Radio Free Fritos

It’s the post-New Year’s workapalooza. If you’re anything like us, you’re drowning in work and the idea of taking time off to listen to a podcast is some kind of crazy talk. But, nonetheless, we just discovered an NPR podcast about the history of Fritos thanks to a post at Slashfood. And it’s a good story.

Basically, Fritos were created by a vegetarian health food extremist who (gasp!) didn’t even believe in salt:


When he invented the Frito, C.E. Doolin imagined them as a side dish, a handful to be served with soup and salad to complement a meal. He never imagined anyone would consume an entire king-size bag. He rarely ate them. And if he brought them home, he would have grabbed them off the conveyor belt before they were salted. The Doolins were vegetarians, and barely touched salt. Kaleta Doolin took figs and yogurt in her lunch to school, not Fritos. In fact, C.E. Doolin was a follower of Dr. Herbert Shelton, a San Antonio vegetarian and healer whose innovative theories on nutrition and fasting permeated the Doolin home.

Of course, Fritos aren’t health food… and we like it that way.

The Birth of the Frito [NPR]

[Image via Frito-Lay]

Radio Free Fritos