Chip Culture

And I don't mean computer chips!
What's in a chip?  I did a study while I was in the grocery store recently looking for my favorite brand of tortilla chips.  As I turned into the chip aisle, I suddenly became aware of how chips have multiplied.  Then I started to read labels and look at choices.
Potato, tortilla, pea, veggie, kale, cheese, BBQ, vinegar, sour cream and onion, corn and on it goes in many combinations.  With all these choices, you would think that there are some that are better and best.  Whether you use chips as your go to snack, your dinner on the run, as a side for a great sandwich, or to entertain guests, the variety and appeal of crunchy chips & all the creative ways to use them is an interesting culture of its own. 
Now I hate to put a wet, soggy blanket on your established menus; BUT, after taking a hard look at ingredients, there are a LOT of hidden downfalls that weigh heavily on our health. 
Bad fats!!  This is the biggest one.  There are many food items that can have a negative effect on our health, and bad fats are some of the worst.  Not only do they add to elevated cholesterol numbers, but they add to our middles, and contribute to those waves of fatigue that are making mid-day naps a comeback.  Even the bags that promote good health and get you thinking your eating healthy, are not as healthy as you think.  Here's a list of the oils I found in the chips I looked at that are NOT healthy oils:  canola, rapeseed, palm, sunflower, safflower…….   If your eating chips made with anything but avocado or coconut oil, you are doing a slow dance with ever increasing sludge in your system.  The bad oils are easily hydrogenated, which means infused with oxygen so they can sit on the shelf longer.  Oxygen in this form acts like "rust" on a car in our own systems; increasing free radicals and inflammatory responses in veins and arteries, heart, digestive tract and liver to name the biggies.  The more we eat, the more sluggish we become.
Chips are not the only favorite foods that contain these bad oils.  Commercial crackers, pastries and other processed snackfoods as well as most of those foods found in your local restaurants and eateries because those bad fats are much cheaper on a large scale.
There is hope.  If you go on line and search, you will find a few companies that use only the best ingredients; and the oils they use are grapeseed (not rapeseed), avocado and coconut.
The other bad ingredient in chips is food additives.  All those wonderful flavors are mostly made with chemicals and no real food at all.  These food additives overstimulate adrenal responses and cause more inflammation.  All that adds up to a drag on your energy over time and results in other problems, like high cholesterol and heart issues, that are much harder to "fix".    All that said, there are companies that use flavors made from real food, cheese, herbs, etc. 
So look carefully, read labels, and do some on line research into which companies use real ingredients.  You are not likely to find them in the commercial grocery store but in health food stores; and even then be sure to read labels. 
Check out the recipes for making crackers from scratch in last month's blog, as it coincides nicely with this article, in case you missed them.  It may be worth trying a couple.  Like anything else, once you get used to making them, they're really very easy and really nutritious.
Happy chip hunting!!!

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