How America Built a Food Industry Prioritizing Profits Over Health

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Last week, I caught the show The Food that Built America. The episode focused on snack foods like potato chips. I received a pitch request from an editor requesting a food-related history focused on tech that same week.

I thought about how the tech involved in the snack food industry completely ignored nutritional value. Then, I wondered if the seaweed snacks I see at Trader Joe’s are any better than the chips. Does making a snack out of seaweed make it any more nutritious?

Well, kind of, ? Seaweed has more nutrients than your bag of chips. But the additional salt and other additives detract from that value.

What snacks are good for you?

Seaweed tastes awful, except on sushi, so I’m not buying any seaweed snacks soon. The first rule of identifying a healthy snack is finding one you like to eat. It won’t help your health if you can’t stand it.

I know baby carrots and cheese are a healthy snack. But baby carrots leave me unfulfilled, even with a nice cheese on the side. My go-to snack is Icelandic yogurt with flax seeds and some granola or raisins.

The second rule is to focus on snacks containing . Nuts fit this to a tee, as they have fiber, protein…