If you’re looking for a healthy and filling snack food, potato chips can't compete with oranges. Oranges provide anti-oxidants, vitamin C and fiber. Potato chips get most of their calories from fat, and some have high amounts of trans fat, a man-made fat that can adversely affect your cholesterol levels.
Orange Nutrition
An orange has 62 calories. It provides 15.4 grams of carbohydrate, including 3.1 grams of fiber and 12.25 grams of sugar. An orange has little protein – 1.23 grams – and almost no fat – 0.16 grams. An orange provides 52 milligrams of calcium and 237 milligrams of potassium. It has nearly 70 milligrams of vitamin C, which is almost a full day’s supply for an adult woman. Other nutrients in an orange include magnesium, folate, vitamin A, phosphorous and beta-carotene.
Potato Chips Nutrition
A 1-ounce serving of salted plain potato chips has 152 calories. It provides about the same amount of carbohydrate as an orange -- 15 grams – but most of the carbohydrate in potato chips comes from starch. A 1-ounce serving provides 1.4 grams of fiber, less than half the amount in an orange. It provides 9.81 grams of fat – more than 60 times the amount in an orange. Potato chips provide potassium, phosphorous, sodium, niacin, vitamin C and folate.
Fiber
The fiber in an orange can help lower cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. It may also help you lose weight. The fiber in an orange gives it greater satiety than potato chips. Although the calories in an orange are a third of what's in a bag of potato chips, an orange can be more filling. Men should aim to include 38 grams of fiber in their daily diets, and women should get 25 grams. Other snack foods with good sources of fiber include apples, peanuts and fiber.
Trans Fat
Read the nutrition label on any bag of chips you intend to buy. Look for varieties that do not contain trans fat. A label may list trans fat as margarine, shortening, hydrogenated vegetable oil or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. The American Heart Association recommends that you consume no more than 2 grams of saturated fat daily – no more than 1 percent of the calories you consume on a 2,000-calorie daily diet. Some single-portion bags of chips have 3 grams of trans fat.
References
- American Diabetes Association: Carbohydrates
- Circulation; Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association; Michael Miller, et al.; April 2011
- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating – Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork with these Nutrition Guidelines, February 2011
- Brigham and Women's Hospital: Understanding Trans Fat
- American Dietetic Association, Eat Right; Health Implications of Dietary Fiber; 2008
- MayoClinic.com; Nutrition and Healthy Eating – Dietary Fiber: Essential For A Healthy Diet; November 2009
- Office of Dietary Supplements, National Insitutes of Health: Vitamin C
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