You can complain that roses have thorns. Or you can rejoice that thorns have roses. ~Ziggy
Who doesn't love a salty, crunchy snack? I do! Apparently, I can't help it since it might be genetic, but it also might be a superpower. If you love salty snacks too, you might be a supertaster.
Anyway, as a potato chip addict, I'm on the perennial search for an alternative, unprocessed snack. The green bean/snap pea (snapea) snacks caught my eye since they are recognizable vegetables in snack form. Of course, they were processed to get them crunchy and in the bag, but they seemed like a reasonable alternative.
I found two different snacks: Trader Joe's Green Beans and Calbee Snapea Crisps. They are recognizable green beans and snow peas, which is encouraging, and they both have minimal ingredients, but they are very different. Trader Joe's Green Beans are very crunchy, oddly sweet (sugar isn't an ingredient), salty and made in Vietnam. Calbee Snapeas are crunchy, not very memorable in taste, and most of the snow peas are from Canada. Let's take a closer look:
- Trader Joe's Green Beans. 130 calories per 28 gram serving. These are unexpectedly sweet, definitely crunchy and salty. I don't like the sweetness, but I can see how they would be addictive. They are made of green beans, canola oil, dextrin (tapioca starch), and salt. Total fat 4.5g, Sodium 160mg, Total Carbohydrate 20g, Dietary Fiber 4g, Sugars 5g, Protein 2g. Why are these from Vietnam? That's halfway around the world, which makes the farming practices unregulated. I guarantee that unless you live in Vietnam, people grow green beans closer to you then that! I'm not saying that these beans aren't farmed in a sustainable, nonchemical way, but I don't know and that bugs me.
- Calbee Snapea Crisps Original Flavor. 150 calories per 28 gram serving. Crunchy, but not that memorable. They are made from green peas, corn oil, rice, salt, calcium carbonate, and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Total fat 8g, Sodium 160mg, Total Carbohydrate 14g, Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars less than 1g, Protein 5g. The company says that they mainly use snow peas grown in Canada, which is much closer and has stricter farming standards than the U.S.
While the nutritionals of both these snacks are better for you than most of the snack foods in a bag, neither of them are as delicious as fresh green beans or peas, which you can buy at the farmer's market and eat raw. The fresh alternative tastes better, is more nutritious, and it's better for you. As a bonus, you can ask the farmer what kind of growing practices they used.
Bottom Line: if you are desperate for a salty snack, these options are fine, but MindfulEats gives the nod to Snapeas, which are grown in Canada. Best of all, buy a bag of fresh snap peas at the farmer's market for your next snack urge.
