Lundberg: Rice Chips: Sea Salt

“The original taste of sea salt with the delicious crunch of brown rice.

Lundberg® Sea Salt Rice Chips™ are great right out of the bag or with your favorite dip or salsa.”

There are 1.5 oz (43g) of chips in each bag. For a comparison, a snack sized bag of Doritos has 1 ¾ oz (49.6g) of chips. There was about 9-14 chips in the bag, which is a sad amount but that is expected from most chips nowadays. They seem similar to tortilla chips, except they are made out of brown rice (not corn) and are whole grain, kosher, non-GMO, and gluten free.

Nutrition Facts	Ingredients
Serving Size: 1.5 oz (43g) Calories: 150 Calories from fat: 70 Total fat: 8g Saturated fat: 0.5g Trans Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 90mg Total Carbohydrates: 18g Fiber: 1g Sugars: 0g Protein: 2g Vitamin C 2% Calcium 2%	>Organic Rice Flour (Parboiled Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour) >Organic Whole Grain Brown Rice >High Oleic Expeller- Pressed Safflower or Sunflower Oil >Organic Whole Grain Corn Masa Flour >Organic Sesame Seeds >Sea Salt >Organic Caramel Color

Since these are most comparable to tortilla chips, I am going to compare both of their nutrition facts. For one ounce, typical tortilla chips have about 140 calories, 6g of fat, 1g saturated fat, 110g sodium, 19g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, and 2g protein. There are not any significant nutritional benefits of rice chips compared to tortilla chips except that they have less calories. In this case, picking between these two chips will just come down to taste preference.

In addition to chips, Lundberg sells entrees, dishes, grains, snacks, and baking ingredients. The price of these rice chips varies from store to store, but they retail for about $1-2 for 1.5 oz, and $3 for 6 oz. For reference, a 32oz bag of Santina’s tortilla chips are $2.

The Lundberg website has a 'Where to Buy' page where you can enter in your zip code and a map showing local stores will appear. Some common grocery stores around me that carry this brand are Stop n Shop, Super Stop n Shop, and Whole Foods.

I love these chips. I much prefer them over tortilla chips, and they are cheap enough that I would not mind buying them over and over again. They are thicker than ordinary chips, and a lot crunchier. They taste like a bowl of salted and buttered brown rice! These rice chips are very hearty-- after eating the 1.5oz bag, I was content. These won’t make you overindulge like potato chips do. Though I could get a huge bag of tortilla chips for $2, I would choose these instead as I am only feeding myself. If you want to feed an entire family, perhaps these chips would not be for you since the largest size is only 6oz.

COST: If you are feeding yourself like me, these chips are the perfect size won’t hurt the wallet. If you are feeding a family, you should stick to chips that come in large bags.

TASTE: Buttery, salty, tastes like a bowl of rice.

AVAILABILITY: Available in fairly many stores

NUTRITION: Not much better than corn tortilla chips, but a plus is that they are whole grain

Party-Tizers: Dippin’ Chips: Veggie

“Party-tizers Veggie Dippin’ Chips™ are uniquely designed dippable tortilla chips made with certified gluten-free ingredients. Our recipe starts with US home grown corn and a blend of delicious veggies, carrots, spinach & kale. We challenge you to try them with or without a dip. We love them both ways!!!”

There are 1 oz (28g) of chips in each bag. For a comparison, a snack sized bag of Doritos has 1 ¾ oz (49.6g) of chips. As you can see in the picture, there are not many chips per bag. I counted approximately 8-10. These are suppose to be a “healthier” version of tortilla chips as they are made out of kale, carrots, and spinach.

Nutrition Facts	Ingredients
Serving Size: 1 oz (28g) Calories: 140 Calories from fat: 70 Total fat: 8g Saturated fat: 0.5g Trans Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 120mg Potassium: 25mg Total Carbohydrates: 17g Fiber: 2g Sugars: 1g Protein: 2g	>Vegetable Oil (Sunflower and/or Canola) >Sea Salt >Dehydrated Carrot Granules >Tomato Powder >Cassava Flour >Corn >Spinach Powder >Dehydrated Broccoli >Kale >Parsley Flakes >Minced Onion >Dehydrated Roasted Garlic and Ginger

Ordinary tortilla chips have roughly the same amount of calories per ounce, and interestingly the same amount of fiber and protein. The only aspect that the Dippin’ Chips have that other tortilla chips do not is 25mg of Potassium. So essentially, there is really not much health benefit to the veggie chips, despite the plethora of vegetables in the ingredients. My guess is that dehydrating vegetables causes them to lose most of their nutrition. (If you are curious to learn more about nutrients in dehydrated vegetables, you can read this article.)

Dippin’ Chips only have 5 products total, which are all flavored tortilla chips (veggie, fiesta bean, super grains, blue corn, and original). You cannot buy them on their website, but they do provide a list of retailers you can buy them from. I do not know how much the snack bags retail for, but the 5oz bags cost around $3.59. Santitas Tortilla Chips however, are sold in 10oz bags for only $2.00.

List of Retailers

These chips taste like a blander version of tortilla chips, with a small spinach/carrot flavor. As for their challenge to, “try them with or without a dip”,  I would recommend only using these as dipping chips, because by themselves they are pretty boring. They are also less salty than Santitas Tortilla Chips even though they have roughly the same sodium amounts. If you like less salty chips then these may be for you.

COST: Twice the price of typical tortilla chips for half the amount.

TASTE:Not very flavorful or salty- I prefer ordinary tortilla chips. But the shape is good for dipping

AVAILABILITY: Available in fairly many stores

NUTRITION: Not much nutritional benefits despite having a lot of vegetables in the ingredients, but not terrible or worse than regular tortilla chips

Tasty: Sandwich Cookies: Chocolate Layer Cake

“These luscious cookies with rich dark chocolate flavor are sure to remind you of Grandma's homemade cake ...  Chocolate cookies with a decadent chocolate crème filling- Certified USDA Organic & Non-GMO verified. No trans-fat, high-fructose corn syrup or anything artificial. Vegan & Kosher certified.”

There are 3 sandwich cookies per pack, weighing 1.38 oz (36g). My initial thought seeing these cookies was that I can probably get a pack of chocolate flavored Oreos for cheaper, so why should I be interested in these? Well, they are “organic”, but if you are anything like me, you are wondering what exactly organic means, and why should you care?

A Lesson on Organic Food~

When something is organic, it means it is free of synthetic additives like pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and dyes, and must not be processed using industrial solvents, irradiation, or genetic engineering (ams.usda.gov).

Whether this is nutritionally beneficial is up for debate, but the majority say no. The Annals of Internal Medicine summary stated that organic foods have no substantial vitamin or mineral advantage (Annals.org), but that is just one conclusion. However, the USDA says that the main purpose for making organic food is not for added nutrients, but for environmental reasons.

The USDA’s goal is to encourage environmentally friendly farming and growth practices, cycling of natural resources, and growing food without the need for harsh pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

To conclude, organic foods are an attempt on making our planet more green and environmentally friendly. If that is something that concerns you, then perhaps spending the extra few dollars on organically made food would not hurt!

That Has Been A Lesson on Organic Foods~

Nutrition Facts	Ingredients
Serving Size: 3 Cookies Calories: 190 Calories from fat: 80 Total fat: 8g Saturated fat: 1.5g Trans Fat: 0g Cholesterol: >5mg Sodium: 110mg Total Carbohydrates: 27g Fiber: 1g Sugars: 11g Protein: 3g	>Organic Wheat Flour >Organic Expeller Pressed Sunflower Oil or Organic Safflower Oil >Organic Powdered Sugar with Organic corn Starch >Organic Cocoa Processed With Alkali >Organic Cane Sugar >Organic Cane Syrup >Natural Flavor >Organic Vanilla Extract >Baking Soda >Sea Salt >Soy Lecithin

Now, these are cookies. They said they were organic, not healthy! Okay, I will stop trying to justify my bad choices in life. Let us just ignore the nutrition.

There are about 63 calories per cookie, while in comparison there are 45 calories in one Oreo. However, an Oreo weighs .3 oz while a Tasty cookie weighs approximately .45 oz. In terms of snack food, these cookies are not that unhealthy.

You cannot buy the single packets of these guys anywhere, but you can buy a 12 pack on the Tasty website for $14.28. That is 36 cookies in total, $1.19 per single pack, or approximately 40 cents per cookie. It is also fair to note that the price is partly due to the fact that they are manufactured organically.

On the other hand, for $3 you can get a pack of 36 Oreos. That is less than 1 cent each.

The Tasty cookies are also sold on Amazon and Walmart. On Amazon you can get them in a traditional cookie sleeve of roughly 21 cookies for $9.07.

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As far as I can see, you can only find these cookies online. My local Walmart does not carry this brand but you can check with yours to see if they do

When the packaging said it would remind you of chocolate cake, it was not lying. The cookie part of these sandwiches taste exactly like chocolate cake! As for the filling...wow. It tastes like fudge. It is incredibly rich and dense, opposed to an Oreo filling which is more buttery and light.

Though I do love Oreos, I like the flavor of the Tasty cookies more. It really does taste like a piece of chocolate cake, and since they are so dense they are more filling. Sadly, ordering cookies online is too much of a pain in the butt for me. I will have to stick to my more accessible, yet less luxurious Oreos for now.  

COST: These are much more expensive than Oreos, but they do have a richer flavor and they are organic. Whether that is worth it is up to you, but for something so similar to Oreos the price is a bit steep.

TASTE:Rich, dense, and delicious. Tastes like a dessert rather than a cookie.

AVAILABILITY:Available online mostly, inconvenient

NUTRITION:They’re cookies damnit!!! Don’t look at the nutrition!!! But in all seriousness, a Tasty cookie only has around 20 more calories than an Oreo, and tastes a lot richer. There is also 11g of sugar for 3 cookies which is not terrible - I have seen yogurt with more sugar!

Earnest Eats: Chewy Granola Bar: Power Grains & Flax

“Bite into beautiful simplicity in our Power Grains & Flax bar – it makes the superfood grains the hero and adds nutritious and yummy almonds, sunflower seeds, and flax to create essential fuel for your day!”

This granola bar is a bit on the small side, weighing in at 1.2 oz (35g). For reference, a cliff bar is generally 2.4 oz. The front has a little bragging blurb about the ingredients- “Superfood Grains, Oats, Amaranth, Quinoa, Vegan, Wheat Free, 100% Natural”.

Nutrition Facts	Ingredients
Serving Size: 1 bar Calories: 140 Calories from fat: 40 Total fat: 4.5g Saturated fat: 0g Trans Fat: 0g Cholesterol: 0mg Sodium: 85mg Total Carbohydrates: 23g Fiber: 2g Sugars: 7g Protein: 3g 2% of daily Calcium intake 6% of daily Iron intake	>Superfood Grain Blend (Granola [Whole Oats, Cane Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Canola and/or Safflower and/or Sunflower Oil], Oats, Quinoa, and Amaranth) >Brown Rice Syrup >Rice Crisps (Rice Flour, Sugar, Barley Malt Extract, Salt) >Sunflower seeds >Almonds >Flax Seeds >Canola Oil >Sea Salt >Natural Flavor ALLERGENS: Almonds

I bolded nutritional stats that disprove the initial thought that this bar is nutritious, as there is only 2g of fiber and 3g of protein. People often associate natural with nutritious, which is not always the case. The ingredients do contain beneficial foods, but since there is such a small amount of each, this is not reflected in the nutrition facts. There is also 7g of sugar, which for reference, a Nature Valley protein bar (40g) only has 6g

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You can get a box of 5 of these granola bars for $5.67 on Amazon , and $5.99 on the Earnest Eats website. (However, right now they are on sale for $3.99 on their website)

That is roughly $1.20 per bar, and $1.00 per ounce. These are on the cheaper side compared to other granola bars.

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As far as I can see, you can only find these bars online. The brand has other food products, and some can be found on Walmart.com. My local Walmart does not carry this brand but you can check with yours to see if they do

The bar is very dense and chewy, with a strong oaty taste. The sweetness is not overpowering like I initially thought it would be, instead, it is quite mellow. The density of the bar did make it feel more filling (compared to other granola bars). Though I did enjoy the flavor and price tag, I do not see myself purchasing these again as I generally look for more nutritionally balanced snacks. If you are not concerned with that, and you are looking for an alternative to the overly sweet granola bars you find today, then this bar could be for you!

COST:
$1.20 each, not bad but they’re smaller than average granola bars

TASTE: Not overly sweet, oaty, dense

AVAILABILITY: online mostly, found at select stores

NUTRITION: More natural and healthier compared to commercial granola bars, but nothing overtly healthy. This is more of a sweet treat rather than a health option