FACTOR-IN/FACTOR-OUT™

We’ve scoured supermarkets and restaurants to find healthy F–Factor™ approved food swaps for high-calorie favorites. Now you can satisfy your cravings without sabotaging your waistline.* 

Puff, puff, pass. 

… the bag of chips over already! In an effort to not be SO overtly  “dangerously cheesy,” this FACTOR-IN/FACTOR-OUT™ pays homage to Chester Cheetah’s favorite snack: Cheetos. Arguably the most notable of Frito Lay’s mascots, and surly the coolest cat of the bunch, Chester’s most recent tv-commercial escapades involve him solving problems with this crunchy, cheesy snack. In true F-Factor fashion, we aim to solve problems for you too. Problems like what to do if you’re stuck in traffic on a road trip without a snack and the only viable options available are the bags of chips at the gas station. That’s the kind of problem we’re solving with Cheetos for you today. 

Naturally, we don’t usually condone chip eating, but salty, savory, cheesy chips are a weakness for many, and sometimes you have an itch that just needs to be scratched. One of the best things about the F-Factor Diet is that no food is ever truly, completely off limits. There’s room for the occasional indulgence, so long as you have the net carbs left in your daily allotment. We’re not saying you should eat cheesy chips every day, but if you’re going to cheat-o on your normal healthy eating habits, here are the cheese puffs you want to pass on, and the ones to have passed over to you for immediate consumption.

Serving per serving, the OG Cheetos Puffs and the Simply Cheetos Puffs (both the white cheddar and white cheddar jalapeño flavors) are pretty similar, and fair for a snack: under 200 calories, 10g fat, slice of white bread amount of carbs, and 2g protein. The difference between the two, and the main reason why one is better than the other, however, is in what actually constitutes as a serving. Serving size can be manipulated to make a product seem better than it actually is. In this case the difference is significantly greater–more than double! A little math to compare Cheeto to Cheeto, and simply stated, the Simply Cheetos Puffs are the superior puff. 

Let’s look at it like this. Your snack is costing you 10g of fat. 10g of fat is about the amount of fat in an order of Dunkin Donuts hash browns, which consists of 6 has brown bites. Which seems more satisfying: 6 hash brown bites or 13 Cheetos Puffs? Hash browns for sure–13 puffs of cheesy air is nothing! Bring in the Simply Cheetos Puffs though, and that decision gets a little tougher. 32 slightly spicy Cheetos Puffs is a comparable snack up against 6 hash brown bites. In addition to providing more volume, 32 pieces allows for more time to enjoy, enabling the the snack to last longer, too. Essentially, you get more bang for your caloric buck. 

With our eye always on the carb, we’d be remiss to leave out that the White Cheddar Jalapeño Simply Cheetos Puffs have 1g carb less than a serving of the OG puffs too. Account for the difference in serving size and you’re looking at a difference of 24g of carbs between the two! While 32 white cheddar jalapeño puffs contain 15g of carbs, 32 standard puffs pack 39g–that’s more than two slices of white bread! 

But that’s not all, there’s even more to the story as to why White Cheddar Jalapeño Simply Cheetos Puffs are the choice Cheeto. Because they have that spicy jalapeño kick, these puffs can help you burn more too. A 2013 study published in the journal, PLoS One, found that when people consumed capsaicin–the compound that gives spicy foods like jalapeños their heat–they burned more calories at that meal. 

Frito Lay’s Simply snacks are simply better-for-you options as they’re made with no artificial colors or flavors. Does this mean the cheesy residue (formally known as “cheetle”) won’t stick to your fingers the same? Maybe not, but they won’t stick to your waistline, and that’s a whole lot better. 

Disclaimer: as a snack, a serving of Simply Cheetos Puffs is essentially a slice of white bread. We’re not saying it is the best snack for you out there, just that it is a better puff than the regular Cheetos puffs.

Janssens, P. L. H. R., Hursel, R., Martens, E. A. P., & Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S. (2013). Acute Effects of Capsaicin on Energy Expenditure and Fat Oxidation in Negative Energy Balance. PLoS ONE, 8(7), e67786. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067786

*Are you interested in having a product featured in Factor-In/Factor-Out? Contact Jessica Rossman for details.