Blog,  Body,  Debbie's Blog

For the love of chips

I’m so proud of myself  😀  , because today I decided to act on a complaint I’ve been having for so long, about high-sodium chips. The raising-your-blood-pressure type of chips. No, I didn’t ditch eating chips completely, even though nowadays I eat much less. One individual size bag a month should be okay right?

I finally had the guts and took the time to write a letter to the makers of Dirty Potato Chips. The spicy Jalapeño Heat is my favorite and I bought an individual (2 oz) bag last Saturday when I craved chips. To my disappointment, I could only eat about 5 pieces, because the darned chips were way too salty. Today I thought I’d try it again, but my taste buds were screaming from being assaulted by the salt, besides the fact that the pepper burned my tongue too. Then I looked at the Nutrition Facts on the bag and I almost fell off my chair! A whopping 750mg or 31% of the daily allowance. Yikes!!! That’s double to almost three times more than other brands like Lays, Pringles or tortilla chips!

The more I researched the topic, the worse I felt about that bag of chips sitting on my desk. I’m gonna have to toss it, because there is no way I can justify endangering my health for the love of chips. I can’t even taste the potatoes in the chips, because it seems to be held together by salt  🙁

Besides affecting the taste, too much salt is really bad for our health! We do need sodium and the minimum recommeded is 1500mg a day, but shockingly, the average American consumes 3436mg per day, more than double of what we need! This is causing all kinds of health issues such as high blood pressure, that in turn can lead to heart attack and stroke. See more details here about Daily Sodium Allowance for Women and Health Risks from Potato Chips.

But I love potato chips … with some salt on it. The unsalted variety Dirty offers is too bland for my taste buds, so I decided to write a letter, to make them aware of people like me. People who love potato chips, but not the unbelievably high levels of salt dumped on them. I am hoping they will come up with a lower sodium variety in the future.  😉

I don’t know what the average sodium levels of chips are in the rest of the world, but in South America and Europe they are way lower. How do I know? Because when I eat those chips, I can really taste what I am eating, be it potato, corn, plantain or yucca, it is never overwhelmed by salt. A big difference with American chips!

Hey, I may not make a difference if Dirty never reads my letter, but I feel good that I finally took a step to voice my opinion about something I feel so strongly about. Heck, while I’m at it, I might even write the other chips producers too 😀

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