Find Out If Popcorn Makes You Fat Or Lose Weight And How To Include It In Your Diet

Much appreciated around the world, popcorn is an easy-to-prepare food that is relatively rich in nutrients. For this reason, it can be called the queen of snack foods (snacks/snacks).

But there is a question: does popcorn make you fat or lose weight?

Popcorn x Calories x Fat

Popcorn is a whole grain well known for its high fiber content and high caloric value. A 100g serving of popcorn is equivalent to 375 Kcal. However, this amount of calories feared by everyone is very relative due to its preparation method.

There is popcorn to prepare in the pan — these are healthier than microwave popcorn, which can have twice as many calories as usual, precisely because of the addition of fat that the product receives to be prepared in the oven.

After All, Is Popcorn Fattening?

Popcorn is not fattening. I mean, it’s been a long time since nutritionists said, “this can, this can’t,” “this is for a weight gain diet, and this is for a weight reduction diet.”

Popcorn is a food with significant calorie content. Still, it also has a good amount of fiber, which makes this food a source of low GI carbohydrates — which means that the chances of having your energy converted into fat are low.

Popcorn is a natural whole-grain cereal recommended by the food pyramid as part of a balanced diet. Whole grains are associated with helping to control body weight and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Therefore, the recommendation is that the population consume more whole grains to obtain a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals.

Another advantage of corn over other cereals is that, during industrialization, it does not lose the husk, where most of the fiber and nutrients are.

This cereal also contains zeaxanthin and lutein, two antioxidant substances that contribute to eye health, preventing cataracts and macular degeneration and decreasing the risk of developing certain tumors.

So, Eating Popcorn Makes You Lose Weight?

Popcorn is a low-cost food, rich in fiber, and contributes to satiety and better blood glucose levels, cholesterol, and triglycerides, in addition to improving intestinal functioning.

As it is a source of carbohydrates, it should be replaced by bread, cereal, or cookies (1 cup of popped popcorn is equivalent to ½ French bread or one slice of bread).

Popcorn As A Replacement For Calorie Snacks

Popcorn is a carbohydrate food source and can be added to any meal, whether it’s the main meal or a small snack. The issue to be analyzed will be the daily context of this individual, that is, their meals as a whole, because it may not be advantageous to consume foods from a single food group at each meal.

Therefore, we cannot say that popcorn is an ideal replacement for a meal, but we can say that it is, yes, a source of carbohydrates, a small part of a healthy meal.

Microwave Popcorn And Sodium

This popcorn that comes in packets to pop on the stove has only one ingredient: popcorn! But a microwaveable product has a long list of ingredients besides corn!

Ingredients:

• Popcorn Corn
• Vegetable fat
• Sal

Prepared for Popcorn (Vegetable Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat, Flavoring, Acidity Regulator Acetic Acid, Natural Coloring Turmeric and Annatto, and BHT Antioxidant).

These additives increase the caloric value of the product (mainly due to the presence of fat), and there is also considerable sodium value — a serving of 25 g offers up to 10% of the total sodium value for the day.

In addition to sodium and normal fats, we still find hydrogenated fat, which has been linked to an increased incidence of heart disease, reduced insulin sensitivity, and diabetes, among many other harms.

Pot Popcorn

Who doesn’t smell popcorn when they hear “pot popcorn”?

The main characteristic of popcorn corn is that its small and tough kernels, when subjected to any source of heat, can burst and multiply up to more than 40 times about the initial volume of the seeds—used, resulting in tasty food.

In this case, we are only talking about the nutrients in popcorn since adding a low amount of salt or seasonings and a low amount of oil for the preparation will be advisable.

Corn is considered an energy food for human consumption due to the predominant existence of carbohydrates (starch) and lipids. The grain also has proteins, although in a lower amount than other nutrients.

The Risk Of Movie Popcorn

We have already seen that, despite being healthy, popcorn can offer considerable calories. A small package of movie theater popcorn never has less than 300 kcal — that’s if we’re talking salty. Movie popcorn has the disadvantage of receiving a large amount of oil.

Not without reasons; movie popcorn looks tastier. One of the biggest secrets of movie popcorn is undoubtedly the oil, as coconut or canola oil is used in its solid form, which also has yellow coloring and butter flavor.

Another difference is the salt used in movie popcorn, which has an artificial flavor of butter and yellow coloring, making it look like an orange juice powder. Salt and oil are added together in the preparation, so the taste is uniform, and not just in a few grains, as when prepared at home.