Way back in elementary school and high school, it wouldn't be strange to see me polish up an large (yes large) bag of Doritos. Doritos, and chips in general were, and still are, my kryptonite. I love the salt and the crispy aspects of chips. Nothing better than a good crunch! Anyway, the only time I will buy chips now is if we're having a little get together, and usually they're some sort of nerdy organic variety.
A few weeks ago, a rep from
Ozery's Pita Break contacted me to see if I wanted to try the company's new
all natural pita snack,
Crispy Pitas. They claim to be a healthier alternative to chips, containing 50 per cent less fat for a 17 chip serving.
Normally I wouldn't agree to try something like this because I'm pretty picky when it comes to processed food. I don't often buy snacks in a bag or box because 90% of the time the ingredients listed on the package are crap (
this goes for things you think
are healthy!*).
But I agreed to try these out because I
do buy the company's organic wheat pitas, the breakfast muesli pitas and mini pitas ("mimi toasts" as Leo calls them). The ingredients aren't the best, but they're not horrible either.
Anyway they sent me four varieties to try: Cranberry Pumpkin Seed, Rosemary Garlic, Organic Spelt and Organic Wheat.
I'm a huge spelt fan, so I tried the
Organic Spelt first.
Ingredients: Filtered water, organic stone ground whole spelt flour, organic light spelt flour, organic sunflower oil with rosemary extract, organic flax seeds, sea salt, organic evaporated cane sugar, yeast, oat fibre, guar gum.
Pros: Organic, yay! These were pretty yummy and with all things spelt, they had a bit of a heartier bite to them than the others.
Cons: One downside is that these contain full flax seeds. From what I understand, flax should only be consumed once it has been ground, otherwise you'll likely find that it goes right through you in full formation, leaving you to miss out on all the omega goodness. Also, I think the salt content is a bit high in these at 430mg per serving.
One more thing I noticed is that the nutrition facts box says there is no sugar, but the ingredients list contains organic evaporated cane sugar. Must be a misprint.
Next up was
Rosemary Garlic
Ingredients: Whole grain wheat flour including the germ, filtered water, unbleached wheat flour, sunflower oil with rosemary extract, organic evaporated cane sugar, sea salt, dehydrated tomato flakes, dehydrated garlic, yeast, rosemary.
Pros: I liked the rosemary flavour. Nice crunch.
Cons: It's nice that this product contains the whole grain of whole wheat, but it needs to be organic. Also, I think there's too much salt - 450mg per serving.
I tried the
Cranberry Pumpkin Seed next
Ingredients: Whole grain wheat flour including the germ, filtered water, anti-oxidant containing cranberries (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), pumpkin seeds, sunflower oil with rosemary extract, organic evaporated cane sugar, sea salt, yeast, guar gum, anti-oxidant containing ground cinnamon.
Pros: I love food with cranberries, so I liked these. They would be delish with goat cheese. These have the least amount of salt per serving at 260mg.
Cons: Again, made with regular wheat instead of organic. I would also prefer these if the cranberries were organic. This variety contains more sugar than the others partly because of the addition of the cranberries.
Finally, I tried the
Organic Wheat
Ingredients: Organic unbleached wheat flour, filtered water, organic sunflower oil with rosemary extract, sea salt, organic evaporated cane sugar, yeast, oat fibre, guar gum.
Pros: Organic, yay! Very light and crispy. These are most comparable to a regular chip
Cons: Not sure why, but this variety doesn't seem to contain the whole grain with the germ. Salt content also seems high at 450mg per serving.
Final verdict: Yes, these seem more healthy than chips (definitely more healthy than Doritos!!), but there are still some things that I questioned.
The ingredient list among the four varieties is a little inconsistent in my opinion. For example, why can't they all be made with organic ingredients (this is a question I'm constantly asking)? Why do the Rosemary Garlic and Cranberry varieties contain the whole grain, but not the Organic Wheat variety? Also, my question about the sugar misprint and the whole flax seed ingredient in the Organic Spelt with Flax variety that I mentioned before.
For the most part, these are great to have in the house if you need a little something crunchy with dip or cheese, but I would likely only consider buying the Organic Spelt as a regular snack in the house, with the others to be added to the
special occasion grocery list.
If I could make my own variety, it would likely be Organic Spelt Rosemary Garlic. I really liked the rosemary kick, but like the organic spelt option the best.
So that's my take on these - what's your favourite go-to snack?
*Disclaimer: I am by no means a registered dietician. This review is purely based on my own thoughts and knowledge of food in general. Also, Ozery sent me these products to try, however they did not ask me to write about them. This review is purely my own.
