To wonder what's so bad about chips?

[Dancergirl]

Well oven chips specifically. I buy the Mccain ones - two ingredients - potatoes and sunflower oil. So why do people think they're so bad?

www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-food/6-scary-facts-about-processed-foods/

Just a few thoughts, not necessarily about the chips in all cases but people are so so unaware of what has happened to the food they buy in packets before it gets to them (and the manufacturers will never tell you and are not legally obliged to either). Also what about the base ingredients, mass grown potatoes, from the cheapest source possible probably covered in pesticides, force grown and over irrigated so v. low nutitional content and then pre cut and processed to have that supposedly 'harmless' oil added which further damages the nutrients (even chopping food has a damaging effect so its best to chop and eat asap rather than further process and then store for months). I'm only learning about this stuff now and have a big interest in conservation of real food that hasn't been modified and processed to death but find it interesting and hugely shocking the more I read.

So I think those of you who said that making your own chips is just for show (although that may the the motivation of certain individuals) are wrong that that is all it is. It is smart to understand what you are eating and what processing actually means for the food you are about to eat, not just read the ingredients list.

PS. I love oven chips as an occasional side when I am too tired to make homemade ones but I am consciously eating them despite knowing they are simply not good nutrition rather than blindly eating them thinking what can be the harm.

I nuke my oven wedges before putting on oil then in oven on a high heat to brown.

I don't mind oven chips every so often. My kids both ignore them on the plate though so I don't cook them much.

Inevitable post. I am yet to encounter the thousands of Mumsnet kids who spurn all fun food and instead prefer woven lentils boiled in boasting juice. Mine would be grounded until they went for te fun stuff.

Thedorous I am still sitting on my hands re the school dinners thread where one poster commented she would not feed her DC the utter shite that is fed to children as school dinners and she will ONLY feed her DC organic knitted lentils food.

No chips for them - bless.

I am always disappointed that restaurants fo frozen chips.

Proper chips ( ue twice fried fresh potato chips, oreferably fried in dripping) are divine and woukd have people queueing!

I am glad I have inspired people to add oil to their oven chips, it makes them nicer. I buy the oil in a spray can for this purpose especially!

The best frozen chips are mcCain simply gorgeous chips. Coated in a thick layer of dripping they do not beed my oil spray. But they not cheap...

Proper chips fried in dripping would have vegetarians running....

Droflove that article is about US food standards, which are very different to European/UK standards. I'm not at all saying eating lots of processed food is a good thing, but those particular points in the article are aimed at a US audience and don't apply by and large to the UK (hence drawing a distinction as they do to foodstuffs that are banned in Europe and allowed in the US).

Oven chips can be a handy stand by. I don't particularly like them, so I can easily not have them! I'd rather have pasta anyway.

Roast potatoes done in dripping are the business. Even better than duck / goose fat.

Discovered this when I bought some dripping on a whim last year. As a child I always thought the bread-and-dripping I read about in history books sounded unaccountably delicious

Nothing wrong with chips in moderation, say once a week. Also helps if they are large and fried in polyunsaturated fat such as sunflower oil, using as little oil as possible. Small chips absorb more fat because there is more surface area. Ditto crinkly chips the best ones . And go easy on the salt.
Homemade chunky chips with the skins on and cooked in the oven in a mixture of sunflower oil and olive oil and sprinkled with salt are yummy almost as nice as the ones cooked in dripping

I had one of those Food Doctor instant quinoa pots 't'other day. Basically a middle class Pot Noodle. It was vile.

I'm not too fussed about chips, frozen or otherwise. Onion rings, however...food of the dirty working-class Gods.

The problem with chips is i bloody love them. I scan the menus on meals out and pick whatever comes with chips.
I LOVE CHIPS!!!!!!!

Oven chips make me want to gag. Seriously, I'd rather eat nothing than them! So dry, like cardboard... My throat feels funny just thinking about it.

Hi Heinous, wasn't the link I intended. Oops. But there are plenty of cases where the US food authority have banned substances we still eat in the UK. Oh well, people can eat the crap they want, I'll continue to question everything that comes in a pack and that didn't come out of my or my mums garden.

But homemade oven fries are delicious! Not trying to be smug that I DIY, just love to cook and know my potatoes are local and pesticide free before they make it to the oven.

Right that's it - Chinese curry and chips from the takeaway for supper.

Honey don't say that. I'm on a diet and you're making me crave Chinese!

Why bother with oven chips? If you want chips, have real chips. Theres an art in chips, cut, blot dry. Fry for few minutes, shake oil off, return to fryer. Heaven on a fork.

Am literally laughing out loud at people saying making chips is poncey or just for show? Seriously. My mother and granny before her, were making real chips going back into the 1960's. You cant get much more basic that peeling potatoes and frying them. I just don't like to eat food at home that taste likes school dinners. As for it being for show, I don't think anyone outside of our family actually knows what chips we eat. Do other people tend to talk about their chips as a conversation piece?

I personally prefer oven chips.