When someone says "popcorn", the first image in my head is being at the theatre watching the latest blockbuster. Popcorn has always been a major component of the theatre-going crowd's gear. Personally, it is not the same going to the movies and NOT having popcorn - it is like something is missing. For others it might be the soda, the hot dog or the nachos.
Some food for thought. One large popcorn at the movies is about 20 cups of popcorn, popped in coconut oil and topped with butter (or topping as many places are not butter). Total calories: about 1600! Take the butter (topping) out of the equation and you drop to 1160 calories for a large popcorn. Big difference! 600 calories for the same amount air popped (no topping). So when you hear that popcorn is a healthy snack, they are not talking about the large tub, no TUB, of popcorn at the theatre.
For having possibly ruined your next movie outing, I apologize. There has been a trend over the last few years to create healthy versions of popcorn. Or are these versions of popcorn truly healthy? Numerous companies have created a variety of microwave popcorns - from butter or fat free, flavored and organic. Depending on your diet, there is enough choice to please everyone and you can "pop" it in the microwave, wait a few minutes and presto, the popcorn is done.
Controversy surrounds microwave popcorn. Terms like "popcorn lung", a chemical called diacetyl, and fluorooctanoic acid are thrown around stating microwave popcorn allegedly can lead to cancer, lung disease and other potentially fatal illnesses. While some of the data points to certain chemicals as the cause, the risk to the consumer is minimal. There seems to be a focus to rid the chemicals used in microwave popcorn, so that is good news.
So now what? I don't know if I want to eat popcorn ever again! Movie popcorn will kill me with caloric content and fat, microwave popcorn will kill me through the chemicals used. What is left? Well there are the traditional poppers that use oil, air poppers, and the in-betweens.
The popcorn poppers I grew up with used oil and are a good alternative; you can control the amount of oil for the most part and you are likely to get most of the kernels to pop. Of course you have to take time to make popcorn this way - no pop-it-in-the-nuker for you now! Once the popcorn is done, you can control how much butter and salt you choose to use as well. Not a bad option when you consider the "killers" above. The traditional popper is hard to find these days, but if you do get one, I believe it to be the best "pop" for your corn.
Air poppers have flooded the market for years and come in all shapes and sizes. The air popper is by far the most health conscious of all forms of popcorn poppers. Yet again, do you have time to make popcorn this way?? Air poppers, as the name states, use hot air to pop the kernels and you end up with dry, did I mention, dry popcorn. Depending on the air popper you have, you will end up with a high ratio of un-popped kernels to popped kernels. The air popper, while it is the healthy person's choice, can create a lot of wasted kernels (unless of course you re-use the kernels like me). And with this final dry product (un-popped kernels removed) it gives you complete control over what you do next. If you drowned the popcorn in butter and salt, you might as well have went to the movies and bought it! Remember, everything is fine in moderation!
The last types that is available are combinations of the above. There are the type that you put in the microwave to pop. Others you put on the stovetop and crank a handle to pop (uses oil). Still another type uses a motorized rotating wand that keeps the kernels moving so they don't burn. (Remember back when? Shaking the entire unit so the kernels didn't burn?). With this kind of popcorn making unit many have nonstick coating surfaces. One last type to mention has been the "retro" popcorn popping unit - many look like scaled-down versions of the popcorn makers in the movie theatres. Some of these type use air, while others use oil.
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