Potato Chips
For years, a favourite self-indulgence when watching TV or when hunger strikes are Potato chips, also known as potato crisps, at least in the UK. Once it was just thin slices of the common spud, crisply fired with a little blue paper twist of salt, but nowadays flavours range from the exotic to the plain daft.
A little internet research on the subject will bring up sites such as chipinfo.org.uk, which may or may not tell you anything about the edible version of chips in general, but there’s lots about Potato chips online, including ingredients, calorific value and different brands.
What a visit to chiponfo.org.uk may not tell you is that these snacks are not what they used to be. Check out on the packet and you’ll find that, unless they’re organic or some such, your Potato chips have more chemicals in them than the local school’s laboratory! Flavouring, flavour enhancers, colouring – perhaps even the potatoes, (if they’re actually used) are stuffed with fertiliser.
Even worse news for lovers of Potato chips is the calorific value! With obesity from eating too many fast foods high on government agendas and programs like ‘Biggest Loser’ on TV, everyone’s made the link between fast food and ill health. Your kids may be too young to check out URLs like chipinfo.org.uk, but you can, and make sure they don’t overdo the junk food.
Of course, the alternative is to go to your nearest health food store and buy organic, properly prepared chips, complete with whatever natural flavouring your family prefers, but you’ll need to be earning a good salary to make this a regular treat as prices are sky high!
