I am talking about organic or 94% fat free kind, not butter lovers, kettle corn etc…
I am looking to switch some things in my diet and I read a lot of stuff about “good snacks” (fruits, veggies, nuts etc…) but I never see anything about popcorn. I love a bag around 3ish when I am starting to get hungry but don’t want to eat a lot because dinner is close
Ha … how about, is it a good lunch? I just got in from a tough 3 hour ride with hill repeats and I’m too lazy to make a good lunch. So I popped a bag of popcorn and threw a little olive oil on it. I plopped down in the chair and opened the ST forum and here’s your question. All I can say is, I sure hope so.
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I read recently in a article on whole grain nutrition (I think it was Runner’s World) that popcorn is a whole grain, so yes eat up, but just don’t slather it in butter and salt!
Stacy T
I love popcorn. I don’t think it has a ton of food value, but it is low cal and tasty!
Use a good oil and it’s fantastic! Olive oil infused with herbs and spices works great.
I like parmesan cheese on it.
When I was in university I lived next to a girl who lived on popcorn. I swear, I never saw her eat anything else!
She used to keep a little spritzer bottle with white vinegar, and she’s spritz & salt it. It was pretty good…
She played varsity soccer, too - so she was definitely no couch potato.
Found this:
NUTRITION COLUMN - POPCORN: AN ALL-AMERICAN SNACK
FORT COLLINS - Popcorn is one of America’s truly native foods. The oldest ear of popcorn, discovered some 55 years ago in a bat cave in New Mexico, is thought to be around 4,000 years old. Popcorn was an important food of the Aztec Indians. It was also an integral part of their ceremonies, often used to decorate ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.
Today, Americans eat 54 quarts of popcorn per person per year. And while movies and popcorn seem to go together, theaters are not the largest users of popcorn. About 70 percent is purchased by consumers at retail stores in raw or popped form and eaten at home.
How healthy is all this popcorn? Like most foods, it depends on what you put on it and what you eat with it. Plain popcorn is a nutritious, low-calorie snack. However, drenched with butter or margarine and doused with salt, popcorn begins to fall out of favor with nutritionists and dietitians. Add sugary syrups and you have a snack that promotes cavities.
Prepared via the air-pop method in a microwave oven or with an inexpensive air-pop machine, a cup of plain popcorn contains fewer than 30 calories and is virtually fat and sodium free. It’s also a good source of fiber (about 2 grams per cup), which adds bulk and thereby makes this nonfattening food quite filling.
Every tablespoon of oil used for popping adds around 100 calories, as does every tablespoon of melted butter added after popping. More than two-thirds of the popcorn sold today comes already buttered and salted and ready to microwave-pop in two to three minutes. Calories for microwave popcorn vary from 40 per cup for “light” varieties to 60 or 70 per cup for “regular” versions. Sodium levels also vary highly, from 50 to 150 milligrams per cup.
If you’re interested in controlling the fat and salt in your popcorn, start with plain kernels and an air-pop machine. The two main types of popcorn, yellow pearl and white rice, pop differently. Yellow pearl kernels produce a greater volume of popcorn per kernel than do white rice ones. On the other hand, white rice popcorn does not produce any hulls to get stuck in your teeth.
How well your popcorn pops depends mostly on the moisture content of the popcorn and the temperature of the popper. The ideal popping temperature is between 400 degrees and 460 degrees F. A moisture content of 13.5 percent to 14 percent seems to work best when popping corn with oil in an electric popper. A slightly higher moisture content may be helpful for dry popping in an air-popper.
Popcorn that has been processed by a reliable processor and packed in an airtight, undamaged container or package should be at the proper moisture level for perfect popping. Once the package is opened, the unused portion should be stored in an airtight container such as a glass jar to help preserve the natural moisture. Left uncovered on a hot day, the moisture content of the kernels can drop as much as 1 percent. Although that may not sound like a lot, a loss of 3 percent can render the popcorn unpoppable. It is generally recommended that popcorn be stored in a cool, dry cupboard. However, in Colorado’s dry climate, some people report better keeping quality when popcorn is stored in the refrigerator.
If your popcorn doesn’t pop into fluffy, crisp kernels, its moisture content has probably dropped too low. To recondition the kernels, fill a quart jar three-fourths full with dry popcorn kernels and add 1 tablespoon of water. Cover and shake frequently, every five or 10 minutes, until all of the water has been absorbed. After two to four days of storage in the closed jar, the corn should again be ready for perfect popping.
by Pat Kendall, Ph.D., R.D., Food Science and Human Nutrition Specialist, Colorado State University, Cooperative Extension
Other than rice cakes with sugar coating, or other popcorn with sugar, it’s probably the absolutely WORST thing that you can eat…
Those fast acting insulin triggering carbohydrates are going to fire your hormones out of control and completely block fat burning…
Probably a chocolate bar is better…
are you talking about popcorn?
No. By indulging in popcorn, you are straining the resources that could otherwise be made available for alternative fuels…and tortillas, the main staple of the truly needy. Shame on you for thinking about snacking when people are dying!!
I used to have a roomate that would airpop popcorn and put tobasco on it. Thought it was the most f-d up thing until I actually tried it. It’s been over 15 years now and I have been eating it that way ever since.
I haven’t tried the olive oil. Get get enough good oils though on a daily basis, so I prefer air pop.
Yes,
I have a suggestion, read Dr. Sears book about the Zone Diet. Most of us, - and there are rare exceptions, - only can absorb a certain amount of carbohydrate before those sugars get activated as an insulin boost. How we gain or lose weight is centered around a hormonal activation and balance between glycogen and insulin. Too much carbohydrate, - especially refined sugars, fried food, pastas, and breads, - will cause a hormonal reaction that triggers and insulin reaction and blocks fat burning. A more well balanced diet with proteins, and complex natural sugars, - like apples, and slow acting sugars like broccoli, asparagus etc… slows the speed which sugars are activated and doesn’t cause such a huge insulin reaction. You also need fats, and fats in things like avocados are monunsaturated fats and are better for you than polys, - like margarine. Butter is actually better than margarine…
You do realize a cup of airpopped pop corn only has 31 calories and 6g of carbs, right? I don’t think 6 grams is quite enough to trigger an insulin boost.
And no offense, but if you want to do well in endurance sports, I’m not sure the Zone Diet is the best way to go. Personally, I don’t think fueling with an apple mid-way through a triathlon is going to keep me going or be very convenient.
“Is Popcorn a good snack?”
sure it is.
however the devil’s always in the details.
serving size and what gets glopped on it may significantly alter the original intent.
i prefer air popped with “popcorn salt”…the fine ground version that doesn’t require much and sticks to everything.
Huh?
Where did the apple come from? Used as an example only… not a food while working out, - sheesh…
It all depends on your last meal, and how much you eat. It’s also the KIND of carbohydrate, - that corn type carbohydrate is particularly sugary. It’s not going to make too much difference as a fit person, and the poster did say it was a snack.
The Zone diet was tested on endurance athletes…Check out Hammer products, - very limited sugar…
There’s a HUGE difference between what you eat while you’re in an endurance event, and what you eat for dinner. The poster, and I, were not talking about what you eat while you’re in an event…
Other than rice cakes with sugar coating, or other popcorn with sugar, it’s probably the absolutely WORST thing that you can eat…
Those fast acting insulin triggering carbohydrates are going to fire your hormones out of control and completely block fat burning…
Probably a chocolate bar is better…
What about the whole grain brown rice cakes; are those just as bad for you? The plain ones, not with the sugar coating; are these any different than just eating plain brown rice? The only ingredient is whole grain brown rice.
My understanding that starches like rice and potatoes, etc. are not that great for you and have a high sugar content. As is refined flour in bread. Whole grain breads and brown rice are better for you, as I understand it, as the glycogen rating on those are lower… Sweet potatoes are better than regular potatoes because of their glycemic index. You can look up the various glycemic indexes of various fruits and vegetables.
http://www.acu-cell.com/gi.html
brown rice 59
buckwheat 54
bulger 47
chickpeas 36
cornmeal 68
couscous 65
hominy 40
millet 75
rice, instant 91
rice, parboiled 47
rye 34
A Glycemic index of 1 to 55 is considered low and “good.” 55-69 is considered “medium”
“Where did the apple come from?”
You, your example.
With about 3 seconds spent searching for info on popcorn, I found this quote:
“Popcorn is a good diet food, because it is high in fiber and has few calories” -R.C. Anantheswaran, Ph.D., a Department of Food Science researcher at Pennsylvania State University
From popcorn.org:
“It’s a whole grain food that’s low in calories and fat and it’s a complex carbohydrate”
But i digress, if you feel the need to follow the newest fad diet, by all means go for it. While you do that, I’m going to have some rice, maybe a baked potato, and somee low fat popcorn without butter.
Then I’m going to have the energy to train my @ss off.
