Diet Food Reviews

Wheat Thins Veggie Chips

By: Tanya Patrice | Mar 16, 2006

There's a new "Wheat Thins" product in town - and that's Wheat Thins Chips! I chose to try the "Veggie" Chips but they also have a whole grain version too, which, unfortunately, has not had favorable review from Phoood and Teresa from News you can Eat . I think the term Veggie Chips might be misleading to some. The veggie probably refers to the spice mix that is used to season the chips and not the fact that the chips are made from a vegetable. The chips themselves are actually made from enriched bleached flour. What happened to whole wheat flour? I thought that was where the "wheat" in "Wheat Thins" came from?!

But let's get to the taste. These chips have an intensely SALTY taste! I had to check the sodium content which was 300 mg or 13% of the RDA. Although this is high, considering one serving is about 11 chips, it doesn't seem like it would make these chips taste that salty. BUT, a look at the ingredients revealed the presence of monosodium glutamate (MSG), which does impart a very salty taste to things. With all the people out there who have sworn off MSG, I found it odd that Nabisco/Kraft chose to use this as an ingredient in a new product. I'm not against it really, but I beg you to use less of it. Also, I have to agree with Phoood that the term "chips" here was more of a marketing gimmick because these bore very little resemblance to what most people consider chips. They weren't thin and in my opinion, there really wasn't much difference from a cracker/biscuit.

More Reviews on Wheat Thins

• Wheat Thins Reduced Fat Country French Onion
• Wheat Thins Tuscan Herb Flatbread Crackers
• Wheat Thins 5 Grain Fiber Selects

Other than the extremely salty taste, these chips have an equivalent nutrition to other chips. There are 120 calories, 1 gram of fiber and 4 grams of fat in a serving of 11 chips. Regular potato chips e.g. Lay's Potato Chips have about 150 calories and 10 grams of fat in a serving of about 16 chips, but there's only half the amount of sodium. And Baked Lay's only have 1.5 grams of total fat and 110 calories per serving [read the review]. Don't let the term "Veggie" fool you into thinking that this is any better (or worse) than other chips.

Wheat Thins Veggie Chips cost $2.50 for a 9 ounce bag, which is just a little bit more than the cost of regular chips, and a little less than the cost of baked chips such as Baked Lay's for example, which I actually prefer. Honestly, I would not buy this product again, unless they reduce the sodium/MSG. Also, I thought the whole point of Wheat Thins was that they were supposed to be a little better for you than regular crackers, but since they're made with regular flour, aren't really chips and have more fat than baked chips, I think I would have to say I'm sticking to Baked Lays if I need to snack on some chips.

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