Maybe you love to indulge in sweet chilli potato chips. Or perhaps old-school cheese and onion crisps remind you of the chips you ate as a kid. Maybe you can take or leave potato chips entirely, and much prefer a large bag of salty corn chips with guac.

The range of crunchy snacks that we generally refer to as “chips” is rapidly expanding in our supermarkets. These may include extruded cheese snacks such as Cheezels, old-school crinkle-cut potato chips, crunchy kettle-style chips, as well as a growing range of “healthier” vegie- and legume-based options.

The question is, when it comes to these salty, crunchy snacks, are there healthier options?

Traditional crinkle-cut potato chips

When made with just potato, oil and salt, a plain potato chip is a reasonably simple food that’s relatively high in fat and calories. It is certainly easy to consume a large number of calories in a short period of time when indulging in potato chips, with a small handful of just 18 potato chips offering close to 150 calories and 10 grams of fat.

In recent years, manufacturers have made a concerted effort to make potato chips with better-quality oils, reducing the amount of saturated fats found in commercial potato chips.

While plain potato chips contain basic ingredients, when it comes to flavoured varieties, you will notice a much longer ingredient list, often packed with additives, flavours, colours and preservatives to create popular flavour profiles such as honey soy chicken and honey-baked ham. This means that if minimising your intake of unnecessary additives is important to you, it would be best to stick to a plain potato chip.

Plain chips 5/5

Flavoured chips 3/5

Oven-baked potato chips

Heavily marketed as a healthier option, oven-baked chips are lower in fat and calories than regular potato chips. They can have up to half the total fat of regular potato chips, with a higher proportion of starches and sugars added to the chips in place of oils, which is why the chips are much denser than regular chips. While on the surface such options may appear healthier, they are ultimately ultra-processed and still an energy-dense food that is easily overconsumed. As such, it could be argued that you are better to stick to a small portion of the potato chips you love, rather than eating more of these because you think they are healthier.

Rating 3/5

Thin potato chips

While it is reasonable to think that a thinner chip may be healthier, in fact, the reverse is true. Thinner chips mean more oil, and in the case of thinly sliced potato chips, they contain roughly 5 per cent more fat than regular crinkle-cut and kettle-style chips. In many cases, they also tend to be heavily flavoured with added sugars and a number of flavours and colours, so you are much better nutritionally to stick to regular potato chips if you can.

Rating 1/5

Extruded cheese snacks

In food terms, Twisties, Burger Rings and Cheezels are all examples of snack foods that have used processed techniques to create the crunchy, flavoured puffs, balls and rings you were most likely first exposed to in childhood. The cheesy, moreish flavour sensation in the mouth is often due to lashings of flavour enhancers such as MSG. These snacks are ultimately the definition of ultra-processed food, bearing little to no resemblance to real food, and offering absolutely nothing positive nutritionally to the diet.

Overall rating 0/5

Corn chips

Like plain potato chips, there is nothing overly bad about a few corn chips in their most basic form when made with corn, oil and a little salt, as long as they are eaten in moderation. On the other hand, when it comes to ultra-flavoured varieties, such as nacho cheese, they tend to be packed with additives such as flavour enhancers, which ultimately program the brain to seek out more and more of these intense flavours. This may partially explain why it is so easy to down an entire packet of cheesy corn chips.

Plain corn chips 5/5

Flavoured chips 1/5

Legume chips

Found more commonly in the health food section, and retailing at a much higher price point than regular salty snacks, legume chips are typically made from lentils or peas and do tend to have a higher protein content than regular chips. While the protein may be higher, the calories and fat content tend to be similar to regular chips, as it takes a certain amount of oil to create the crunch and flavour of a chip. Slightly better nutritionally than regular potato chips, legume chips’ main downside is that you will pay a lot more for a little less fat and a little more protein per serve.

Rating 3/5

Vegetable chips

The range of vegie chips is wide, ranging from vegetable slices cooked in oil, to a small proportion of vegetables fried with lashings of oil to create a crunchy, coloured chip with a hint of extra vegetables. Slightly lower in fat and calories than regular chips, vegie chips may be slightly healthier than other options, but again, you will pay a lot extra for a small serve of vegetables served with a whole lot of vegetable oil.

Rating 4/5