Category Archives: Food

Snack wars – Tortilla Chips vs. Pretzels

Yesterday, I was on a Grocery Store Training Field Trip with a client who had a big “Aha” moment that I thought was worth sharing in the blog.  During a training field trip, we spend about two hours in a grocery store or Whole Foods learning how to make healthier choices within each food category and discovering new foods to try at home. We usually spend most of our time in the produce, meat, organic, and dairy sections but we make our way up and down the center aisles as well.

When the “aha moment” occurred, we were walking through the Salty Snack aisle and she’d just told me she doesn’t often buy chips, but does buy pretzels. She was interested in knowing if I recommended a particular brand or variety. I think my answer surprised her!

I pulled a bag of pretzels (any brand will do) off the shelf and then a bag of tortilla chips. And we read the labels together.

And a one-ounce serving of pretzels provides:

  • 100 calories
  • 0 grams fat
  • 680 milligrams sodium

A one-ounce serving of tortilla chips adds up to:

  • 140 calories
  • 7 grams fat (1 gram saturated)
  • 125 milligrams sodium

If you grew up in the “Low Fat = Healthy” era like both of us did, you’d choose pretzels every time. Right? C’mon, you know you would! But that’s only a piece of the story. Reading the ingredient lists reveals the rest.

Pretzels are made of mostly white flour and a LOT of salt; plus the rather lengthy ingredient list also includes stabilizers and yeast and sugar. Pretzels, nutritionally speaking, are basically mini loaves of white bread.

Tortilla chips, by contrast,  have just three ingredients: corn, oil, and salt (and usually far less salt than pretzels). They are essentially vegetables cooked in oil.

Why does this matter? Because our bodies metabolize pretzels as white bread but we metabolize tortilla chips as vegetables (corn) cooked in oil. Which do you think is healthier?

Note that I did not say that tortilla chips are lower in CALORIES than pretzels. Ounce for ounce, they’re not. But the fat in them helps to create a feeling of fullness and satisfaction that naturally regulates appetite. Said another way, we’re satisfied with fewer chips because they contain some fat.  And we often eat them with salsa which really is health food –  it’s almost always made entirely of vegetables – low calorie and fat free.

So, while pretzels are a favorite snack in many homes, and most parents readily feed them to children thinking they’re a healthy choice, there are actually far better options in the snack aisle. Tortilla chips are one of them. And plain potato chips are another (three ingredients again – potatoes, oil and salt!)

I’m certainly not saying you should never eat a pretzel, but when you do choose them as a snack,  it’s best to combine them with something  that will provide a little protein or fat to help make them more satisfying (e.g. cheese, peanut butter, even sour cream).

The best news is that if you or your kids love chips and salsa, it’s a choice you can feel good about, as long as you keep portions within reason. Now go get busy making plans for tomorrow’s happy hour…

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Toasted Pita Crisps

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several years, you’re probably familiar with the ubiquitous Stacy’s Pita Crisps. They seem to make an appearance at virtually every party I attend alongside one dip or another. And, I’ll admit, they’re delicious! Not a bad choice health wise either, (unless of course you’re prone to eat the whole bag). Pita is usually made with white flour so it’s not the healthiest carbohydrate choice you can make,  but for a baked, crunchy snack, they still make my “keep “list. I’d say they’re quickly becoming a classic replacing potato chips and pretzels as favorite party fare.

In this case, it turns out that you can improve upon a classic. I think the recipe that follows does just that. It’s adapted slightly from Giada DeLaurentiis’ version and it’s simply delicious.  The garlic and oregano flavors take these dippers up a notch and breathe some new life into your appetizer hour. Try them this weekend with your favorite hummus  (or Giada’s white bean dip)  –  rest assured that your house will smell AMAZING and your family or guests will help you avoid eating the entire batch by yourself!

 

Toasted Pita Crisps

Makes 48 crisps

Ingredients:

6 garlic-oregano pita bread rounds (I like Old World brand)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Brush pitas with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut each pita into 8 triangles. Spread pieces evenly on a heavy-gauge cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes. Flip triangles and bake 8 more minutes. Remove from oven, cool and eat.

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Are you full yet?

We’re born with the capability to recognize when we’ve eaten enough. My 8-month-old can do it. When she’s hungry, she eats. When she’s full, she purses her little lips and turns her head in every direction she can to evade my spoon. She practically climbs out of her high chair to avoid taking one bite beyond what her body is telling her it wants. She knows when she is full with no training, no self-help books, and no health coach to tell her.

Yet, as we grow older, we often turn off this God-given capability. We think we’re smarter than our body, and so we over-ride our body’s signals with new signals from our brains. Here’s the issue. These brain signals aren’t always helpful. They’re the ones that say “Oooh. Yes! Dessert! I absolutely must have that dessert” 90 seconds  after we’ve finished a full meal.  These brain signals are the ones that urge us to finish the restaurant meal because we paid for it or to accept the snack offered by our host in order to be gracious. They beg for popcorn at the movies because we smell it and M&Ms in the checkout line because we see them and ice cream at the beach because we’re hot. Our brains are making us fat.

To break this cycle, we need to remove our brains from power and put our bodies back in charge. Our bodies understand satiety. They understand when we are truly hungry and when we’ve had enough. Our bodies don’t worry about what we smell or what we see or what we’ve paid for…and when it comes to our health, neither should we.

Learning to listen to your body feels like coming home to yourself. Somewhere in the recesses of your brain you remember what it was like when your body was in charge. You can remember how you felt good ALL the time because you were never starving but never stuffed either. You can feel that way again.

Put your body back in charge. Let your belly (and only your belly) decide when it’s time to eat and when it’s time to stop. It will take some time in trial and error to fully over-ride the strong signals coming from  your brain. But when you do, you’ll be just like my baby, pursing your lips and pushing away your spoon when your belly tells you it’s full as if it were child’s play.  No training, self help book or health coach required.

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