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Pretzels vs Chips — Which Is Healthier?
Pretzels might be lower in fat, but they spike your blood sugar significantly higher than a handful of potato chips.
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Chips, popcorn, nuts, jerky, and everything in between — snacking doesn't have to mean seed oils and MSG. We find the cleanest options that actually taste good.
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Pretzels might be lower in fat, but they spike your blood sugar significantly higher than a handful of potato chips.
Gram for gram, popcorn gives you triple the snack volume and significantly more fiber—but hidden chemicals in microwave bags can erase those health benefits.
One is fried in avocado oil but owned by PepsiCo, while the other uses organic corn but cooks it in seed oils.
Potato chips carry a significantly higher risk of a cancer-causing chemical, but both snacks are virtually identical in calories and fat.
They look like vegetables, but most veggie chips are just deep-fried potato starch hiding behind a massive health halo.
Baked chips have 65% less fat, but they hide a dirty secret: added sugars, corn starch, and highly processed ingredients.
They use organic corn, but every single bag of Late July chips is fried in inflammatory seed oils.
They replaced inflammatory seed oils with avocado and coconut oil, but are they actually good for you?
PepsiCo bought the beloved grain-free brand for $1.2 billion in 2025—and the ingredient changes have already begun.
Don't let the brown paper bag fool you—most Kettle chips are still heavily fried in canola oil.
Only a handful of brands use avocado oil, coconut oil, or tallow instead of inflammatory seed oils.
Seed oils and MSG dominate the snack aisle, but a new wave of chips fried in avocado oil, coconut oil, and beef tallow is changing the game.
A staggering majority of popular potato and tortilla chips are deep-fried in highly refined, inflammatory seed oils.
Your daily chip habit is delivering a heavy dose of inflammatory seed oils and an FDA-tracked carcinogen, but cleaner swaps exist.
SkinnyPop wins the showdown by having exactly half the sodium and avoiding canola oil.
Your convenient microwave bag is delivering a lot more than just popcorn—including processed seed oils and questionable chemical linings.
The FDA banned PFAS in food packaging in early 2024, but forever chemicals are still lingering on grocery store shelves.
The ingredients are practically perfect, but a recent heavy metal scandal has parents second-guessing the brand.
It beats Doritos, but Conagra's popular popcorn brand relies on inflammatory seed oils and carries serious PFAS concerns in its microwave bags.
It has only three ingredients, but its heavy reliance on inflammatory seed oils keeps it from being a truly clean snack.
Air-popped organic corn is the gold standard, but if you're buying it bagged, LesserEvil takes the crown.
The 'popcorn lung' chemical was phased out by major brands in 2007, but the replacement they chose is functionally identical.
The FDA finally phased out forever chemicals in food packaging, but the replacement linings remain a mystery.
The FDA finally banned PFAS in popcorn bags in 2024, but the artificial butter flavorings and preservatives inside are still a major red flag.
Popcorn is a whole grain snack with caveats—air-popped gives you 3.6g of fiber, but microwave bags deliver a dose of forever chemicals.
Turkey jerky seems like the ultimate lean snack, but most commercial brands pack more sugar and sodium than beef to make up for the lack of fat.
One is cooked with heat and sugar, while the other is raw-cured in vinegar and spices for days.
Both brands offer grass-fed meat snacks, but one hides sugar and is owned by General Mills.
Most 'nitrate-free' and 'uncured' jerky brands use a legal loophole to sneak high levels of natural nitrates into your food.
A standard bag of beef jerky packs 17 grams of sugar—here are the clean brands making it with zero.
Epic Provisions disrupted the jerky aisle with grass-fed meat and regenerative farming—but watch out for the fruit-sweetened flavors.
Chomps uses 100% grass-fed beef and zero sugar, but a recent 2025 recall proves even clean brands aren't perfect.
Most gas station jerky is loaded with sugar and synthetic preservatives, but a new wave of 100% grass-fed brands is making beef jerky a true superfood.
The World Health Organization classifies processed meats in the same cancer-causing category as cigarettes, and the 'uncured' label on your favorite clean jerky is hiding the exact same chemicals.
Yes, and the 'uncured' celery powder versions are just as bad as the synthetic ones.
Beef jerky is a protein powerhouse, but the WHO classifies it alongside cigarettes as a known carcinogen.
A handful of salted nuts has less sodium than a slice of bread—but the salt isn't the real problem.
That handful of 'roasted' almonds might just be shallow-fried in canola oil—here's how to find truly clean options.
Just one ounce of pumpkin seeds delivers nearly 40% of your daily magnesium—but how they're processed matters.
Just five Brazil nuts can push you over the daily toxic limit for selenium.
The popular Smokehouse almonds contain hidden MSG and seed oils, but the brand does offer one clean option.
Your favorite 'dry roasted' nuts are likely hiding seed oils, MSG, and corn syrup solids.
That savory, addictive flavor in your favorite snack nuts isn't just salt—it's often hidden MSG and inflammatory seed oils.
Roasting doesn't destroy as many nutrients as you think, but it does introduce a hidden carcinogen if the temperature gets too high.
Roasting makes nuts crunchier, but high heat can oxidize their healthy fats and even create cancer-linked chemicals.
Freeze-drying retains 97% of a fruit's original nutrients, while traditional drying destroys up to 40% of heat-sensitive vitamins—and often requires added sugar.
Removing water from fruit destroys up to 90% of its Vitamin C and concentrates the sugar by 400%.
A single 1/4 cup serving of Craisins contains 26 grams of added sugar—more than an entire Snickers bar.
Dried fruit can be a nutrient powerhouse, but some popular options contain as much added sugar as a candy bar.
Cranberries and cherries are basically candy, but you can still find clean, unsweetened dried fruit if you know where to look.
Sulfites preserve that bright orange color in dried apricots, but they trigger severe respiratory reactions in up to 10% of people with asthma.
Many dried fruits pack more added sugar than a candy bar and hide asthma-triggering preservatives.
Making your own trail mix takes five minutes, matches the price of premium store-bought bags, and eliminates inflammatory seed oils and hidden sugars.
Finding a trail mix without added sugar is shockingly difficult—most brands hide up to 10 grams of sugar per handful in dried fruit and chocolate.
Most store-bought trail mix is just candy masquerading as hiking fuel—here is how to find the truly clean options.
Most store-bought trail mix has as much sugar as a candy bar and is loaded with inflammatory seed oils.
Quinn Pretzels swaps conventional wheat for ancient grains, but the real star is their strict ban on chemical-extracted seed oils.
Most pretzels are just refined white flour and inflammatory oils, but a few brands are finally using sprouted grains and avocado oil.
They've been pushed as the ultimate healthy snack since the 90s, but standard pretzels are basically mini loaves of white bread.
Seaweed is a superfood, but 2024 lab tests found 13,800 ppb of arsenic in a leading organic brand.
Yes, but the real danger hiding in your child's lunchbox isn't the arsenic—it's the cadmium, lead, and mind-boggling levels of iodine.
A single serving can contain up to 18,000 mcg of iodine, and recent lab tests found alarming levels of heavy metals in popular organic brands.
Most rice cakes are empty carbs with a side of heavy metals, but one brand actually tests their rice for arsenic.
Recent 2025 testing found toxic heavy metals in 100% of rice products, and rice cakes often contain the highest concentrations.
They're virtually calorie-free, but plain rice cakes spike your blood sugar faster than a bowl of ice cream.
Pirate's Booty is baked, not fried, but Annie's Organic White Cheddar Puffs easily win the ingredient battle.
They dropped their organic certification and recently tested positive for concerning levels of heavy metals.
The beloved kids' snack hides inflammatory seed oils, natural flavors, and recent tests show concerning levels of arsenic.
Clean cheese puff alternatives
California is banning Cheetos in public schools by 2027—and petroleum-based food dyes are only half the problem.