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 is an awful stink off this thread, riddled as it is with bullshit.

"have you seen the ingredients on a packet of crisps? Pure filth" "full of salt and fat" "terribly bad for you" etc etc.

Well, yes, I have seen the ingredients on a packet of crisps, I'm eating one right now. Potatoes, sunflower oil, veg oil, salt.
How shocking. Also, rated as a nutritious snack by experts

Also, by the way, you're the TENTH fattest nation on earth, not the second. But why let facts get in the way of a rant?

Ahhh...you see I would never dream of eating chicken.

Each to their own innit :)

A packet of crisps a day is fine provided it is part of a healthy diet. It is a good source of vitamin C and as long as the crisp eater isn't like me sitting on the sofa eating all sorts of other fat and salt laden shite like chicken dippers and potato waffles etc, it is fine.

For a young healthy kid running around doing sports etc. it is a perfectly fine and not unhealthy source of energy.

Out of curiosity, how many nations are there on earth?

2nd or 10th, same difference. Average weight in the UK is still more than 20 kg above average weight in the world, or thereabouts.

"A packet of crisps a day is fine provided it is part of a healthy diet. It is a good source of vitamin C "

Crisp-eating Brits will say just about anything to justify stuffing themselves with potato slithers cooked in transfat and dusted in salt.

What is wrong with eating an orange, or a kiwi fruit, or eating some black currants for your C vitamin intake, rather than claiming that crisps is a source of Vitamin C?

What is so fundamentally wrong with eating a bag of crisps?

% Daily Values*
Total Fat 10.49g 16%
Saturated Fat 3.069g 15%
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.408g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.755g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 147mg 6%
Potassium 460mg
Total Carbohydrate 13.93g 5%
Dietary Fiber 1.2g 5%
Sugars 1.15g
Protein 1.84g

Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 9%
Calcium 1% Iron 2%

15% Saturated Fat, 6% Sodium, 5% Carbohydrate

I rather get those Vitamin Cs elsewhere than Crisps to be honest.

I prefer chips with my sandwich personally but I remember watchingvthatborigramme a while ago & it turned our crisis were pretty healthy.

A packet a day is definitely excessive.
I have crisps maybe once every couple of weeks or so - but this thread it making me crave some

"What is so fundamentally wrong with eating a bag of crisps?"

Nothing. It is your choice.

But calling it healthy, or claim that crisps have any part of a healthy diet is idiotic.

And I have any right to that opinion and will call it idiotic as long as my children have to see their school friends eat Crisps every Friday as "part of a healthy school diet" while their oat cakes and home made flapjacks are binned, because they are not crisps.

Nothing wrong with eating crisps occasionally.

It is eating them everyday and worse still, giving children crisps everyday, that is unhealthy

God I love crisps! Just had a bag. McCoy's Big Manly Beefy Bastards - or similar .

I only give my dc crisps once a week in packed lunch she says as if they don't eat sweets and pizza half the weekend and I probably have two or three packets a week.

I ain't dead (yet). And I'm not the size of a house (yet).

Crisps (in big sharing bags) are weekend food in our house. A part-eaten bag will often go back into the cupboard until the next weekend (in an airtight container). That fits my definition of "little and often" for less healthy foodstuffs.

A part-eaten bag?

arf at McCoy's Big Manly Beefy Bastards I do like those

I eat a pack a day. The average multi pack is quite small.

For example the pack i had today contained 6% of my salt intake and 4% of my sat fat which i think is actually quite low. Beyond those 2 i dont really care so if i want them i will eat them as long as they are not too high in salt/sat fat.

I don't think anyone is claiming that crisps are necessarily healthy - just that a bag of crisps a day is not going to scupper an otherwise healthy diet and render the eater dead from a heart attack at an unfeasibly young age.

I have never smoked or taken drugs, I'm teetotal, I go to exercise classes at my gym at least four times a week and I walk 35 miles a week in term time doing the school run. Heck, I'm not even that keen on chocolates, cakes or biscuits! Do you really think a bag of crisps a day is going to make that much difference to my health?

I think the various people mentioning trans fats on this thread are a bit out of date - most crisps in the UK are not now made with hydrogenated oils, so you only get the trace amounts of naturally occurring trans fats that you find in any foods. (See here: www.snacma.org.uk/fact-or-fiction.asp

Also, the salt content isn't as high as you'd think. 'Healthy' traditionally made bread can contain much more, for example, according to this news story.

I'm not trying to say that crisps are a health food and we should all eat tons of them, but I don't think the plain, ready-salted, made with sunflower oil crisps I let my DCs eat are a major problem in my DCs' diet. Some of the more highly processed snacks with lots of flavourings and colourings might be another matter.

crisps = a bag of fat.

also normal potatoes have high GI

Not a biggie in an otherwise balanced diet. We've got to have some vices

I second exexpat.

There's a world of difference between ready salted and flavoured hula hoops, monster munch or such.

Not a health food but probably on a par with cheese or bread and butter - salt and fatwise.

I now want a crisp sandwich.

Preferably smokey bacon, on super long life bread, with one of the slices buttered. I might even consider grating a bit of cheese on it as well. Plus some Tabasco, of course.

I suppose I could also throw in a few slices of tomato and then call it a 'Crisp Salad Sandwich' (that sounds quite healthy!)

I buy one multipack of crisps a week- tend to get ones that I don't like so I don't eat them! The kids maybe have two bags each during the week.

I'm not concerned about their weight, it's just their salt intake as kids are meant to have so little. For me it's the reverse. Salt isn't a problem with my low blood pressure, and my overall intake is fine anyway but I would like to lose some weight. The trouble with me is one packet can lead to four. So I just don't have them, or only very occasionally.