to think that having a packet of crisps a day is not healthy

[Badgerwife]

or am I being precious?

I was having this discussion after watching Britain's Favourite Supermarket Foods on tv with some friends yesterday, who all thought that having a packet a crisp a day was totally fine and clearly thought I was weird to think that it was totally unhealthy. I'll admit I was appalled surprised but this may be because I was brought up in France where you don't really eat crisps unless you're having a picnic, in fact, I'm not even sure you can buy individual packets. So it was a bit of a culture shock when I first moved to England when I realised it's a staple snack/lunch item.

Even now, I never have crisps in the house - unless I'm pregnant like now and I crave the salt content like crazy and they are moreish and delicious plus it's cheaper than my other craving which is McDonalds and way more shameful to admit to but then I worry about my cholesterol going up and clogged arteries with all the fat.

So AIBU?

There are some unbearably smug, supercilious and insufferable people on this thread.

Perriwinkle I've just got back online to see where this has gone and am a bit at the tone of some of the comments too! People do get very angry, don't they?

I probably could have put the thread on chat rather than AIBU, as that was really all it was, a bit of a chat, not a life or death 'everyone who eats crisps is gonna die young' sort of thread! I didn't perceive it as a rant about crisps, or saying that French people are better eaters than anyone else. I really don't care if people eat crisps, I was just curious about having them 'every day'.

I often eat a pack a day and am not overweight. In fact I lost 3 stone on a healthy eating plan! It's when you eat more than one pack or fatty ones that it becomes bad. I eat loads of veg etc so it evens out.

I have taken note and so today did not have my usual pack of crisps......

had some prawn crackers instead :)

Bloody delicious and am using the grease off them as hand cream

If you put this on AIBU instead of chat it is just another way of saying "I am right, pat me on the back or dare to disagree with me and get flamed"

Anyway, in the spirit of AIBU, yes, I think you are being very unreasonable. Crisps may not be your cup of tea (which is probably a hanging offence as well) but they are not really worth such a big fuss. There are probably similar veined threads that criticise some aspect of your parenting unrelated to crisps that you would find bossy and judgemental. Horses for courses.

If food was the be all and end all why is there not a great difference between a middle class mum's kid who only allows macrobiotic lentils and thinks apples have too much sugar and the kid across the road who has fish fingers and beans for tea every night? Because when I last worked in a UK middle school, there wasn't a line separating the super healthy clever (or miserably pushed) kids and the others from across the road.

its just crisps, get a grip!

Yes, indeed. Why does it seems to bother some people that other people might eat a bag of crisps everday? I didn't realise that it had the potential to make you a social pariah.

I am [shocked] that someone actually referred to crisps as 'chavvy'!!! It seriously never occurred to me before that food has its own class system. How does that work? Presumably foie-gras-stuffed swan with truffles, caviar and chilled vintage champagne is jolly-upper-class-and-superior-don't-you-know; an ordinary roast dinner with Paxo stuffing, King Edward potatoes and white wine is middle-class-and-aspirational; and anything processed, convenient, tinned or frozen automatically has 100% chav status?

This is an outrage! My cupboards have been infiltrated by chavs! Sorry, I need to go - I must turf those wretched tins of soup out into the cold winter night forthwith!

Noooooo, nothing 'normal' is middle class, it's all Tuscan bean stew with ciabatta and that lovely harissa from Waiterose for the middle classes these days.

are those hand cooked crisps with the jackets on middle class or what then?

Nah, middle class crisps are the ones made of organic parsnips and beetroots - the ones that taste of wood shavings. Or freshly made while glamping at Bestival.

Oh really? I thought those organic poncey things were for people with more money than sense. Hmmm... maybe those are upper-middle-class, and roast dinners are lower-middle-class? Surely a roast dinner made with fresh ingredients is more respectable and worthy of higher status than the BirdsEye frozen-roast-dinner-on-a-plastic-plate-and-stuck-in-a-box variety?

Telco value ones are the best but you need at least 4 packs in one go, they are very small portions.

I think you're only allowed a middle-class roast if you do it ironically and call it a 'roast dinner' with a roguish wink. And a five million pound organic chicken that's been happier than you.

Darn you all! (Shakes fist)

After being drawn back to this thread I then bought a HUGE bag of crisps - Walkers Deep Ridge Salt and Malt Vinegar. My lips went pink, I drank the ocean and now I have a large volcanic spot on my cheek.

Shakes fist again.

(But they were bloody delicious)

Deep ridge crisps sound a bit posh to me. Need to work harder on being common crisp eater punk

Using punk to poster name above not as when you say make my day punk

Ha well you made mine!

It reads very funnily!

Do you feel lucky (spotty, fat, kidneys groaning with salt) punk?

Oh yeah, baby.

I must admit to be a crisp snob. The last time I ate a cheap packet it felt as if I had just licked a teddy boy's hair.

Not a good thing.

I love Tesco blue striped crisps and, incongruously, they sell them in Qatar for £5 a six pack which makes me both posh and common. Take your pick, Punk.

Theo is spending £5 for Tesco crisps and Punk is walking around licking teddy boys. What's going on people, has the salt gone to your brain?

You will all turn into salt monsters:

Oh yes you will.

(Model from Star Trek - how unlucky were the crew? They always picked pretty girls/women who were beasts or psychos)

Probably not the healthiest but definitely wont make you fat.