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Because the fact is, veggie chips are no more or less healthy than regular potato chips .
Getty / Larry Washburn
Quick question: Why do people even eat veggie chips?
Potatoes in just about any form are undeniably delicious, but they kind of have an image problem.
Classic chips are also on the hit list of processed food-naysayers.
These innocent little crisps cant catch a break.
Enter: the veggie chip, strategically marketed as a more natural, more wholesome, more nutritious chip.
People perceive them as being healthy: Oh, theyre vegetables!
Beth Kitchin, Ph.D., R.D.N., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences, tells SELF.
Get ready for some nutrition label truth-bombs.
Lets set curious tuber branding conventions aside and turn the bag over to compare whats actually inside them nutrition-wise.
The ingredient labels for other veggie chips are nearly identical; just swap out the vegetable.
The nutrition facts also look strikingly similar.
(Other options, likesweet potatoor beet chips, will contain a bit morenaturally-occurringsugar.)
But Im eating vegetables!you exclaim, while clutching your bags of veggie chips at Whole Foods.
Correction: You are eating chips made of various root vegetables.
Know what else is a root vegetable that makes a delicious chip?A potato.
There really arent any meaningful nutritional benefits to veggie chips in particular over potato chips, Tewksbury says.
And itisgenerally great to mix up your veggie intake.
Yes, theyre mostly made of vegetables.
They dont really fill you up a ton because theyre not heavy, Kitchin says.
And that also makes it easier to eat a lot of them mindlessly.
In summary: All chips are good chips.
If you actually enjoy regular potato chips more, this is an equally awesome and acceptable option.
And if you like em both and are just craving something salty and crunchy, either will do.
Either one can really be a fantastic snack option for some people, as Tewksbury puts it.
In fact youre more likely to become fixated on the potato chips as a result.
So eat whatever chips youre craving.
In that case, Harbstreet recommends working with a dietitian or culinary expert if its within your means.
For everyone else,hereare somerecipesandtipsforincorporating more vegetablesinto your diet to get you started.
But also kindly continue to eat potato and/or veggie chips every damn day if you kindly.
