Movie theater popcorn: Threat or menace?
Think about it: how healthy could something be that you heated in oil until it exploded?
Christmas is coming, and right on its tail, New Year’s Day. There’s a good chance you’ll be spending some extended time with relatives, perhaps two or three days or more. You’ll catch up on family news, reminisce about warm shared memories . . . and then begin drumming your fingers uncomfortably, having run out things to say, or at least subjects that won’t start arguments or raise awkward issues. ay, let’s go see a movie!
There will be a couple of dozen major releases over the holidays, timed to hit the theaters just when families like yours are itching for some distraction. he problem with movie theaters, however, is that they come equipped with snack bars, and you’ve already done considerable damage to your diet at your own dining room table the last few days.
Clearly, you’ll want to avoid the half-gallon soft drinks and the candy bars the size of videocams. But hey, some popcorn couldn’t hurt. Right? Especially if you skip the butter-like stuff they spritz onto it. Right?
Sorry to ruin the movie for you, but the Center for Science in the Public Interest visited a number of theaters in the three largest chains, Regal, AMC and Cinemark, and bought popcorn in various sizes for analysis by an independent lab. Then they issued a report on the results, which included phrases like “the Godzilla of snacks” and the news that a medium popcorn and a medium soda at the country’s biggest theater chain delivers the caloric punch of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter.
Here are some of the dismaying raw numbers, made even more discouraging by the fact that this is without the butter-like drizzle, which would add another 125 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon.
(Note: each chain appears to have its own definition of “large” and “medium.” Let the amount in cups be your guide for comparisons.)
- Regal medium: 20 cups of popcorn, 1,200 calories, 60 grams saturated fat.
- AMC large: 16 cups of popcorn, 1,030 calories, 57 grams saturated fat.
- AMC medium: 9 cups of popcorn, 590 calories, 33 grams saturated fat.
- Cinemark medium: 14 cups of popcorn, 760 calories, 3 grams saturated fat.
- Regal small: 11 cups of popcorn, 670 calories, 34 grams saturated fat.
- AMC small: 6 cups of popcorn, 370 calories, 20 grams saturated fat.
- Cinemark small: 8 cups of popcorn, 420 calories, 2 grams saturated fat.
The strikingly low saturated fat numbers for Cinemark result from its using canola oil, low in such fats, while Regal and AMC use coconut oil, which is 90 percent saturated fat, and worse for you than watching an entire Adam Sandler film festival.
The good news, to the extent that there is any for the film-loving dieter, is that the lab found no trans fats in any of the popcorn, and while God only knows what the butter-like topping is composed of, none of it involves hydrogenated oils.
Still, America’s official national movie munchie is not as harmless as it’s made out to be. (Especially by the theater chains themselves, whose own calorie counts for their popcorn are far below the amounts the lab found; in the case of the Regal medium, fully 480 calories less.)
The theater chains are a bit defensive about their popcorn, and in fact tried substituting air-popped corn after a similar CSPI popcorn analysis in 1994, but theatergoers rejected it broadly and emphatically. And they make a very good point: this is not regular fare and not meant to be. After all, surveys show that the average American only attends a half dozen movies per year, so how much harm can this stuff do?
That’s probably theater popcorn’s saving grace: between the price of the ticket and the nickel or so per kernel they seem to be charging for it, the typical American probably can’t afford enough of it to have an impact on his or her weight.
(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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