How Healthy Are Kale Chips?

Kale chips provide more nutrition and fewer calories per serving than many traditional snack foods, such as potato chips. They're a rich source of vitamins A and C, which help keep your immune function and vision at their best. Kale chips may be a bit of an acquired taste if you're used to potato or corn chips. They're somewhat crunchy, a little salty and have a mild cabbage flavor.

Making Kale Chips

• Make kale chips at home by rinsing and drying kale, a type of leafy green vegetable, cutting it into pieces and dehydrating it. The kale usually gets coated in a small amount of olive oil, about a teaspoon per cup of raw kale, and seasoned before it's baked or placed in a dehydrator. Salt is often used to season kale chips, but if you prefer, your can toss the raw kale with black pepper and lemon juice, chili and lime juice, chipotle powder, garlic powder, balsamic vinegar and herbs or soy sauce. The resulting chips are dark green, a little crunchy and may be a little oily. Placing the warm kale chips on a paper towel helps absorb any excess oil.

Nutritional Breakdown

• Kale chips are lower in calories, fat and carbohydrates than most other snack foods. A cup of fresh kale dehydrated or baked with a teaspoon of olive oil creates a serving of kale chips with about 68 calories, 5 grams of fat, 6 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber. Of course, the calorie and fat content varies depending upon how much oil you use. Because of its caloric and carbohydrate content, kale chips fit well into a low-carb or weight-loss diet plan.
• Vitamin A

• Kale is a rich source of fat-soluble vitamin A. You'll get 2,077 international units of vitamin A from one serving of kale chips, equaling 42 percent of the recommended daily allowance for vitamin A. Your body relies on vitamin A to play a role in maintaining immune function, vision, reproductive health and cell growth, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin A also acts as an antioxidant, which may help to prevent chronic diseases such as cancer by protecting your body from harmful free radicals.

Vitamin C

• Snacking on kale chips also helps you meet your daily needs for vitamin C, providing about 87 milligrams per serving -- 116 percent of the amount of vitamin C women should consume daily and 97 percent of the amount men need daily, according to the National Institutes of Health. Vitamin C plays a part in the synthesis of collagen, an important protein in connective tissues. Your immune function and the proper absorption of iron also depend upon adequate vitamin C levels in your body. In addition, vitamin C functions as an antioxidant, helping to protect you from chronic disease.