on the topic of popcorn

[Tiam]

What are peoples feelings towards it? Is it healthy? In what way? What is it Glycemic Value? How healthy is it as a regular snack? Are there issues or shortcomings in popcorn? Ideas?

[Mrs-M]

We aren't big popcorn eaters, so I tend to lean towards the old saying, "everything in moderation", that way I never feel guilty when I indulge. In our house, popcorn is a treat (not a nightly thing), but it's amazing how many people we know who indulge nightly.

[KayLR]

Mrs. M's response reminded me of someone I used to work with---she (a nurse) and her husband had popcorn and tea every night for "dinner." They ate their large meal midday, so this was their typical evening repass.

All I know is Weight Watchers approves of popcorn as a snack....as long as it's not soaked with melted butter.

[Rosemary]

http://www.livestrong.com/article/327664-where-does-popcorn-fall-on-the-glycemic-index/23

We eat air-popped porcorn occasionally, with a small amount of butter (< 1 tsp/person). Butter has such an intense flavor that it doesn't take much to flavor the popcorn.

[Bastelmutti]

We love it and eat it a couple of times per week - air popped with butter, a little salt and nutritional yeast. I'm not too concerned about the healthiness. It gets my kids eating nutritional yeast, though.

[Stella]

We eat popcorn once or twice a week. It is a whole grain, so it has that in it's favour. I don't know what it' glycemic index is, but I know when I have gestational diabetes I can eat more popcorn than I can most grains without getting high blood sugar.

[Rosemary]

The link above has the GI and comments about popcorn.

In general, the best way to eat grains is in their true whole form, e.g. fresh corn, wheat berries, whole oat groats, etc - cooked just until done and not overly waterlogged.

Popping, grinding, and other means of modifying the grains usually increase the glycemic index (a measure of how the food impacts blood sugar) because they are digested more quickly. "Whole grain flour" is not the same as "whole grain," and if you look at the measurements, for instance, whole wheat flour is not very different from white flour in terms of the glycemic index.

Adding fat, acid, or protein generally reduces the overall impact of a food on the blood sugar - so popcorn with butter, for example, would be expected to have a lower GI than plan popcorn.

[loosechickens]

since there has been information about harmful substances in the bags and linings of microwave popcorn, we avoid that, but eat popcorn popped in our iron skillet covered with a dome lid, and with no fat added, just a small amount of butter and salt added after for a bit of flavor, pretty regularly.

Certainly beats lots of other snack foods.....I look it the same as I look at baked potatoes...it's not the potato that is the problem, it's all the stuff we put on them.....and popcorn seems to be the same.

I wouldn't eat microwave popcorn, or popcorn at the movies which is yucky with fat and way too salty, but other than that, homemade popcorn is a great snack, to me.

We also, on occasion, eat it like Helen and Scott Nearing did, as a dinner companion to a hearty bean and veggie soup, and fresh fruit......

[ApatheticNoMore]

I doubt some of those whole grains are even digestable whole. I mean ok, look at how it is traditionally eaten. Plain or more often ground down and made into stuff like tortillas? I'm thinking the later is more common. Which is not of course saying it is harmful, just think it might actually be more nutritious ground.

[Gregg]

We're only occasional popcorn eaters here, usually during movie night at home (also only on rare occasions). Love it because you can put almost anything you can imagine on it and if it sucks then you only toss a few cents worth of popcorn. Such frugality can make you extremely brave. If we're not feeling brave or creative we use a pretty liberal amount of butter and salt, although still less than theater popcorn. Like I said, its only once in a while so what the heck?