Is healthy snack food actually healthy– or just addictive?
Did you know such a magical thing as “healthier” junk food exists? I stumbled upon it last summer in what I think of as my home Whole Foods, in Gowanus, Brooklyn. I was navigating my toddler’s stroller around all the other toddlers’ strollers when I encountered a bag of Hippeas Vegan White Cheddar Organic Chickpea Puffs. The label advertised three grams of fiber and four grams of protein and contents that were USDA organic, kosher, soy-free, dairy-free, nut-free, and non-GMO.
I first chose a most discriminating and candid group—my two-year-old son and his friends—and served them Bohana puffed water-lily seeds in both pink-salt and cheddar flavors, beet vegan goat-cheese chips, Peatos, and “cauliflower pretzels.” I tiptoed away to observe the results from behind a door frame.
And yet there were undeniable successes. Everyone liked Peatos and Simple Mills cheddar and sea salt crackers. Whisps—little snaps made simply of Parmesan cheese in an imitation of Italian frico—were irreproachable. Urban Remedy’s kale chips and zucchini chips were light and crisp. Hippeas never made an appearance, because I had finished my whole supply mindlessly at my desk.
If you avoid wheat and corn to avoid carbohydrates, cassava is probably a bad idea. Cassava flour contains many more carbohydrates—over 20 grams more per serving—than whole-wheat flour. It is also far less nutrient dense. And then there’s maltodextrin, which is on almost everything with a “flavor” and is a starch-derived carbohydrate with zero nutritional value.
Beanitos call themselves “a lean, mean nutrition machine” and a “good source of fiber.” This drove Robert Lustig, M.D., UCSF neuroendocrinologist and author of, to start shouting over the phone. “No processed food can ever be a good source of both kinds of fiber!” He used an unseemly analogy having to do with hair in a shower drain to explain that unless a food has soluble and insoluble fiber, it’s not doing what it’s supposed to.
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