On Popcorn Day, be careful how you celebrate

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Popcorn may be a whole grain, but don’t kid yourself. Unless you choose carefully -- or eat the stuff air-popped (shudder) -- popcorn’s natural-fiber benefits might not outweigh the calories, fat and sodium that often come along with it.

The problem is figuring out exactly how many calories are in that bag, box or so-called serving.

Check out your brand here at CalorieCount. Most list only the amount of calories in the unpopped product. Good luck trying to make the conversion to calories in the popped product, which, I understand, is how most people eat it.

One hundred and twenty calories in three tablespoons of unpopped kernels? Such a detail may not be disingenuous exactly (then again...) but it’s far from useful.

Maybe when choosing, we should opt for a brand that’s more direct with consumers.

Newman’s Own Butter Microwave Popcorn, for instance, states that it has 130 calories per 3.5 cup serving of popped kernels. And Act II Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn states it contains 40 calories per 1-cup serving of popped kernels.

For what it’s worth, the Popcorn Board says this: ‘Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup; oil-popped popcorn has only 55 calories per cup. When lightly buttered, popcorn contains about 133 calories per cup.’

(I suppose it’s conceivable to eat only one cup of popcorn...)

But unless you go with the whole-butter approach, the home versions are likely to be better than the theater stuff, as this recent blog post explains: Movie popcorn is still a horror

It refers to the latest fun-filled analysis/diatribe from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Here’s the report, complete with cool graphic.

And here’s a taste of that report: A small size of popcorn at AMC provides 370 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and 210 milligrams of sodium. That’s without the ‘buttery’ topping. Regal’s ‘small’ comes in at 670 calories, 34 grams of saturated fat and 550 milligrams of sodium. Tsk.

When it comes to packing on the pounds, you do get more bang for your serving at Regal. The chain’s small is 11 cups, compared with AMC’s 6 cups. Again, these are the small servings.

The report may take some of the joy out of that moviegoing experience. But you’ll be the better for it.

(With folks touting today as Popcorn Day, did you really think we wouldn’t try to take some of the fun out of it? That is, use it as a chance to help us all make better choices?)

-- Tami Dennis