By Jayne Hurley & Bonnie Liebman

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Photo: Nick Waring. already-popped brands. But cheese is. Three cups of Cheez- It White Cheddar, for example, have four grams of sat fat (and 270 calories). What to do? Look for “Lite” on the bag. That should keep the sat fat to one gram or less. But don’t look for “Air Popped.” Brands like Cape Cod make that appealing claim, but most have no less fat than any other full-fat popcorn. Apparently, the corn is air popped before being coated with oil and cheese. STEP 2. Look for less sodium. Once you’ve got a lowerfat brand, check the sodium. Luckily, only a few lower-fat popcorns have too much for a Best Bite or Honorable Mention. That’s because popcorn tastes just fine unsalted or lightly salted. A few examples: For a rich movie-theater-like buttery taste, give Jolly Time Butter-Licious Light or Orville Redenbacher’s Light Movie Theater Butter a try. If you like your seasoning a bit more subtle, pick up some Jolly Time Movie Madness Why is movie theater popcorn so much worse than the supermarket variety? Because it’s usually popped in highly saturated coconut oil, and because the servings are on steroids. The seven cups in a buttered small, for example, have 600 calories and 1 1 /2 days’ worth of saturated fat. A large (20 cups) with butter has 1,600 calories and nearly four days’ sat fat. Some theaters pop in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is better for your heart, and a few use non-hydrogenated oil, which is best (though none are good for your waistline). X R PG G AMC, Edwards, Hoyts, Regal, United Artists (coconut oil) Carmike, CineMark, Cineplex Odeon, Loews, Multiplex, Muvico, Showcase (partially hydrogenated canola oil) Century, GKC (non-hydrogenated canola or sunflower oil) Your Theater (assuming you can sneak some in) (air-popped) Movie Theater Popcorn (popped in coconut oil) Calories Total Fat (grams) Kid’s (5 cups) 300 20 14 with Butter 470 37 22 Small (7 cups) 400 27 19 with Butter 630 50 29 Medium (11 cups) 650 43 31 with Butter 910 71 41 Medium (16 cups) 900 60 43 with Butter 1,220 97 56 Large (20 cups) 1,160 77 55 with Butter 1,640 126 73 14 NUTRITION ACTION HEALTHLETTER ■ MARCH 2003 B R A N D - N A M E R A T I N G Saturated Fat (grams) More salt than butter. As with other “made with” claims, “made with real butter” means “made with very little butter.” So you don’t have to give them the cold shoulder. Just keep in mind that some butter-boasting brands (like Newman’s Own Butter Boom, Jolly Time Blast O Butter, and Act II Butter Lover’s) are heavy on the salt. Healthy Pop, Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop, or Pop-Secret 94% Fat Free or Light. And if you like the taste of plain, unadorned air-popped corn, try Bearitos or Healthy Choice...or save some money and get yourself a cheap air popper. So many great-tasting popcorns make you wonder why some companies still feel like they have to pour on the salt. Among the microwaves, Jolly Time Blast O Butter, Cheez-It White Cheddar, Tabasco, and Act II Butter Lover’s all hit at least 400 mg of sodium, while Newman’s Own Butter Boom tips the scales at 900 mg. Clearly, the “blast” and “boom” are more salt than butter. On the already-popped shelf head for Bachman Lite, Bearitos Lite, Boston’s Lite, and Good Health Half Naked. You’ll get less than 200 mg of sodium in a (three-cup) serving. (Warning: You’ll have a hard time stopping after just three cups of Bearitos Lite or Boston’s Lite.) That’s a big savings over the 500+ mg you could get from a brand like Pizza Hut Cheese, Tabasco, or Smartfood White Cheddar. Don’t those companies know that one out of every four adults has high blood pressure? Haven’t they heard that every major health authority has urged Americans to cut back on salt? Hello-o-o? STEP 3. Skip the popcorn candy. You can dodge the sat fat and sodium in ordinary popcorn by switching to a sweetened popcorn like Crunch ‘n Munch Kettle Corn or EatSmart Kettle Pops. But don’t pat yourself on the back. They (and most pre-popped kettle corns) have 14 grams (about four teaspoons) of empty-calorie sugar in every cup. (Microwave kettle corns are sweetened with the synthetic-but-safe sugar substitute sucralose. That cuts the calories by two-thirds.) The sugar in kettle corns may give them more calories (per cup) than regular popcorn, but the calories in candy-coated popcorns are off the charts. Once there were just Cracker Jacks (caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts). Now we’ve got Orville’s Gourmet Butter Toffee Popcorn Clusters, Popz White Fudge or Milk Chocolate Covered Caramel Popcorn, and Butterfinger Popcorn. Cup for cup, they’ve got at least five times the calories of ordinary popcorn. The information for this article was compiled by Sarah Wade.
Microwave (5 cups) The Pop Chart A serving of our Best Bites has no more than one gram of saturated fat, 200 milligrams of sodium, and 4 grams (1 teaspoon) of sugar. Honorable Mentions have the same sat fat and sugar limits, but can have up to 300 mg of sodium. Within each category, popcorns are listed from best to worst—from least to most saturated fat, then sodium (or sugar), then calories. Calories (grams) Sat Fat (grams) Sodium (milligrams) Total Fat ✔✔ Bearitos No Salt No Oil 110 2 0 0 ✔✔ American’s Best 94% Fat Free Butter 100 2 0 50 ✔✔ Jolly Time Healthy Pop 94% Fat Free Butter 100 2 0 50 ✔✔ Bearitos No Oil Added 110 2 0 90 ✔✔ Healthy Choice 1 80 2 0 120 ✔✔ Jolly Time Crispy ‘n White Light 130 5 0 130 ✔✔ Act II 94% Fat Free Butter 90 2 0 150 ✔✔ Orville Redenbacher’s Smart Pop 94% Fat Free 1 90 1 0 160 ✔✔ Pop-Secret 94% Fat Free Butter 90 2 0 190 ✔ Guiltless Gourmet 94% Fat Free Lightly Salted 100 2* 0 280 Newman’s Own 94% Fat Free Butter 160 2 0 360 Jolly Time Healthy Pop 94% Fat Free Kettle Corn 130 2 0 430 ✔✔ Newman’s Own Organics Pop’s Corn 94% Fat Free Unsalted 170 2 1 40 ✔✔ Jolly Time Butter-Licious Light 150 4 1 130 ✔✔ Newman’s Own Light Butter 160 4 1 130 ✔✔ Orville Redenbacher’s Light 1 110 4 1 180 ✔ Pop-Secret Light Butter 100 4 1 240 ✔ Act II Light Butter 130 4 1 290 Jolly Time Blast O Butter Light 150 4 1 380 Act II Light Natural 120 5 2 100 Act II Butter or Old Fashioned Natural 2 190 11 2 150 Guiltless Gourmet Butter 180 10 2* 230 Orville Redenbacher’s Butter or Natural 2 160 10 2 270 Jiffy Pop Butter (stove top) 230 12 2 380 Orville Redenbacher’s Corn on the Cob 180 13 3 130 Pop-Secret HomeStyle 180 13 3 130 Orville Redenbacher’s Kettle Korn 200 13 3 130 Orville Redenbacher’s HomeStyle 180 10 3 150 Orville Redenbacher’s Honey Butter 180 13 3 150 Pop-Secret Kettle Corn 180 13 3 150 Act II Buttery Kettle Corn 200 15 3 150 Orville Redenbacher’s Ultimate Butter 150 13 3 200 Pop-Secret Jumbo Pop 1 200 13 3 260 Newman’s Own Butter or Natural 2 240 16 3 260 Act II Movie Theatre Butter 180 13 3 280 Pop-Secret Movie-Theater Butter 200 15 3 280 Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater Butter 1 180 11 3 290 Orville Redenbacher’s Pour Over, regular 1 210 15 3 320 Pop-Secret Butter or Extra Butter 2 190 14 3 330 Act II Butter Lover’s 200 15 3 400 Newman’s Own Butter Boom 240 16 3 900 Newman’s Own Organics Pop’s Corn Light Butter 200 6 4 190 Jolly Time Butter-Licious 180 13 4 200 Tabasco or Cheez-It White Cheddar 2 230 15 4 450 Orville Redenbacher’s Sweet ‘n Buttery 230 18 5 150 Act II Classic White or Sweet Corn on the Cob 2 230 18 5 310 Act II Kettle Corn 200 15 5 330 Act II Extreme Butter 250 20 5 330 Jolly Time KettleMania 250 18 5 380 Jolly Time Blast O Butter 230 15 5 430 Newman’s Own Organics Pop’s Corn Butter 230 13 6 270 Pre-Popped (3 cups) ✔✔ Air-popped, plain 90 1 0 0 ✔✔ Bachman Lite 70 1 0 70 ✔✔ Boston’s Lite 110 5 0 70 ✔✔ Good Health Half Naked 100 3 0 120 ✔✔ Bearitos Lite 1 120 5 0 160 Boston’s White Cheddar 150 7 2 200 Smartfood White Cheddar Reduced Fat 140 6 2 280 Bearitos White Cheddar 220 14 2 300 Guiltless Gourmet 1 230 13 2 360 Cape Cod White Cheddar Cheese 220 15 3 350 Tabasco or Pizza Hut Cheese 2 260 20 3 520 Smartfood White Cheddar 270 17 3 550 Cheez-It White Cheddar 270 20 4 450 Pre-Popped Caramel, Kettle, or Candy Coated (1 cup) Calories Total Fat (grams) Total Fat (grams) Sat Fat (grams) Sugar (grams) Calories Crunch ‘n Munch Kettle Corn 90 0 0 13 Sweet Organics Kettle Corn 1,3 120 2 0 14 Sweet Organics Caramel Corn 110 1 0 15 Crunch ‘n Munch French Vanilla 120 0 0 18 Crunch ‘n Munch Fat Free Toffee 150 0 0 20 EatSmart Kettle Pops 1 170 2 0 21 Rice Krispies Popcorn Krunch 200 1 0 26 Fiddle Faddle 1,3 190 4 1 20 Cracker Jack 240 4 1 30 Cracker Jack Butter Toffee Clusters 190 5 2 16 Orville’s Gourmet Popcorn Clusters 1 170 4 2 19 Crunch ‘n Munch Buttery Toffee 230 9 2 20 Butterfinger Popcorn 3 260 4 2 26 Crunch ‘n Munch Almond Supreme 280 10 2 28 Crunch ‘n Munch Caramel 240 11 4 17 Poppycock 1 300 14 4 25 Popz Covered Caramel Popcorn 1 360 15 8 43 1 ✔✔ Best Bite. ✔ Honorable Mention. Average of the entire line. 2 3 Average of the varieties listed. Contains more than 300 mg of sodium. *Nutrition Action estimate. Daily Values (limits for a 2,000-calorie diet): Total Fat: 65 grams. Saturated Fat: 20 grams. Sodium: 2,400 milligrams. Source: Manufacturers. The use of information from this article for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without written permission from CSPI. NUTRITION ACTION HEALTHLETTER ■ MARCH 2003 15 Sat Fat (grams) Sodium (milligrams)
Page 1: Photos: Nick Waring. How Many Cups?

By Jayne Hurley & Bonnie Liebman

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