I’ve had a couple of “cheat days” recently.
This has always been my weakness when it comes to healthy eating. I normally do very well during the week when routines are in place.
Then the weekend comes and it all goes out of the window.
The usual excuses are never far away:
“I’ve had a long week”
“I’ve been so good, a bit of bad won’t hurt”
“X,Y,Z bad thing has happened so I deserve a treat for dealing with it“
and of course the ever convincing
“I just WANT to, ok?“
When I got in this afternoon and plonked myself on the sofa there were still some crisps left in the bottom of the bags from yesterday:
Of course I grabbed the bags and started nibbling.
Suddenly I realised what I was doing – mindlessly filling myself full of rubbish food.
I wasn’t even that bothered about the flavour, I just wanted something to munch on while watching TV.
So I got up and went to the kitchen. 2 minutes later I came back with this:
I ate them dipped in the remains of my Great Guacamole.
It was lovely and totally guilt free.
The raw, vegan, vegetable based dip being close to hand was a huge bonus.
Some people could find this a little bland without a dip, personally I love carrots and cucumber on their own.
You might argue that the crisps are nicer, but I honestly don’t think they were – I had a couple right before I changed my mind.
Nutritional Comparison
Now this is fairly obvious – the veg is better for you.
Below are a few quick comparisons to highlight why you might want to take 2 minutes to peel and cut something rather than open a bag.
Comparisons disregard the guacamole – its simpler and you might not choose that dip!
Chicken Flavour Crisps – 503 Calories per 100g. This is about 2/3’s of a large bag
Carrot & Cucumber – 57 Calories per 100g (cucumber – 16, carrot – 41). A medium carrot is only about 75g.
Chicken Flavour Crisps – 26.4g of Fat per 100g
Carrot & Cucumber – 0.35g of Fat per 100g (cucumber – 0.11g, carrot – 0.24g)
The pack gives no data for the crisps on vitamin and mineral content. We can assume it’s negligible.
Cucumber contains 16% of your RDA of Vitamin K per 100g and plenty of water for hydration
Carrots contain per 100g:
104% RDA Vitamin A
77% RDA of Beta Carotene
11% RDA of Vitamin B6
13% RDA of Vitamin K
More information about carrots and cucumbers.
The crisps contain as many calories and probably more fat than a small meal, these are pretty empty calories providing minimal nutrition.
Alternatively the vegetables contain very few calories and give you some real nutritional benefits.
I know these won’t be the last bags of crisps I buy, but I’m pleased that just this once I stopped and thought about the choice I was making – it allowed me to make a better one!
Wishing you luck and enjoyment in your choices, whatever they are.
R
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