Eat Your Vegetable Chips

If you’re trying to
score points during the Super Bowl by serving healthful snacks, be warned: Some
snacks that sound good for you might not be any better for you than potato
chips. Our experts rated the taste and nutrition of four chips made from
vegetables, give chips made from beans, five veggie snacks made mostly from
potato flour, and four conventional potato chips.

Some snacks that sound good for you
might not be any better for you than potato chips.

How healthful?

Overall, the veggie
and bean chips scored Good for nutrition (with up to 5 grams of fiber); the
other types, Fair (2 grams or fewer).

The veggie chips also
have far less sodium than the potato-based products. Trader Joe’s vegetable Root
Chips, for example, have 35 milligrams of sodium per serving; Trader Joe’s
Veggie Sticks have 300 milligrams- one-fifth of the daily sodium limit
recommended for most adults by the American Heart Association.

Trader Joe’s vegetable Root Chips

But despite the
parsnips, sweet potatoes, and taro pictured on packages of veggie chips – and
boasts of a “full serving of vegetables in every ounce” in a couple of products
– these aren’t crudités. They’re still fried and have plenty of fat and
calories

Trader Joe’s Veggie Sticks

How tasty? Terra
Exotic and Trader Joe’s sliced-veggie chips are crunchy and slightly sweet and
salty. Food should Taste Good’s chips are more cracker like, with slightly
sweet and earthy flavors.

The best bean chips,
Boulder Canyon Natural Foods Hummus and Trader Joe’s Falafel, are made from
chickpeas. Boulder Canyon chips have corn and cumin flavors, and Trader Joe’s
have Indian-style curry spices. The other bean chips could use a dip to perk
them up or cover flaws.

Boulder Canyon chips

The potato-based
veggie snacks are alike: crunchy and salty, with mild dehydrated potato and
vegetable flavors.

Of the potato chips,
Lays are more tender than most. Cape Cod chips have lots of potato flavor and
less salt than others but a bit of stale –oil flavor. Pringles have a distinct,
dehydrated-potato flavor. Ruffles are thicker than the rest.

Bottom
line.

If you‘re trying to
limit sodium and you favor a bit of fiber, look among the very good veggie or
bean chips. Don’t bother paying a premium for Danielle Spicy Carrot Chips (they
cost $4.39 for a 2-ounce bag and often tasted rancid in our tests). Skip
potato-based veggie snacks, which taste mediocre, cost more than potato chips,
and offer no nutritional advantage.

Danielle Spicy Carrot Chips

What dip for chips?

Cedar’ Naturally
Delicious Original and Cedar’s Simply Delicious Original humus tasted very good
in our last tests. Two tablespoons have 60 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, and 115
milligrams of sodium. Salsas are more waistline-friendly, with about 10
calories, 0 grams of fat, and 120 milligrams of sodium.

Ratings, all tested products in order of taste