I’m a huge potato chip fan. In fact I prefer potato chips over corn chips for dipping, even in Mexican dips. I’m also a bit of a health nut. So when I happened across Lay’s Natural Thick Cut Sea Salted Potato Chips, I was pleased. I picked up a package to try them out.
When I got home from the store on Sunday afternoon, my husband and sons and I had a bit of a chip party. We sampled these and a couple other varieties I had picked up at the store. My youngest son immediately said, “These have no flavor.” However, in defense of the product, he kept eating them, so they couldn’t have been that bad.
Since they were thick cut, they held up pretty well to dipping, even when I put them in cottage cheese and bean dips. As my son mentioned, they didn’t have as much flavor as the Lay’s Baked! Cheddar and Sour Cream flavored chips which I had also bought that day. As promised, the natural chips did not have any artificial flavors or colors. They contained only potatoes, expeller-pressed sunflower oil, and sea salt. But they were not low-calorie, nor were they organic. The Whole Foods Organic Potato chips which I tried some months ago, though pricey, tasted better since they had some barbecue flavoring. The nutrition information showed that Lay’s Natural Potato Chips had about 150 calories, 10 grams of fat, and 370 mg of sodium per serving. They had 2 grams of protein, 1 gram of dietary fiber and 10% of the USRDA of vitamin C, 10% of vitamin E, and 6% of niacin.
The price was $3.00 for the 9 1/2 ounce package. Overall I felt they were pretty comparable to other similar potato chips. The bottom line is that potato chips are not health food, and that even natural potato chips should be eaten in moderation.
The chips are great for dipping, though. The Lay’s Baked! Cheddar and Sour Cream flavored chips, in comparison, crumbled when I tried to dip with them. I make a dip from low-fat cottage cheese, pimentos and green chiles, and they went very well with it. The dip is simple to make; just drain some water-packed pimentos and green chiles, toss them into the cottage cheese, and add a few dashes of Red Devil.
They also went well with a simple dip which I make with nonfat yogurt, freshly minced garlic and salt. Another excellent simple dip was fat free refried beans topped with a little bit of American cheese, served warm. I was able to dip Lay’s Natural Thick Cut Sea Salted Potato Chips into these, or spoon the dip on the chip, without the chip cracking or breaking.
Overall, I give these chips a high rating. But since they’re not low-fat, I think it’s important to make sure you eat them together with foods which are low-fat.
