Holy Popping Kernels Batman!

You might have seen this by now, but I though it was worth re-posting it here.

While providing a very healthy and light snack at home, it seems that not all popcorn is created equal. Now, it’s no shock. Pretty much everyone by now knows that movie theatre popcorn isn’t among the healthier snack choices you could make. A new report out by Center for Science in the Public Interest reveals some eye popping statistics.

A medium popcorn and soda combo at Regal cinemas (which weighs in at a hefty $12 by the way) carries 1,610 calories and no less than 60 grams of saturated fat. To put that in perspective, that’s the caloric value of 3 McDonald’s quarter pounders and 12 pads of butter. Think about it. That’s a recommended 3 day allowance of saturated, artery clogging fat. To put it another way, that’s the fat equivalent of an entire stick of butter and the caloric value of two sticks.

At AMC, their large popcorn has the caloric value of an entire pound of baby back ribs topped with a full scoop of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, 1030 calories. The only thing is that with 57 grams of saturated fat, you’d actually come out ahead with the ribs and ice cream.

So what’s the deal? By and large cinemas are using coconut oil, one of the worst for you, highest saturated oils around to pop their corn in. To put it in perspective lard is only 40% saturated. Coconut oil is 90%.