How many calories in snacks

Salty snacks give us a feeling of fullness. Often they are seasoned with various herbs and spices, which enhance our appetite even more. A lot of salt per 100g of a product makes us thirsty and any liquid we then drink is stored in our body.

Salty snacks caloric table

Product	Quantity	Energy (kcal)	Protein (g)	Fat (g)	Sugar (g)
Butter pop-corn	100 g	518	9,0	28,1	57,1
Chips	100 g	549	6,0	40,0	50,4
Corn puffs	100 g	352	8,9	3,0	78,9
Cream rusks	100 g	399	8,5	10,8	66,7
Dry fruit	100 g	317	10,4	1,3	64,1
Non-fat pop-corn	100 g	397	12,0	4,2	77,9
Pretzels	100 g	335	10,9	1,3	68,0
Salt sticks	100 g	385	9,9	4,9	75,2
Sweet sticks	100 g	373	9,7	6,0	69,2

Salty snacks versus healthy diet

Crisps are made of thinly sliced peeled potatoes and are then fried in vegetable oil with some salt and other seasoning, which makes them a highly caloric product. The quality of fat used to fry them matters since during the cooking process they undergo various transformations, some isomers or trans fatty acids dangerous to health are created. At the same time the vitamins (e.g. vitamin C which is sensitive to high temperatures) undergo degradation.

Pretzels are also high caloric products; some of them supply high amounts of fat (about 30%). Sesame seeds added to pretzels increase their caloric value. Salted pretzels have very high salt levels, drastically exceeding the recommended daily use.

The excess salt in our diet can lead to the development of high blood pressure for some people. To help reduce high blood pressure, try using celery. Research has revealed the existence of combinations in celery that regulate blood pressure. All of that being said, we see that salty snacks ranked high in the list of products consumed make it difficult to lose weight and can therefore lead to the growth of body mass.

Puffing – healthy fruit and vegetable chips

There are more and more fruit and vegetable chips appearing on the market. They are produced by a new method, called ‘puffing’ and it doesn’t depend on frying but on the evaporation of water with the use of microwaves. Crisps that are made this way are as crunchy as the traditional ones; what also important, is since the whole process takes place in a temperature of about 28 °C, there’s no loss of vitamins or minerals present in the vegetables and fruit. We can say that a pack of such crisps will supply the same amount of nutrients as the vegetables they were made from. Crisps produced by this new method contain about 250 kcal per 100g of product and energy is mainly derived from carbohydrates. There’s a lot of fibre in them too. On the other hand, the energy in fried crisps comes from the fat.