Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the US and most of them are eaten in some fried form, such as potato chips or french fries. One medium potato represents one of the five servings of vegetables that you are supposed to eat every day, and it doesn't take many french fries to reach the size of a single potato. Because of this, it is not impressive to hear that companies like Frito-Lay and Kraft want to add vegetable-based chips and snacks to their product lines. The potato chips are already vegetable-based!
Adding dehydrated vegetables to snacks like Roasted Vegetable Ritz Crackers is just a way of getting consumers to buy more by capitalizing on a trend for an increased awareness for healthy eating. This doesn't mean that people are necessarily eating healthier, but they think that they are/should be. They will opt for the chip that has some additional "vegetables" in it because it sounds like it might be healthier, regardless of whether it actually is. One trend tracking company said "this may replace the whole-grain fad."
And is there anything behind it? Probably not. A fried chip is still not health food, regardless of whether the chip is potato or carrot. And as for adding bits of veggies to other foodstuffs, nutritionist Cynthia Lair explained the benefits - or lack thereof - by saying "once you pulverize and powder vegetables, there's not much left."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-25-2006 @ 11:31AM
jenn said...
I thought people already made veggie chips. I do think it's great that people are moving toward these ideas because they think they're eating better but it's not great because they're not. They're being fooled AND they'll charge them more for it. Won't this just have the same effect as the fat-free/low-fat fad where people ate twice as much thinking how good it was for them because it wasn't full of fat? However a lot of it was full of sugar. Fat-free cookies are still cookies. Just like 'carrot-flavoured' fried potato chips are still fried potato chips. They should put those next to the 'cheese-flavoured' slices of oil. These ideas are great for flavour but fried is fried and junk is junk. All they are doing is preying on the people who don't read labels, don't have a degree in nutrition, or let's face it.. just don't know or can't keep up with what's going on.. our food trends are moving faster than womens fashion. I hate to see it replace the whole-grain fad since that fad is actually is good for you.
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10-25-2006 @ 12:08PM
Michael Schmitt said...
I agree with #1 and the whole "it's fried, but it's got vegetables so I can eat more" and "it's low fat, so I can eat more" mentality. Same thing is going for the processed organic foods. Gee, it's "organic, so I can eat more 'cause it's better for me" will be next. Processed organic foods still have the preservatives and the processing done to them to allow for shelf stability for the 1-6 months that it will be sitting on a store shelf. I work in the food industry and formulate organic processed foods. All I have to do is find an organic source of all the ingredients that you find in the original product and it's "organic".
As usual, to have a healthy life means eat a variety of foods in moderation and exercise in moderation, not mix good with the bad in junk form and eat more "'cause a little is good, so a lot must be better".
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