Which chips are the worst for a person's heart? By: John Montagna

Three of America’s favorite chips are Lay’s classic potato chips, Fritos the original corn chip, and nacho cheese Doritos. Many say America has a huge heart health problem, and America loves chips and junk food. So which of America’s favorite chips is worst for your heart? Sodium is very bad for your heart and is one of the two elements in salt. My hypothesis is that Fritos are the worst chips for a person’s heart because Fritos taste extremely salty and therefore most likely contain a great deal of sodium. With heart disease being the leading cause of death in the US it’s important for people to know which foods are dangerous to their heart. Many chip brands have already made healthier and low sodium versions of their chips. If people are aware of the damage these snacks can do they will stop eating them forcing chip companies to either lose great deals of money or make more heart healthy version of our favorite snacks.

The worst things in junk food for your heart are saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. None of the chips contain any cholesterol at all. Each Lays chip contains 0.06 grams of saturated fat, each frito contains 0.05 grams of saturated fat, and each dorito contains 0.14 grams of saturated fat. Saturated raises your LDL count and therefore raises the amount of cholesterol in your blood. Unlike Fritos and Doritos, Lays, contains unsaturated fat which raises HDL and lowers LDL.  Lays have 7.7 mg of sodium per chip, Fritos have 5 mg of sodium per chip, and Doritos have 16.36 mg of sodium per chip. Let’s assume the average person eats 23 chips at lunch. That means that if they are eating Fritos they’ll be consuming 115 mg of sodium and 1.15 grams of saturated fat. If that person was eating Lays then they’ll be consuming 177.1 mg of sodium and 1.38 grams of saturated fat. If that person is eating Doritos they’ll be eating an astonishing 376.28 mg of sodium and 3.22 grams of saturated fat.

My hypothesis that Fritos were the least heart healthy chip was completely and entirely wrong.  Fritos are actually the safest of the three chips to eat if a person is concerned about their heart health. The worst by far is Doritos which contains 199.18 mg of sodium more than Lays and 261.28 more mg of sodium than Fritos in 23 chips.  In 23 chips Doritos have more grams of fat than 23 Fritos and 23 Lays combined.  Lays, while worse than Fritos for your heart health, also have unsaturated fat which creates HDL which is good for keeping a person’s cholesterol low.  

There is no healthier version of Fritos in production yet. Lays already makes a much less fatty baked version of their chips. Almost all Doritos chip bags now say reduced fat. The claim Doritos makes that their chips are reduced fat may be true, but don’t be fooled. This claim only means reduced fat from the original recipe and does not mean low fat. Also both Fritos and Lays have realistic serving sizes while the serving size for Doritos is only 11 chips. Doritos are unhealthy and they do try to hide how unhealthy they are. The point of this is not to get people to stop eating the chips they enjoy but rather pay attention to the quantities they eat and perhaps eat the healthier versions of the chips they enjoy.