Why Must We Turn Everything Into Chips?

Sweet Potato Chips, Carrot Chips, Yam Chips… and, of course, Kale Chips.

Why must we do this to so many veggies?

Ok, not a huge deal if you’re making your own kale chips in the oven, baking with some olive oil or coconut oil and a pinch of salt for the athletes out there, and, more importantly, only having them once in a while.

But eating all the packaged stuff, particularly if you’re eating it regularly, isn’t a great idea if you’re considering that one of your main veggie channels. 

Some brands are still deep fried and even though we may be talking about a sweet potato rather than a white potato, it’s still a deep fried chip.

And the kale chips, oh, my…I can’t refrain from commenting.  I’ve seen kale chips in chocolate and ‘creamsicle’ flavors.  They often have yeast added, and sometimes soy and with the last two examples agave nectar, honey and raw sugar.

One brand even touts that it ‘tastes like cheese’ via the inclusion of the yeast, salt and cashews.

What’s wrong with kale just tasting like…kale?

Things like this make me cringe a little.  Sometimes bending the Paleo diet so far out of shape that it’s not really in keeping with Paleo anymore can be precisely one reason why those who don’t know what true Paleo is, then try some odd permutation of it and, not surprisingly, don’t see much success and then claim “Paleo doesn’t work” can give real Paleo a bad name.

If you chose, at random a few foods that are indeed Paleo, and ate them in an ill timed and poorly balanced manner, you wouldn’t likely feel the boundless energy that occurs when it’s executed properly.

Imagine a day where you didn’t happen to work out, but ate six bananas during the course of the day, as well as a few pieces of pineapple, some lean turkey and then some permutation of a recipe for almond cake that you manipulated to prepare with almonds, almond flour, honey and dates.

Yes, all of those foods are Paleo, but the scenario I described above is not remotely balanced in terms of macro nutrient ratio, nor is food timing addressed.

And this is where I’m going with the whole chip idea.

If you’re making (or buying) and eating things like this, remember, one of the main principles of Paleo is not to eat processed foods.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but kale chips, baked (or worse, fried) in a factory, doused with yeasts, soy or sugar, flushed with nitrogen and hermetically sealed is not the same as throwing a few raw leaves of the gorgeous stuff in your salad!

Think about it…eat fresh, eat raw sometimes and please try to avoid eating things found in packages!