Using chickpeas and chickpea flour as an ingredient in foods is becoming a common way to spice up the nutrition. One of my absolute favorite chickpea snacks is Hippeas organic chickpea puffs. They taste great, just like regular old cheese puffs, but without all the harmful ingredients. Oh, and they are vegan, so technically not even cheese puffs. But they taste like cheese puffs!
Let’s dive into chickpea puff’s nutrition and I’ll give my dietitian Hippeas organic chickpea puff review and provide the nutrition label of all four flavors. The Hippeas nutrition label breaks down the nutrient content and ingredients differences.
Wondering how Hippeas chickpea puffs compare to other cheese puffs? I also compare the Hippeas puffs ingredients to five different other puffs – Cheetos Puffs, Cheetos Puffs Simply White Cheddar, Good & Gather Organic White Cheddar Puffs, Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar Puffs, and Utz Baked Cheddar Cheese Curls. Keep reading!
Hippeas Organic Chickpea Puffs Review
Hippeas organic chickpea puffs come in four different flavors –
- Vegan White Cheddar
- Vegan Nacho Vibes
- Sriracha Sunshine
- Bohemian Barbecue
From a nutritional profile standpoint, all four flavors are very similar. While nutritionally, these snacks aren’t perfect, they are a terrific option when compared to other cheese puff snacks.
Why is it awesome Hippeas are made with chickpea flour?
Chickpeas are also known as garbanzo beans and are part of the legume family. Most consumption is through traditional hummus.
Chickpeas have an excellent protein quality because they contain a good amount of essential amino acids. Although, they cannot be considered a complete protein unless combined with complementary proteins.
Chickpeas are high in vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, folate and vitamin A.
In additional to the terrific nutritional profile of chickpeas, they are also becoming increasingly popular because they can help reduce acrylamide in food.
What is Acrylamide?
Acrylamide is a cancer-causing chemical that is used in some manufacturing industries. And acrylamide also forms by cooking certain starchy foods at a high temperature.
What Foods are High in Acrylamide?
Foods made with potatoes such as French fries and potato chips are high in acrylamide. It’s not the potato, which has high acrylamide content, but the cooking process is the cause. Other foods high in acrylamide include coffee and foods made with grains such as cookies, toast, and breakfast cereals.
How does Cooking with Chickpeas Reduce the Acrylamide in a Food?
Among different flours, chickpea flour generally has a lower acrylamide content than other flours. A study from 2017 found using chickpea flour in foods in combination with acrylamide-forming flours or replacing flours such as wheat or maize with chickpea flour can reduce the amount of the chemical in foods. Another study found acrylamide content can be reduced by adding chickpea protein during the cooking process.
A Reduction in Cancer Causing Chemicals is Great, but, what else is Awesome about Hippeas Organic Puffs?
Hippeas organic chickpea puffs contain no ingredients which scream concern. The first most common ingredient is chickpea flour – fantastic. And then rice flour – no problem there. Next is sunflower oil, which is an oil that is low in saturated fat. Oils lower in saturated fats and higher in unsaturated fats are associated with lowering LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides. The next ingredient is Tapioca Starch. Tapioca starch comes from the tropical root vegetable. One advantage is it’s naturally gluten-free. Tapioca starch is relatively low in nutrients, but it is not unhealthy at all.
Hippeas Chickpea organic puffs Benefits
- No saturated fat
- 4 gram of protein per serving
- 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving
- USDA organic
- Non-GMO project verified
- Vegan
- Free of commons allergens such as milk, soy, wheat, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, or shellfish
- Oh, and they taste amazing!
Any Disadvantages in Hippeas Chickpea Organic Puffs?
During my Hippeas organic chickpea puffs review, the only real negative aspect is the 1 gram of added sugar in two flavors – Sriracha Sunshine and Vegan Nacho Vibes. Although, I don’t consider this a dealbreaker. All four flavors contain a little bit of cane sugar, but only 2 flavors contain enough to register on the nutrition label.
Hippeas Chickpea Organic Puffs comparison to other cheese Puff Brands
As part of my Hippeas chickpea organic puff review, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t analyze the nutrition labels for other popular cheese puff brands. I broke down the ingredients and nutrition labels for:
- Cheetos Puffs
- Cheetos Puffs Simply White Cheddar
- Good & Gather Organic White Cheddar Puffs
- Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar Puffs
- Utz Baked Cheddar Cheese Curls
About the ingredients in some other brands…
Cheetos puffs and Utz baked cheddar cheese puffs contain maltodextrin, which undergoes intense processing. This chemical has been associated with a few health risks, such as diabetes, imbalancing gut bacteria, and GI symptoms.
One of the flavors of Cheetos puffs also contains MSG. MSG enhances the flavor of foods. However, the benefits do not outweigh the risks. While still up for debate, high MSG use may increase obesity and metabolic disorders risk. Additionally, side effects of MSG consumption are headaches, fatigue, and weakness.
Fiber – Most of the other brands contain just 1 gram of fiber and Utz Baked Cheddar Cheese Curls does not contain any fiber. All of Hippeas chickpea puffs flavors contain 3 grams of dietary fiber.
Saturated fat – all of the other brands contain a small amount of saturated fat. The reason is because each other puff product contains dairy, which contains saturated fat. However, most contain under 1.5 grams and are not of concern. Utz Baked Cheddar Cheese puffs contains the most at 2.5 grams per serving, which is concerning.
Organic – none of the other cheese puffs are organic, with the exception of Good & Gather White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs.
The Verdict
Of all of the puffs, Hippeas win by a landslide when it comes to nutrition and ingredients. The following is my opinion on the best to worst choices based on nutrition.
- Vegan White Cheddar Hippeas or Vegan Nacho Vibes Hippeas
- Sriracha Sunshine or Bohemian Barbeque
- Good and Gather Organic White Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs
- Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar Puffs
- Cheetos Puffs Simply White Cheddar
- Cheetos Puffs
- Utz Baked Cheddar Cheese Curls