Celery & Salsa Instead of Tortilla Chips

I love salsa! For me, the hotter the better. And because I love salsa, I find myself eating a lot of tortilla chips.

And the important to consider there, is that I've been tortilla chips because I love salsa. That is, it's not that I love chips & salsa, I just love salsa. So, why I am eating the tortilla chips?

Enter celery.

Both celery and tortilla chips have little flavor of their own. The two are almost eaten with some kind of condiment. Chips usually go with salsa, while celery usually goes with ranch dressing or cream cheese.

But celery goes really well with salsa.

Lately, I've stopped buying tortilla chips in favor of celery. I started out buying whole stalks, but now I just get the packaged celery that's pre-cut and packed in water. It costs more to buy it that way, but it's more convenient for snacking.

Here's a comparison between celery and tortilla chips...

Typical Snacking (20 dips into salsa)
Tortilla Chips: 20 chips
Celery: 3 full size stalks, leaves cut off

Calories
20 Tortilla Chips: 490
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 30

Fiber
20 Tortilla Chips: 1gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 3gm

Carbohydrates
20 Tortilla Chips: 46gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 6gm

Fat
20 Tortilla Chips: 10gm
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 0.3gm

Potassium
20 Tortilla Chips: 171mg
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 499mg

Sodium
20 Tortilla Chips: 599mg
3 Full Size Celery Stalks: 154mg

Most salsa contains between 5-7 calories per tablespoon. Each time I dip a tortilla chip or celery into salsa, I'm getting about 3/4 of a tablespoon. With 20 dips in a typical snacking episode, that's about 100 calories.

So if you add the tortilla chips, you're taking in about 600 calories. With celery, it's about 130 calories.

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