Why I Still Buy Fritos..Occasioally

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by anokarina

I bought a giant bag of Fritos at Wal Mart yesterday. I had already been to three other stores, including Whole Foods and the Nature's Market section at Kroger looking for some healthy chips to take with us on our upcoming vacation. I spent quite a while reading the labels on all of the "healthy" chips. I don't know why I took the time. I'd done it before, and I already knew what the labels would say, but I guess I was just hoping to find something different this time. I didn't.

Every single bag of chips, no matter how healthy the front of the bag claimed to be, no matter how expensive the price or trendy the brand, was made with damaged oils. Most of them also had a long list of ingredients, many of which I couldn't pronounce.

In previous posts, I have recommended tortilla chips made with sunflower oil. I've since read mixed reviews on sunflower oil, so I try to buy products made with it in very limited quatities, but I will choose it over safflower, vegetable, or canola oil any day. I really like the organic blue corn chips at Target, with whole flax seeds baked right in. They are made with sunflower oil, and we do eat them, but not all the time. We probably get 1 bag a month.

Yesterday, I wasn't looking for tortilla chips, though. I wanted to get a bag of chips that I could serve with sandwiches on our trip. I know, I know, I should serve fruit with the sandwiches, and most of the time, I do, but did I mention we're going on vacation??? We are bringing all of our own food instead of eating out. I think bringing one bag of chips is pretty good, all things considered.

Anyway, the bags of chips that listed sunflower oil as an ingredient said something like: sunflower and/or safflower oil. Every time. So, I could've potentially spent a lot more money for  trendy looking chips that are supposedly made from all sorts of root vegetables, but what's the point? Most of them, no matter how healthy their packaging claimed they were, had a list of ingredients that ran down half the length of the bag and always, always, always, included damaged fats.

So, I came back to Fritos. 3 ingredients, all of which I could easily pronounce. Yep, one of them was corn oil. Damaged fat. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, yet in comparison, I think it was the safest pick for our special occasion.

When purchasing food, always read the list of ingredients. Yes, they can get very long and confusing. I've been duped on many occasions. I've come home with what I thought was pure Stevia (at a fantastic price!) but had more dextrose and maltodextrin in it than anything. I've picked up cashews only to later discover they'd been processed with rancid oils, and the list goes on.

Lisa Leake's rule of thumb is that if a food has more than 5 ingredients, it's too processed and she won't buy it. I'm not quite that picky, but if I turn the box/bag over and the list is mind numbingly long, I do just put it back. Anything with that many long words in it is probably not good for us.  

Bottom line: Don't "buy" the clever labeling on the package. No matter how healthy a food promises to be, look at the ingredients! More often than not, you will be surprised at what you find.