Is a snack in front of the TV part of the evening ritual for you?
Extra pounds can be the result - but beware of "healthy" alternatives.
A bag of chips has around 1,000 calories and is therefore not the ideal snack for people who want to lose weight *.
In addition to the classic potato chips, you can also find chips and snacks made from beetroot, parsnips, sweet potatoes, corn, peas and other pulses in drugstores and supermarkets.
But are vegetable chips a healthy alternative to conventional potato chips?
Sometimes it just has to be potato chips - whether in the evening in front of the TV or in the bar with a beer.
Such high-calorie and salty snacks should not be forbidden under any circumstances, but they should not be eaten every day.
In addition to the classic snacks such as pretzels, potato chips and peanut flips, there are now alternatives that appear healthier at first glance
.
For example, beetroot tubers, corn on the cob and paprika wedges are emblazoned on vegetable chip packaging, suggesting low-calorie content.
Far from it: snacks such as crispy peas with paprika flavor, chickpea chips in yoghurt-cucumber style, bean sticks with paprika or millet balls advertise with statements such as “up to 70 percent less fat than in classic potato chips”, “rich in vegetable protein "," Contains fiber "and" without sugar ", but the consumer advice center North Rhine-Westphalia urges caution.
"Consumers shouldn't fall for the healthy vegetable image with the alternatives to conventional chips and snacks", warns Wolfgang Schuldzinski, board member of the consumer association NRW.
He calls for an easily understandable nutrition logo
not only for crisps: "High fat, salt and calorie information should generally be clearly marked on food packaging."
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Consumer advice center is examining 80 alternatives to potato chips - with sobering results
The NRW consumer advice center tested a total of 80 vegetable snacks from discounters, supermarkets and health food stores - with surprising results.
37 chip variations based on legumes, 21 items with vegetable chips and 22 different puff snacks were analyzed for calorie and nutritional content.
The result: On average, vegetable chips with 500 kilocalories and 32 grams of fat per 100 grams have hardly any lower energy content than the potato chips
.
These contain around 535 kilocalories and 34 grams of fat per 100 grams.
Eat healthy - lose weight healthy
Would you like to eat healthier?
"The Nutrition Compass" by Bas Kast (commercial link) deals with scientific studies on the subject of nutrition - and provides the reader with twelve rules for healthy eating.
The situation is different with snack products based on lentils, peas and other legumes: These contain around 16 grams of fat per 100 grams and 440 calories.
Puffed snacks are also better for the line
than vegetable or potato chips: They contain - depending on the product - 380 kilocalories and 1.8 grams of fat up to 480 kilocalories and 23 grams of fat per 100 grams.
Not only in terms of fat and calorie content, but also in terms of salt content, the supposedly healthier snack alternatives are not really better off than conventional snacks such as potato chips and pretzel sticks.
This is why the following also applies here: it is
better to eat vegetable snacks in moderation and not in bulk
and it is better to use real, unprocessed vegetables.
(jg) * Merkur.de is part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network
.
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