Low-Fat, No-Fat Snacks Offer Healthy Alternative

People get nearly 25 percent of their total calories from snacks, and in the past 20 years the amount of snacks Americans eat annually has risen from 52 pounds to 87-plus. Yikes - and more than 20 of those pounds came from salty snacks, mostly oozing with oil.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though, even with processed stuff. For example, Frito Lay has a line of low- and no-fat items: In a oneounce serving, Baked Tostitos tortilla chips have one gram of fat and 110 calories; Rold Gold Pretzels, zero fat and 110 calories; Ruffles, six fat grams and 130 calories. Pair them with Lay’s lowcal, no-fat salsas and black bean dip and enjoy a fairly wholesome snack.

Americans also wolfed down more than 1.7 billion pounds of hot dogs, bologna and other lunch meat in 1994. The good news is that 21 percent of that ordinarily arteryclogging fare was 97 percent fatfree. Hoping consumers won’t miss the other 3 percent, Oscar Mayer has just come out with a line of nofat lunch meats called Oscar Mayer Free. This is a big deal, given that regular hot dogs have 17 grams of fat.