Is this bad for them?

Zebra absolutely LOVES chips, cheesies, licorice, bread...anything. I was just wondering if they would do anything to her. It's not like she eats a lot of it, but whenever I eat chips, she will eat one. You can't stop her from eating them, she will push the bag onto the floor if you sit it down and get one out, or if you sit the bowl down and leave the room for a minute you will come back and she will have her head in it. Ends up with me wasting the rest of the bag because I don't want to eat her fur.

All that "junk" food is not good for you or kitty. Its loaded with way too much salt. While it would not hurt to give an occasional taste, allowing her to have them all the time is not good for her health.

Put the bag away and clip it shut and put it where she cannot get to it. The only cheeses my cats get are the normal ones that you would put on your food - like sliced cheese or motzarella type - even then they only get a small amount - like a bite or two as a treat.

I don't know if the licorice is good or bad - but I would not give it - contains too much sugars. I put that in the catagory with chocolate - cats and dogs can die from eating too much chocolate - never give it to your pet.

Chocolate is actually poisonous because of one of the chemicals in it: "too much" is not very much at all, depending on the type of chocolate it could be smaller than a regular chocolate chip. Its not so much the sugar, although sugar is bad too!

Zissou also is a begger and a scrap eater. She eats plenty of her own food, and when she gets mine it is smaller than the fingertip of my pinky finger. So, she gets a little taste. I wouldn't give her a whole chip, though. I asked my vet about it last time she was in and he said as long as it isn't compromising her diet (spoiling her supper, you could say) it was fine to give her a little bit of bread crust, cheese, broccoli (yeah, weird), etc every now and then.

It is a very bad thing when a cat eats only table scraps and no cat food, but I don't think its terrible for them to taste what we're eating sometimes.

As for the behavior you describe, I wouldn't tolerate that, and you can train her not to do that. What if you are eating, say, chocolate chip cookies, and leave the room? Also, if you have someone over for dinner, a lot of people would be offended by a cat who stuck her face in their plate! I never give Zissou anything if she's actively begging or trying to get at it, and only if she just comes up, sits on the arm of the chair and looks at me, or on the floor, or when she's not begging at all. If she really tries hard (she has actually knocked a bowl of cereal out of my hands before) such as touching the plate or trying to grab out of my hand, I blow on her face. Just one quick puff of air, and she retreats back about four inches. She's getting better!

I never give my cats chocolate. I only give her tiny pieces and it is not daily, just whenever I have snacks. I don't know how to train Zebra, she is a very weird cat. She also only does this to me, she doesn't try to get anybody elses food, only mine. She still eats cat food though, but she doesn't get a whole lot of it. There is 3 cats and 2 dogs that live here and my boyfriends mom feeds them 1 bowl of cat food, and 1 bowl of dog food every morning. I don't think that is enough since 3 cats are trying to eat 1 bowl of food. Maybe it is though, I am not sure. All I know is she feeds them in the morning and then when I wake up a few hours later they are bugging me for food again. Maybe if I fed them again, Zebra wouldn't want to eat my food so much...?

Depending on the size of the bowl, the three cats may not be getting enough food at all. Do the dogs eat the cat food? Do the cats eat the dog food?

She begs from you because she knows you'll give it to her. You've trained her, in effect, to beg food from you.

If the cats seem hungry all the time, they probably aren't getting enough of their own food. Zissou has all the dry food she wants all day, and then gets half a can of wet food around noon. This seems pretty standard for people who feed 50/50 dry and wet. Some also give wet twice a day.
Try keeping their bowl full of dry food all the time. Cats will not overeat unless they are stressed or have some sort of disease. They also will probably not eat as much as you think they will. If you keep the bowl full for a couple days and its disappearing like wildfire, then yes, they probably have been underfed!
Also consider adding wet food to their diet.

I used to give them each a bowl of food and it would last about 2 days. Well they were actually just plastic containers, not too big. I will try adding some wet food, but I am not sure if Milo will eat it. He is picky. The dogs eat the cat food if there is anything left (very rare). They get put outside while the cats are eating. Big Milo eats the dog food sometimes because Milo and Zebra share the cat food. Sometimes I refill their bowl and they usually eat it all, or will leave a bit of food in the bottom.

Zakk lovvves his table scraps, he also likes beef jerky. If its something I know he will like meat or cheese he will get a small piece. If I'm defrosting cooked shrimp he gets a frozen one which he eats and bats around for awhile. It prevents him from fishing in the colander. Rocky has no interest, but the other two will eat scraps if offered, but they aren't crazy about it.