Are Baked Potato Chips Healthy?

Potato chips are probably one of the most popular inventions of the time especially with the younger crowd. They love to gorge themselves on these scrumptious items and the fact that it’s made from potato and with other flavours to it has only heightened its popularity. But it’s not only the younger crowd that love them, even office working people, parents and relatives all love them and they are the first thing to be brought out when serving guests or friends over.

But in the recent few years with the rise of obesity and heart problems many health experts have concluded that junk food like the fried potato chips and especially their unhealthy consumption has led to all these health problems being faced. A lot of health experts have condemned the consumption of junk food altogether.

But since most of the population has not given them up, many companies have come up with alternatives to the regular version while introducing variations like the baked potato chips, or the no salt and low cholesterol chips. These alternatives supposedly have the same taste as to regular chips but area little healthier since there is no use of oil to fry them and the salt and cholesterol content is low too.

The question that comes up is that are these baked potato chips, really that healthy or are they are the same as the fried versions with just a fancy name stuck on them. It has been proved that these alternatives are a little bit healthier, but not so much that one can rely completely on them and should not make it a regular consumption.

And even the major population leans towards the fried ones still and because of that even companies have to produce both the version. Still it is advised that one should consume the baked ones instead of the fried potato chips since even if marginally they are still a healthier option to the other.

At the same time such junk foods should never become a part of a person’s regular diet and should be consumed only sometimes and not always.

An Unhappy Customer + an Angered Cook = the Birth of Potato Chips!

We all enjoy a good ol’ packet of crispy potato chips from time to time, don’t we? Since times immemorial I have lazily munched on some delicious packaged potato chips, whether as a snack at recess during school years, or a welcome break at work, or even while my eyes are glued to the television.

But here’s something you might not know about it, they aren’t all as good ol’ as we might think. Most brands of crispy potato chips are actually manufactured through a continuous flow machine, so it’s not all that authentic. But the traditional way of chip-making is a different story.

So let’s take a walk down snack food memory lane, shall we?

Legend has it that the potato chip was ‘invented’ in the year 1853 (can you imagine your great-great-great-grandparents coolly munching on some chips?)! The story goes that a dissatisfied customer at a restaurant in New York sent his plate of French fried potatoes back to the kitchen on account of  being too thick. Angered and frustrated, a chef named George Crum sliced away till the potatoes were razor-thin (thereby coining ‘wafer-thin’ as well, I suppose!), fried them until they were crisp, and seasoned them with extra salt –much to the delight of the customer who absolutely loved them!

And thus began the love for potato chips. The traditional method of cooking potato chips is therefore in individual batches, rather than in continuous flow machines. And that’s the whole concept behind ‘kettle chips’. Kettle chips therefore give a more home-made feel. The love for such chips has permeated the entire globe, and so the scenario in India is not much different.

If you’re looking for kettle chips in India, there are a number of brands that sell it. Popular amongst these is Cremica, with their Opera Cottage Style Potato Crisps. Imbibing the essence of kettle chips, each pack of Opera Crisps are imbued with hand-made qualities and prepared with the utmost care and attention to retain their natural flavor and fresh taste. With four positively delicious flavors, Cremica’s Opera Crisps are amongst the best kettle chips India!