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Low Carb Chip: Appropriate for Snacking

Plop down on the sofa in front of the television set, reach for a bag of chips, and munch away while watching your favorite program. Does this sound familiar? It’s an activity in which countless people engage throughout the world and they do it more times than they care to admit. Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle and increased intake of junk food and fast food and you have the recipe for obesity. But with the arrival of controlled-carbohydrate diets, we can avoid fattening snacks with products like the low carb chip.

Snack foods are a billion-dollar segment of the food industry and it has gotten substantially bigger with manufacturers’ addition of the low carb chip and similar other snacks. Take for instance, Frito-Lay, a unit of the soft drink giant PepsiCo. In 2004, the company introduced low carb versions of its popular Doritos and Tostitos chips: the Doritos Edge and Tostitos Edge. The carb content of these new chips is about sixty percent lower than the company’s regular chips, thanks to the use of ingredients containing soy protein and fiber.

When we speak of low carb, we can’t help but Dr. Robert Atkins and his Atkins diet, which brought this form of weight loss technique to the forefront of public consciousness. Of course, Atkins Nutritionals Inc. also had its own low carb chips, called the Atkins Crunchers Original Snack Chips, round chips made from soy meal. But perhaps Atkins has discontinued the product for it doesn’t appear on their international web site anymore.

Betafoods Corp. is another company that makes low carb snacks. The company counts its Chip’s Chips Cheese Thins Cheddar, Chip’s Chips Cheese Thins Extra Cheese, and Chip’s Chips Sour Cream and Onion Snackers among its products. Kay Natural’s is another manufacturer that produces low carb, high protein chips. Containing soy protein, a small amount of complex carbohydrates, and fiber, these chips are especially suited to diabetics. Similar reduced-carb chips are also offered by many other companies: Michael Season’s Soy Protein Chips Smoky BBQ, Tastemorr Snacks’ Carb Measure Snack Thins, Hain Celestial Group’s PureSnax Carb Fit Nacho Cheese Twists Crispy Soy Snacks, and a lot more.

The low carb chip is not the answer to your weight loss problem; it’s just an optional part of the whole program. But it’s good to know that you can turn to them whenever you get the urge to nibble on something crisp and crunchy.