Crisps are widely associated with a number of health issues – generally speaking, they are not good for us. But the trouble is, they’re just so delicious.
Yummy salty snacks have proven to be writer Jon Livesey’s biggest vice. Jon admitted to regularly indulging in five or six bags a day for years, even travelling 25 minutes out of his way just for the rarer Sizzling King Prawn flavour McCoy’s.
Jon said: “I was regularly eating five or six packets a day. If one or more of those packets just so happened to be an extra-large ‘grab bag’, I wouldn’t adjust my intake accordingly – rather, I’d consider it a cheeky little bonus.
“And if we were talking Pringles, once I popped, I most definitely could not stop until the tube was empty. I was able do this, pretty much guilt-free, because there was nothing telling me to stop.
“Much to the annoyance of my friends and family, in my early 40s, I could still eat whatever I liked, do little to no exercise, and neither my weight nor my beanpole body shape would notably change.”
Why we can’t stop eating crisps
With an increasing number of TV shows, podcasts and books reminding us how bad ultra-processed foods (UPF) really are for us, Jon was forced to face reality.
To what degree crisps are unhealthy largely depends on a number of things. Important factors include the type of oil the potatoes are cooked in, the amount of potassium and number of preservatives and sweeteners they contain.
Generally however, crisps are high in salt, calories, fat and saturated fat – all of which can contribute to a linty of health issues if consumed in excess. The NHS says adults, or anyone over the age of 11, shouldn’t be consuming more than 6 grams a day.
A 32.5g bag of Walkers contains around 0.4g – so when Jon was polishing off half a dozen bags each day, he was using up around half of his daily allowance just on the snacks.
Even Walkers makes a point on its own website that “high salt intakes may cause or exacerbate conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke or heart disease.” They’re also keen to stress that they are “dedicated to reducing salt levels” in all their products.
Jon explained the health reasons behind stopping his crisp habit. He said: “Eating too much salt over a long period of time can also be a contributing factor to kidney stones, osteoporosis, stomach cancer, and premature death, it’s claimed.
“But it isn’t just the ingredients that make crisps so moreish. There were likely other reasons why I had become the crisp-eating equivalent of a chain smoker.”
An expert explained exactly what it is that makes snacks like crisps so hard to put down. Dr Chris van Tulleken, the author of books including Ultra-Processed People, explored this in his BBC show ‘Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Eating’.
“It’s not just what they do to the food, but how they label and market it too,” he said. “Pringles are shaped to sit perfectly in your mouth, and the tubes are just about the right size for your hand. None of this is accidental.”
Given that a Pringles tube is also designed to encourage continuous snacking – behaviour like a “foraging bear” according to an expert who used to work for the snack giant. Dr van Tulleken’s show also explored how puff-style crisps, such as Wotsits, tricks your brain via “vanishing calorific density”; essentially, you don’t think you’re consuming as many calories as you really are.
‘An extreme response’
Jon continued: “In summary, crisps were bad for my health and I, like many others, was being manipulated into gorging on them, uncontrollably, several times a day. Drastic action was required.
“At the start of 2022, I bid farewell to my favourite salty snacks and quit, cold turkey. In the first two weeks of being crisp-free, I experienced sporadic cravings. Hardly a big surprise.
“The office vending machine became a triggering symbol of temptation, but I stood up to the challenge and the hankering gradually subsided. Job done, I thought.”
But then something really odd happened. Jon told Surrey Live that around a month later, he woke up in a cold sweat furious that he’d caved and fallen back into old habits.
He said: “Only, I hadn’t eaten crisps at all. I had experienced a visceral dream in which I was eating crisps, specifically ready salted Hula Hoops, enjoying the delicious crunch of each individual ring.
“A bit odd, and definitely an extreme response to giving up potato snacks, I thought, but I was able to take solace in it being a dream and not reality. Then it happened again – three times.
“In a six-month period, I had four dreams about crisps, each one as real as the next, involving different varieties and flavours. A quick search online will tell you it isn’t uncommon for people who have recently quit smoking, alcohol or drugs to dream about what they’re missing and craving for. But crisps? Really?”
Three years on, Jon hasn’t touched a crisp since. Thankfully, the dreams stopped after the first year.
His family still occasionally treat themselves to the odd snack and them, and therefore he will still see them in the house. But with snacking habits changed, Jon has been able to ignore the craving calling him from the foil packets.
“As expected, my weight hasn’t changed and I’m definitely more miserable,” he concluded. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to enjoy them as the occasional treat they were intended to be…”
NHS guidance about crisps
Health experts at the NHS warn that “we’re all eating too much salt”. The health service’s advice is that adults should be consuming the aforementioned six grams of salt a day – less than a teaspoon.
It list crisps among a number of salty foods “to watch out for and cut back on”. It says: “Swap crisps, salted nuts and other salty snacks for plain rice cakes, chopped-up fruit, veggie sticks or unsalted nuts.”
Those with kidney issues should consider snacks with the lowers salt or sodium content per 100g – multi-packs are usually better due to their smaller size.
The NHS says: “Opt for plain flavour crisps, which tend to have fewer additives than other flavours. Check what they are cooked in, sunflower oil, ‘high oleic’ sunflower oil or olive oil are all good.
“If it just says vegetable oil it is usually palm oil which is less healthy. Crisps should be limited to two to three packets a week and less if following a low potassium diet.”
Is there are link between eating crisps and cancer?
Experts say that there have been numerous studies trying to determine a link between crisps and cancer for years. Thankfully for those with addictions like Jon’s, there doesn’t appear to be any concrete evidence that they cause cancer.
The worries over any link comes from studies that find crisps have high levels of a chemical called acrylamide. This is produced when starchy foods like potatoes are cooked at a high temperature for a sustained amount of time.
A number of studies have determined that it is a probable carcinogen and can cause cancer in animals. But the levels of the chemical used in these studies were considerably higher than those in food eaten by humans.
Kendall Stelwagen, a Clinical Nutrition Specialist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, said: “Researchers have studied this for about 20 years now and no definite link between acrylamide and cancer in people has been found.
“A link was found in animal studies, but those studies involved between 1,000 and 100,000 times the amount of acrylamide that a normal person would be exposed to. It’s very difficult to measure the amount of acrylamide in foods because there is so much variation in food production and even in the foods themselves.
“From one potato to another, the amount of acrylamide that forms in cooking can be very different. And the cooking processes can be different, too.”
Are crisps an ultra-processed food?
In short? Yes. Crisps that come in a packet have almost certainly been processed more than other foods and often contain ingredients including preservatives and sweeteners.
Can crisps ever be healthy?
Perhaps surprisingly, the answer to this isn’t a straight no. Gut health expert Professor Tim Spector has suggested crisps could have help benefits if they contain a lot of potassium.
He said: “I thought it was just bananas, which tennis players eat, but, it turns out that the top 15 ones are things like yeast extract, which vegans use to sort of mimic cheese, and potato crisps. Now, that’s an unlikely one, isn’t it?
“If they’re fried in sunflower, which most of them are. So good quality potato crisps have a lot of potassium, and obviously, they have a bit of salt in them. But if we think potassium is more important, that’s really interesting.”
What do Walkers say about crisps?
As explained, Walkers say that a 32.5g bag of their crisps contain 0.4g of salt. That’s about 7% of the daily reference intake.
They steer clear of suggesting crisps could be part of a healthy, balanced diet. On their website, it says: “Our Walkers crisps are made from 100% British potatoes and are cooked with our blend of Sunseed and rapeseed oil which is 75% lower in saturates than traditional cooking oils.
“We do not include nutrition claims on our standard products right now and we don’t think it would be appropriate to promote crisps on the basis of a health benefit. Crisps are a fun, tasty snack.”