Movie Theatre Popcorn and other goods - Treat or... Tricks?

RyanAn · 01-10-2008, 08:13 PM

I've worked at a movie theatre for several years and have more than taken advantage of the free popcorn. I could'nt tell you how much I've eaten since I started way back when - and even before that, I saw a movie or two a week and always had popcorn with me at all times. Well, over the last few years I've become increasingly more and more health conscious and have begun researching food. I was informed that my theatre would be changing brands for our Popping and Topping Oil to Odell's - and would be Trans-Fat free.

I'm wondering just how "good" theatre popcorn is for you. I've been doing some research and it's not looking good. For the last few months I've gone with out the flavored topping oil and thought that I was doing myself a service but am worried that the ingredients in the popping oil may be as bad, if not worse.

In short, am I better off just eating from my air-popper and stay away from microwaved and movie theatre? I in *no* way want to clog my arteries anymore than they potentially already are.

Here's an example of my theatre's brand of Popping Oil:

NUTRITION FACTS:
Serving Size: 1 Tbsp (14g)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 130
Calories From Fat: 130
% DV*
Total Fat 14g 22%
Saturated Fat 5g 28%
Trans Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 3g
Polyunsaturated Fat 6g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 0g 0%
Total Carb 0g 0%
Protein 0g 0%
Vitamin A 12%
Vitamin K 10%

Here's an example of my theatre's brand of Topping Oil:

NUTRITION FACTS:
Serving Size: 1 Tbsp (14g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 130
Calories From Fat: 130
% DV*
Total Fat 14g 22%
Saturated Fat 2.5g
Trans Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.5g
Polyunsaturated Fat 4g
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 0g 0%
Total Carb 0g 0%
Protein 0g 0%
Vitamin A 40%
*Percent Daily Values Are Based On A 2,000 Calorie Diet

If anything, my old topping oil had 24g carbs per serving.

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

RyanAn · 01-10-2008, 08:15 PM

I'd like to add that I just found this link -

kajatm - The Dangers of Movie Theater Popcorn

According to dietfacts.com, 16 cups of movie theater popcorn (oil popped) has 1200 calories, 97 total grams of fat and a staggering 56 grams of insanely unhealthy saturated fat. Those 16 cups are roughly the size of a medium bag of popcorn.

Let's do some elementary math. Divide those numbers by 16 and you'll find that 1 cup of movie theater popcorn (popped in coconut oil) has 75 calories, 6g total fat, 3.5g saturated fat. Using that number, here's a nutrition breakdown for the average sizes of popcorn at your local multiplex...

Movie Theater Popcorn (popped in coconut oil)
Kid's (5 cups) with butter - 470 calories, 37g total fat, 22g saturated fat
Small (7 cups) with butter - 630 calories, 50g total fat, 29g saturated fat
Medium (11 cups) with butter - 910 calories, 71g total fat, 41g saturated fat
Medium (16 cups) with butter - 1200 calories, 97g total fat, 56g saturated fat
Large (20 cups) with butter - 1640 calories, 126g total fat, 73g saturated fat

If you're on a 2000 calorie diet (which most of us are), a large tub of popcorn has 193% of your recommended daily allowance of total fat (65g) and 365% of your recommended daily allowance of saturated fat (20g). That's over 3 and a half days worth of saturated fat.

In order to get the same amount of saturated fat that resides in one large bag of popcorn, you'd have to eat...

4.3 Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfaits
5 plates of scrambled eggs
7.3 baked potatoes covered in sour cream and chives
9.1 Big Mac's
12.1 Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
12.6 slices of Pizza Hut's Large Cheese Pizza
18.25 large orders of McDonald's French Fries
36.5 Subway Club subs
73 doughnut holes

Ridiculous.

Why is this so ridiculous? Well, saturated fats effectively block the beneficial effects of HDL cholesterol (i.e., "good" cholesterol), and reduces the normal functioning of arteries (1). Combine this with the fact that saturated fats clog our arteries and directly raise total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels (2) and you have a recipe for heart disease. Heart disease can lead to heart attack, stroke or congestive heart failure and is the number one killer of people in the United States. Movie theater popcorn is doing more than its share in keeping that statistic true.

So, what can you do? Well, ask the theater you frequent what oil they use to pop their popcorn in. If the answer is "coconut", consider an alternative like whatever pretzel product they offer. You could wear a big jacket and bring in your own popcorn, but many theaters will frown on that. Until the national theater chains wise up and offer a healthier popcorn alternative (like air popped), the best thing to do may be to avoid movie theater popcorn altogether.

Will_B · 01-10-2008, 11:11 PM

Theater I worked at used canola oil, and consistently won best popcorn of the city. Into the popper was also poured a small measure of some of kind of combination salt/butter powder, finer than salt, yellow ...I do not recall what brand, but assume that powder was probably the only part of the ingredients that was actually bad for you.

Oh, and I hasten to add that there was no "topping oil" added. We had an actual butter heater that dispensed actual low-salt butter. But I personally never added any butter because it did not need it. The hassle with real butter was that it separated into butter and cream, and sometimes the machine would dispense cream when it was running low. Had to watch that. I guess that's why most theaters do not use butter.



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