Packing the best snack.

Twenty-one pounds. If you're a typical American, that's how much potato chips, pretzels, tortilla and corn chips, popcorn, nuts, and other "salty" snacks you packed away last year.

Odds are more than a few of those pounds went to sampling the low-fat or no-salt brands that have worked their way into the snack food aisle.

What do you give up in taste? In many cases, surprisingly little. Here's a rundown of the latest in the salty snack world.

POTATO CHIPS

Can you say "Baked Lay's"? More than three million people a week can. At least that's how many bags snack giant Frito-Lay was turning out in October.

Why all the fuss? Try less than two grams of fat per ounce (12 chips), vs. ten grams for regular potato chips. Granted, it's usually not the kind of fat that clogs arteries. But for many people, an ounce of chips is barely enough to get from one TV commercial to the next.

To some, Baked Lay's taste like Pringles. That's because both are made from reconstituted dehydrated potatoes. The only way to know if you like the less-greasy taste is to try 'em yourself.

Lay's or Ruffles' new fat-free Max chips or Procter.ft Gamble's Fat Free Pringles, on the other hand, taste just like real chips. They're made math Procter & Gamble's fat substitute olestra (Olean).

But there's a catch. As the mandatory notice on all olestra-containing foods explains, the non-fat fat "may cause abdominal cramping and loose stools." What the notice doesn't say is that some people have suffered incapacitating cramps and severe diarrhea, and that olestra can deplete your body of fat-soluble carotenoids and other phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables that may lower your risk of cancer, blindness, and possibly heart disease.

So until a safe, deep-fryable fat substitute comes along, look elsewhere.

TORTILLA CHIPS

Low-fat tortilla chips are easy to find, and they taste great, especially with salsa. We loved Baked Tostitos Cool Ranch, with three grams of fat per ounce (11 chips). They're just as flavorful as regular Tostitos (at six grams of fat).

And go ahead. Buy your tortilia chips salted. Most have less than 200 mg per serving.

PRETZELS

Other than a few honey mustard or cheese or peanut-butter-flavored ones, just about all pretzels are low-fat. They're also salty. Unless the bag or box says something like "unsalted" or "no salt added," you're going to get a nice shot of sodium - probably 400 to 600 milligrams per ounce.

If you don,t like unsalted pretzels, buy the regular ones and scrape off some salt with your fingers. You'll get less sodium ... and plenty of zip.

PUFFS, CURLS, VEGGIE CHIPS, ETC.

"Nothing,s like Bugles," says the box. General Milis isn't kidding.

An ounce of these innocent-looking extruded corn snacks (40 tiny bugles) has eight grams of artery-clogging saturated fat - as much as a McDonald's Quarter Pounder. That's because Bugles are made with coconut oil, which has more than twice the sat fat of lard.

As for vegetable or multigrain snacks, you'll probably get far more carrot, spinach, and healthy grains in the names than in the chips.

Sun Chips Multigrain Snacks ("made from a special blend of whole wheat, corn, and other natural grains") for example, have more oil than whole wheat.

The information for this article was compiled by Trish Treanor.

"Best Bites,, have no more than three grams of fat, one gram of saturated fat, and 200 milligrams of sodium in a one-ounce serving. "Worst Bites" are made with the fat substitute olestra (Olean) or have more than three grams of saturated fat. The number of chips, pretzels, etc., in one ounce is in parentheses following each name. Within each category, snacks are ranked from least to most fat, then least to most sodium.

[Tabular Data Omitted]