Do you consider chips & salsa a junk food?

[Anonymous]

Pure junk food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a non-American, I've started to understand that a lot of your food is junk. honestly, even your "fresh" and "organic" foods have so much hidden salt and chemicals in them - it's gross.

Yup, +1000

Been trying telling these ignorant doofuses on here. A foreign perspective helps too. So many clownshows have zero perspective on how much sodium they're consuming. It's off the charts in the US.

It makes me laugh, the way some Americans feel so cultured and fancy by saying how much America sucks. Yay, congrats, you're fancy because you know that American is number 1 for sodium consumption!

Oh but wait, it's not, it doesn't even make the top 50. Plenty of countries that are far healthier as a whole also have far higher sodium consumption.

Don't worry though, I won't call you an ignorant doofus! I just hope you'll start living a little have a touch of salsa before you die.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I have to say more about salsa. Nobody would put tomatoes, onions, cilantro, peppers, salt, and lime juice in a bowl and call it junk food. Why would throwing that in the food processor put it into the junk food category?

Lets be honest. The vast majority of people aren't making their own salsa. They're buying it from the store. Just take whole foods salsa as a standard example:

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/organic-thickand%20chunky%20mild%20salsa,%2016%20oz-b07nsq98r9

Only 2 tablespoons alone has 6% DV for sodium! Most people will probably consume 2 tables spoons of salsa in 2-3 bites. In a session, everyone knows they'll probably have 10-20 bites. Salsa is often a highly processed salt bomb. Many also contain preservatives.

Sure, this is DCUM where absolutely zero people buy pre-made salsa though and only make it at home. Yeah, suuuuure.

This is why Americans are so fat and why cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in America. Americans have an extremely hard time figuring out what is junk food. Oh, salsa must be healthy because all it is is tomatoes, onions, lime, and maybe olive oil and cilantro. Except they completely ignore the huge amounts of sodium that goes into many brands' salsas.

I mean, the fact that so many people think that salsa is junk food does make me agree that Americans have a hard time figuring out what is and isn’t junk food. First of all, it isn’t highly processed. It’s chopped up and canned. Second of all, yes it has a good amount of sodium but that’s merely something to be conscious of, not avoided entirely, assuming you’re generally healthy. Foods with a similar amount of sodium include milk, sauerkraut, and cheese. Tuna has 23% of your DV for sodium, and a slice of bread has 10. Spaghetti sauce and pre-made salad dressings have a ton too. And one restaurant meal, well, goodness knows. And let’s not forget that you actually need sodium to survive and most people obviously don’t have that problem, cutting it out entirely isn’t the goal. Plus it you don’t have salsa, you miss out on all those vegetables!

The worst foods are fried sweet goods, potato chips, French fries, and processed meats. If you avoid those, eat vegetables and healthy fats (hello guacamole!), smoke or drink, and exercise and you are doing great.

I mean, you are kind of half right and you’re getting to the core of the issue. Look how much food is total garbage. Yes, pasta sauces, dressings, salsas, sauerkraut, cheese……all salt and fat bombs. People completely ignore how much sodium they’re consuming per day, and it is why this country has so many problems with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Breads are one of the worst offenders out there. Yes, n9wmyiure getting it. Many people will consume something like two slices of bread, which is a sodium bomb. Take for example someone making a ham egg and cheese sandwich with some WF pico de gallo as a topping. That little meal right there alone probably has almost 30-50% of your entire daily allowance for sodium. We haven’t even gotten to snacks, lunch, dinner and drinks yet for more sodium and sugar.


A can of tuna might have 23% dv for sodium, but look at the portion size. Compare that to two table spoons of WF pico, which has almost no calories and 5% dv of sodium. The issue is portion size two. It is much better to spend 23% dv sodium on an entire can of tuna that is going to be far more filling than 2 tbl of pico with 115 mg of sodium. A typical person is going to easily consume 4-6 tbl of pico like nothing.


Everything about food in the U.S. sucks. It is loaded with salt, fat, sugar, and empty cals. Even when people think they’re eating healthy they’re unwittingly consuming huge amount of sodium, because food makers have to cover up bland taste somehow.

You are now not in any way talking about an answer to OP's question.

I'll agree with you that as a general rule the average American diet is bad. But that isn't the question. The specific is whether a generic "Chips and salsa" is junk food. There are only two answers to this, either:
1. no, or
2. really depends on the quality and quantity of chips and salsa you are eating (which would be true of any food this question is asked about)

It’s junk food because it has far too much sodium per serving. Most people will consume many multiples of a serving. It’s a sodium bomb.

So then sauerkraut and cottage cheese are junk foods as well? Come on, that is just weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay I have to say more about salsa. Nobody would put tomatoes, onions, cilantro, peppers, salt, and lime juice in a bowl and call it junk food. Why would throwing that in the food processor put it into the junk food category?

Lets be honest. The vast majority of people aren't making their own salsa. They're buying it from the store. Just take whole foods salsa as a standard example:

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/organic-thickand%20chunky%20mild%20salsa,%2016%20oz-b07nsq98r9

Only 2 tablespoons alone has 6% DV for sodium! Most people will probably consume 2 tables spoons of salsa in 2-3 bites. In a session, everyone knows they'll probably have 10-20 bites. Salsa is often a highly processed salt bomb. Many also contain preservatives.

Sure, this is DCUM where absolutely zero people buy pre-made salsa though and only make it at home. Yeah, suuuuure.

This is why Americans are so fat and why cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in America. Americans have an extremely hard time figuring out what is junk food. Oh, salsa must be healthy because all it is is tomatoes, onions, lime, and maybe olive oil and cilantro. Except they completely ignore the huge amounts of sodium that goes into many brands' salsas.

I mean, the fact that so many people think that salsa is junk food does make me agree that Americans have a hard time figuring out what is and isn’t junk food. First of all, it isn’t highly processed. It’s chopped up and canned. Second of all, yes it has a good amount of sodium but that’s merely something to be conscious of, not avoided entirely, assuming you’re generally healthy. Foods with a similar amount of sodium include milk, sauerkraut, and cheese. Tuna has 23% of your DV for sodium, and a slice of bread has 10. Spaghetti sauce and pre-made salad dressings have a ton too. And one restaurant meal, well, goodness knows. And let’s not forget that you actually need sodium to survive and most people obviously don’t have that problem, cutting it out entirely isn’t the goal. Plus it you don’t have salsa, you miss out on all those vegetables!

The worst foods are fried sweet goods, potato chips, French fries, and processed meats. If you avoid those, eat vegetables and healthy fats (hello guacamole!), smoke or drink, and exercise and you are doing great.

I mean, you are kind of half right and you’re getting to the core of the issue. Look how much food is total garbage. Yes, pasta sauces, dressings, salsas, sauerkraut, cheese……all salt and fat bombs. People completely ignore how much sodium they’re consuming per day, and it is why this country has so many problems with hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Breads are one of the worst offenders out there. Yes, n9wmyiure getting it. Many people will consume something like two slices of bread, which is a sodium bomb. Take for example someone making a ham egg and cheese sandwich with some WF pico de gallo as a topping. That little meal right there alone probably has almost 30-50% of your entire daily allowance for sodium. We haven’t even gotten to snacks, lunch, dinner and drinks yet for more sodium and sugar.


A can of tuna might have 23% dv for sodium, but look at the portion size. Compare that to two table spoons of WF pico, which has almost no calories and 5% dv of sodium. The issue is portion size two. It is much better to spend 23% dv sodium on an entire can of tuna that is going to be far more filling than 2 tbl of pico with 115 mg of sodium. A typical person is going to easily consume 4-6 tbl of pico like nothing.


Everything about food in the U.S. sucks. It is loaded with salt, fat, sugar, and empty cals. Even when people think they’re eating healthy they’re unwittingly consuming huge amount of sodium, because food makers have to cover up bland taste somehow.

You are now not in any way talking about an answer to OP's question.

I'll agree with you that as a general rule the average American diet is bad. But that isn't the question. The specific is whether a generic "Chips and salsa" is junk food. There are only two answers to this, either:
1. no, or
2. really depends on the quality and quantity of chips and salsa you are eating (which would be true of any food this question is asked about)

It’s junk food because it has far too much sodium per serving. Most people will consume many multiples of a serving. It’s a sodium bomb.

So then sauerkraut and cottage cheese are junk foods as well? Come on, that is just weird.

+1

[Anonymous]

Clutch the pearls fresh pico has flaky salt in it!

This forum is nuts. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clutch the pearls fresh pico has flaky salt in it!

This forum is nuts. lol

Seriously agree. I freaking love chips and salsa, eat them all the time (including - gasp - the processed kind from Trader Joe’s) and am in excellent cardiovascular health. Lots of worse things you can do/eat.

[Anonymous]

It is junk.

[Anonymous]

It is my life blood

[Anonymous]

I would consider it a snack food but not a junk food. Makes sense to cut it if you eat a bunch of calories from this source and are trying to lose weight but not a true junk food the way Cheetos, soda, McDonald’s would be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is my life blood

lol

[Anonymous]

Junk but because you buy organic at Whole Foods that’s ok?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m the person who recently started eating black refried beans, corn chips and salsa for breakfast every morning. Not as a snack, as my main meal. It is a common breakfast meal for people in some parts of Mexico.

The brand of chips I eat are locally made (Mi Nina) by a family with roots in Mexico. Ingredients are organic white corn, organic sunflower oil, sea salt, trace of lime. One serving is 130 calories, 2g fiber 2g protein, 160mg sodium or 7% RDA. I eat very little salty food, so no concern here.

As said I pair it with one cup of vegan refried black beans. The beans and corn make a complete protein for a healthy meal and start to the day. The beans make me feel sated for several hours and release a slow steady stream of glucose as they break down so I don’t experience sugar spike and then crash after breakfast. I typically don’t eat again until mid afternoon and that’s my last meal of the day because I can still feel the beans, which are basically nature’s semaglutide in terms of radically reducing hunger.

The salsa I use is called Green Mountain Gringo. Ingredients are Ripe Tomatoes, Onions, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Tomatillos, Fresh Serrano Peppers, Apple Cider Vinegar, Cilantro, Parsley, Fresh Garlic, Sea Salt, Cumin. One serving is 2 tablespoons (I measure it when serving like I do all my food) and has 10 calories and 75mg sodium, or 3% RDA. I never meet the RDA for salt because I home cook almost all my food and use salt sparingly, mostly utilizing other spices especially capsaicin which is very healthy.

My chips and salsa and bean breakfast is 450-600 calories depending on whether I have one or two servings of chips. It’s loaded with fiber and good micronutrients. It has some salt, a necessary element for proper bodily function. It has complete protein. It is freaking delicious.

It is food, not junk food.

You, my friend, have an eating disorder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a non-American, I've started to understand that a lot of your food is junk. honestly, even your "fresh" and "organic" foods have so much hidden salt and chemicals in them - it's gross.

Yup, +1000

Been trying telling these ignorant doofuses on here. A foreign perspective helps too. So many clownshows have zero perspective on how much sodium they're consuming. It's off the charts in the US.

Not really. All you've really been doing is saying things like "sodium bomb" over and over and think you're making some great point.

[Anonymous]

Salsa can be very healthy. Chips are not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a non-American, I've started to understand that a lot of your food is junk. honestly, even your "fresh" and "organic" foods have so much hidden salt and chemicals in them - it's gross.

Yup, +1000

Been trying telling these ignorant doofuses on here. A foreign perspective helps too. So many clownshows have zero perspective on how much sodium they're consuming. It's off the charts in the US.

Not really. All you've really been doing is saying things like "sodium bomb" over and over and think you're making some great point.

Let them have their good will hunting guy in a bar moment repeating something somebody else figured out like they are some sort of genius. Figuring out that shelf stable food has an assload of sodium isn’t exactly rocket surgery.

And you can also have health problems going the other way. Sometimes, dumb asses drink so much water they end up with hyponatremia and end up in a medical tent or worse at the hospital when they don’t appreciate their own electrolyte requirements.

In the end, a little chips and salsa never hurt anybody. Complete lack of it may turn you into a butt hurt hyper dork