Has anyone tried Flat Earth Chips? I have a coupon for a free bag from their website and I want to try them...they have a half serving of fruit or vegetables in them which sounds really interesting. Has anyone tried them?

I've tried the fruit ones (I think they were berry) and I thought they were pretty good. But if you are expecting a potato chip, you might be disappointed. They were much sweeter than potato chips. Maybe the veggies ones are a little less sweet.

I also consider them to be pretty much empty calories, so I only allowed myself 1/2 serving per day. I know they say they are a half serving of fruit/veggies but they are so processed that most of the nutritional content is lost. For the fruit crisps, 32% of the calories come from fat (and 22% of that is saturated/bad fat), a whopping 65% of the calories come from carbs (29% of which are sugar and only 1% of which is fiber), and a paltry 3% of the calories are from protein. Also, various forms of sugar are the 6th, 8th, 9th, 17th, and 18th ingredients--that's a lot of added sugar (no wonder they are so sweet) and a lot of unpronouceable ingredients.

Compare that to a cup of raspberries. First off, the cup of raspberries is only 65 calories as compared to 130 calories in the chips. But the rasperries are only 7% fat (none of it saturated), still a whopping 92% carbs (although 36% of those are still sugar--it's a fruit, what do you expect--all of the sugar is naturally occurring and at least 53% of the carbs are fiber), and 9% protein.

So in terms of nutrition, you're still better off with real fruit or veggies. But if you are looking for a low calorie snack that tastes pretty good and you aren't worried so much about the nutrition in it, then the crisps aren't a bad choice. Better than, say, potato chips.

I think they are very good! While they may not be as nutritious as just eating the fruit, they are a better alternative that other snacking options. I've had both the fruit and the veggie kinds and they were both really good. I think they are a little expensive. I had a coupon for mine too. The kids really liked them too.

Wow, impressive stats Barbara! Are you a nutritionist by trade???

Hi VelVeeta,

I haven't tried them yet. I haven't looked at their nutritionals, either, so I can't give you any advice about that. I got a coupon for a free bag from their website as well, but when I looked at it closer, it only covers $2.99 of the cost. The bags at my local grocery store cost something like $4.99 or $5.99 (I can't remember exactly). Just a heads up, in case your coupon is the same one!

I've tried the apple and the tomato ranch. Both are good, but I think the "half serving" stuff is deceptive, and you can't really consider them healthy in any real way. The healthiest part of fruits and vegetables may be the fiber, and these definitely didn't impress me with the fiber content.

They're awfully expensive for what you get. I can't say that I would never buy them again, but I just wasn't wowed. What I've been more impressed with as a snack cracker is the Gerber and other "baby" crackers. The Dollar Tree sells two package of 6 or 8 packs of the Gerber Graduate snack crackers (two flavors in each box cheddar and veggie) for $1. Each package has 60 calories. Yes, the serving is small, but that's the point for me, portion control and for only a few cents per cerving. I also like that they have a nice flavor, but aren't overly salted.

No, I just spend a lot of time reading labels. It takes me a long time to finish my grocery shopping . I also subscribed to a couple of health magazines for a while (and continue to subscribe to Cooking Light which has a lot of good information about nutrition) and have been reading a couple of books on nutrition (You on a Diet and Sugarbusters). I've picked up a fair amount of information from all of these sources. But take my post above for the amateur opinion that it is.

Well Barbara, I'm still impressed! It seems you are very disciplined by nature! I could learn alot from you!

Also, in a cup of raspberries you get a ton (I think about 9 or 10) grams of fiber! You're definitely not getting that in the chips.

I've had the chips - berry and the veggie. I LOVED the berry too much and ended up overindulging on them, so I haven't bought them since. Something about them just appealed to me... not too sweet, crunchy, slightly salty... my DH thought they were gross.

Now the veggie chips - I've had both varieties and think they are very tasty. However I have no problem resisting them. I buy them for my DH and he likes them fine. He would prefer Frito Scoops or some other junk, but if I buy the healthier chip he will eat them with no complaints. Our Walmart recently had them on sale for $2.00 a bag - I stocked up!

Yeah, most days I'm pretty disciplined but on other days, ummm, not so much.

I was able to get my weight down into a healthy BMI range by counting calories without paying a lot of attention to nutrition, but now that I'm there and am trying to get to the low end of the range, it's clear that I need to pay a lot more attention to what I eat in addition to how much I eat. Also, I exercise a lot and have myself on a pretty restricted calorie level, so if I'm not careful about what I eat, I'll end up hungry all day. Snacks like Flat Earth chips are off the table right now--I need all my snacks to be as nutritious as possible. When I am at a higher calorie level, I can sometimes work them in.

Barbara - I love the first quote in your sig.! It's great!

Thanks! I stole it from a weight loss/maintenance blog that I read regularly, jack-sprat.net. It really spoke to me; sort of perfectly described how I feel about my weight loss journey. I just decided I wanted to be thin more than I wanted to avoid exercise and more than I wanted to eat the foods that were preventing me from being thin.