a 16-line ingredient list
- Per 38-straw serving (1 ounce): 130 calories – 300 mg sodium – 17 grams carbs – less than 1 gram fiber – 1 gram protein
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FUELED Wellness + Nutrition is powered by Healthy Portions Meal Co. Learn more about the variety of Eat Fit options at Healthy Portions Meal Co, proud sponsor of FUELED Wellness + Nutrition with Molly on WGNO.
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Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD is a registered dietitian + nutrition journalist in New Orleans, and founder of Ochsner Eat Fit nonprofit restaurant initiative. Tune in to her podcast, FUELED | Wellness + Nutrition and follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @MollyKimballRD. See more of Molly’s articles + TV segments at www.mollykimball.com, and sign up for Eat Fit Wellness Bites weekly newsletter, here.
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