popchips - a Healthier Potato Chip?

 popchips

In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend. ~Solon

popchips have been blitzing NYC, seemingly intent on establishing a beachhead. As a former junk food junkie, I couldn't help but notice the chip and it's seductive message of healthier snacking. Then last month I was at my friend Kristina's superfun wedding, and one of the fellow guests happened to work at popchips. She kindly sent me a box. So, dear Mindful Eater, that is the story of how MindfulEats came to receive its first swag.

 

Naturally, I ate them. And there within lies a couple lessons.

1. MindfulEats does not advocate processed foods. Only whole snacks like nuts, fruit and vegetables. So chips, pretzels, and Cheetos don't count - no matter how healthy the claim on the bag.
2. Everything in moderation. If you love junk food, cutting it out entirely will only make you miserable (and isn't entirely possible). Moderate your urge, and only buy the smallest possible bag on occasion. Take it from me - I had been eating mindfully for a while, but then this box of chips showed up on my doorstep so I had to sample them for MindfulEats. Fine. But I had an entire box, and as a junk food junkie, I couldn't keep myself from eating one bag a day, and sometimes two. I felt suboptimal and tired all week (even though I tried to lie to myself and pretend it had nothing to do with junk food. But then I felt better after a few days junk-food free. What can you do?). If you can't help yourself, do yourself a favor and keep it out of the house!

Here's the popchips rundown:

• Taste - they are tasty, no doubt about it. They have a fun, lighter texture than chips - kinda like Munchos. They come in a huge variety of flavors for all types of tastes, but my favorite is Original.
• Ingredients - popchips are a processed food, but they use relatively few and all-"natural" ingredients. The Original flavor has five ingredients. No transfats here. The largest ingredient is "natural potato ingredients" (predominately potato flour and potato starch). As we know, flour is processed. Good potato chips are made of sliced potatos. 
• Healthy - popchips are not fried, so they have fewer calories than potato chips (120 total calories, about 30 less per serving). This isn't going to make much of a difference unless you are being excessive and eating a boatload. The big difference is in fat. popchips have 4g of total fat (less than half the fat of chips), and 0 grams of saturated fat. So how are these chips popped? According to them, "popping is a way of cooking our all-natural ingredients using heat, pressure, and a little snack magic to burst the ingredients into the shape of a chip before we season it." OK then.
• Style - the bag is nice looking and hip - but hey, the fact they come in a bag and have more than one ingredient means they're processed!

Bottom Line: if you don't eat junk food, you are awesome so stay away from popchips. If you are a potato chip eater, popchips are a good alternative - they are tasty, fun to eat, have less fat, and have lots of flavors. Just be moderate - only small individual bags on occasion, and don't store them in the house! I'll look for them the next time I have a craving - the smallest size!

What I ate: vegetable juice, 1 radish, two hard boiled eggs,1 pint blueberries, 3 strawberries, 1 banana, 1 large cafe au lait, quinoa, microwaved broccoli + tofu + soy sauce + sesame oil, 1 pear, 1 coffee, turkey, Mindful Mix, raw cauliflower, soba noodles + soup, milk, hot chocolate

 

Exercise: Ran 5 miles, light weights