Blog of an Ultra-endurance Athlete Who Ran Solo Across the USA, Germany, Alaska and Mojave Desert: How Much Do You Know About Potato Chips?

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

How Much Do You Know About Potato Chips?

Did you know that the average American eats over 4 pounds of potato chips each year? That's a lot of crunching! However, not all of those "chips" are potatoes. Some chips are made from a compressed form of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes. This mixture is pressed into molds to look like chips, then baked or fried at high heat.

Studies show that the process can increase levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Think about that the next time you’re craving some crunchy chips and you just might decide to eat something else. Crunch on some roasted chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) or cucumber slices. Bite into some celery or carrot sticks, or try whole-grain toast.

The potato chip was invented in 1853 and today Lay's is the leading chip brand in the United States with 44% of the market. Just ONE Lay's chip can contain 12 calories. In a bag of Lay's Classic chips there are approximately 190 chips (yes, there has actually been research done on the number of chips in a bag). If you were to eat the entire bag that would be around 2,280 calories! As an aside fact, a factory can make 7,000 pounds of potato chips in just two hours, and it takes 10,000 pounds of potatoes to make around 3,500 pounds of potato chips.

I was surprised to hear about a woman who found a cancerous tumor thanks to her daily dose of potato chips. Earlier this year a woman in Washington State had a sharp ridge of a chip poke her in the throat. Due to discomfort, she went to a doctor and learned that she had squamous cell carcinoma of the left tonsil. However, in most cases eating chips does not result in a healthy outcome!

If you must eat potato chips, try baked chips -- which don’t rely on oil to crisp up. That means they can get by with far less fat. If you eat just one 1-ounce bag a week, you’ll shed more than two pounds this year by choosing Lay's Baked instead of Ruffles Reduced Fat. However, watch the Sodium! Eighteen Lay’s Oven-Baked Original Potato Crisps amounts to 135 MG of Sodium -- which is better than Ruffles' Baked Cheddar & Sour Cream Chips which deliver 240 MG of Sodium in just 11 chips.

So, which countries eat the most chips? The top three are: (1) USA; (2) France; (3) United Kingdom. Finally, if you think that the statistic of the average America eating over 4 pounds of potato chips each year is a lot, think about this 'potato' fact: The average American eats 29 pounds of french fries per year!

By the way, March 14th is National Potato Chip Day.

Since you've read this far I thought I'd end with a summary of what the average American consumes in a year. A majority of the information contained in the following infographic is from the Food & Drug Administration; the Centers for Disease Control; and, the U.S. Department of Agriculture.