Saw some potato chips strolling down the street the other day and offered them a lift. “No thanks”, they said, “we’re Walkers”.
As cheap as chips?
I had just got home from a hard day at the beach, which was hard because I could not decide whether to suntan my left side or my right side. Then I had to make another difficult decision – what to have for supper.
You laugh! Many relationships have broken up because the parties cannot decide what to have for supper. How can you make your mind up when you have so many choices to make. McDonald’s or KFC or Pizza Express or coffee and meatballs at the local pub? Or you could have that tempting bowl of crispy green lettuce and tomatoes?
Chips are cheap, though. Seriously. For instance, chips cost four dollars / pounds / pula or whatever. KFC costs six or ten, and if you get the big bucket … Not that I’m saying KFC is not good.
But what is better (and quicker) than a good packet of French fries, deep fried and liberally sprinkled with salt and vinegar? Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. You can even have a beautiful bottle of cold Coke (or red wine) along with your (oil-smothered) chips. Your partner probably won’t say no, either.
So what is the problem?
Where should I start? Calories, perhaps. For a regular serving of 400 grams (and my chip shop gives me about double that), you are looking at about 1000 calories, which is about half your daily recommended allowance (RDA). There’s also about 50 grams of fat and 125 grams of carbs. And you can bet that those are not the good carbs or the good fats.
So, as you sit down to guzzle those yummy chunks of heaven, think about the saturated oil that seeps into your arteries and gets lodged in your aorta, just waiting for a heavenly heart attack to happen. Think about your belly extending beyond your lycra shorts and popping a couple of buttons in the process.
You should actually choose a bowl of crispy green lettuce and tomatoes – as long as you
don’t drench them in mayonnaise!
Or
You could choose some naturally good potatoes. You can get like twenty in a bag for about two dollars. Cut them into wedges or slices or whatever your preference, parboil them for ten minutes, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a quick spray of 1 calorie olive oil, and chuck them under the grill for 30 minutes. Oh yeah!
Those twenty potatoes can feed like four people, so you can bring the leftovers to my house!
David Owen Nunes
David is many faceted, fascinating, fastidious, fair, fabulous and the other F word. He works in the Pensions Industry, plays occasional golf, and dreams of being able to write full time.
