We are not nutritionists, just enthusiastic snackers who went deep down a pork rind rabbit hole. If you have specific dietary concerns, your doctor or dietitian is always the right call.
Pork rinds live in a strange cultural space. They are the gas station grab, the Southern cookout staple, the snack that generations of Latin American households have loved under the name chicharrones. And yet most people have vaguely assumed they belong in the same category as any other fried junk food.
Turns out, the picture is a lot more interesting than that. Not in a “this candy bar is technically nutritious” way. More in a “the fat in this thing looks remarkably like olive oil” way. We went looking at what pork rinds are actually made of and came back with a handful of facts we genuinely did not expect.
In This Article
The olive oil fat connection
How they compare to regular chips
The collagen story
Why the bag says “not a significant source of protein”
The ultimate pork rind snack board
The fat is closer to olive oil than you would think
Here is the fact that stopped us mid-scroll: 43% of the fat in pork rinds is oleic acid. If that name sounds familiar, it is because oleic acid is the same monounsaturated fatty acid that makes olive oil the darling of the Mediterranean diet. According to Wikipedia’s breakdown of pork rind fat composition, most of that unsaturated fat is indeed oleic acid, the same healthy fat found in olive oil.
Another 13% is stearic acid. This is a saturated fat, but one that behaves differently from the saturated fats in, say, a fast food burger. Healthline notes that studies on stearic acid have found it has a neutral effect on cholesterol levels. It does not raise LDL the way other saturated fats can, which is part of why chocolate (also high in stearic acid) has a more nuanced health reputation than its saturated fat content alone would suggest.
One important caveat: pork rinds also contain palmitic acid, a different saturated fat that can raise LDL cholesterol depending on your overall diet. So the fat story is not perfectly rosy, but it is considerably more nuanced than “fried food bad.”
It is also worth noting that saturated fat has a more complicated reputation than it deserves. Current thinking has moved well away from the idea that all saturated fat is harmful. It plays a real role in how the body functions, and the specific saturated fats in pork rinds, particularly stearic acid, are among the least problematic kinds. If you want to go deeper on the broader fat conversation, our post on whether you should be afraid of seed oils covers a lot of this same territory.
The fat breakdown per serving
Total fat (1 oz serving)
9 grams
Oleic acid (same as olive oil)
43% of total fat
Stearic acid (cholesterol-neutral)
13% of total fat
Carbohydrates
0 grams
Source: Wikipedia / USDA
They are a genuinely different animal from regular chips
The chip comparison is almost unfair. According to Men’s He
