Is old-fashioned popcorn really a low-calorie snack?

Beijing youth daily December 02, 2016

Some friends with the idea of fat loss often face the dilemma: can we eat snacks to lose weight? Can I eat old-fashioned popcorn on the side of the road? The new popcorn is sweet and fragrant, and it is estimated to be very high in calories. However, the old popcorn was only made from common corn and saccharin, without cream or sugar, so it should be a low-calorie food, right? And is it healthier, too?

Not necessarily.

First of all, the furnace body of small converter contains lead, so called popcorn lead is too much harmful to health, what say is in high temperature micro lead transfer to popcorn inside, cause lead pollution. New popcorn made from stainless-steel pans and cracked corn doesn't have this lead contamination problem.

Second, small bof popcorn doesn't increase or decrease calories. Calculate by same weight, come out popcorn and dry corn grain are same quantity of heat value, about 360 kcal /100 grams, with rice white face is a class. It's just a lot of bulk that makes it loose.

In addition, bulking significantly increased glycemic index (GI) values. After all, the texture of loose, easy to chew, digestive enzymes attack it, the efficiency will be greatly increased.

Steamed bread is loose and porous, easy to chew, digestive enzymes function efficiency is high, so GI value is high, the reason is the same.

But traditional popcorn also has its comparative advantage.

The new popcorn, which is usually made from popped corn, has no lead contamination problems, but is usually sweetened with margarine, sugar and flavoring.

Corn kernels are not low in calories and are even higher with margarine. This is just like the original steamed bread is not low in calories, and with a piece of butter, the calories are higher.

Those "miscellaneous grain rice flowers" sold in the supermarket, such as expanded barley, expanded highland barley, expanded millet and so on, have added a lot of fat, look at the ingredients table and nutrition ingredients table to know.

Traditional popcorn, by contrast, has less margarine, and is actually slightly lower in calories than new popcorn.

In addition, margarine is not only high in saturated fats, but may also contain small amounts of trans fats, which are inherently unhealthy.

So, if you want to lose weight, popcorn is not not to eat, but can not eat casually. No matter new or old, the total amount needs to be controlled.

After all, it's all grain, and eating one or two popcorn grains (50 grams of dried corn kernels) means eating half a bowl of rice (50 grams of rice) less. Traditional popcorn has concerns about lead contamination from small converters, while newer popcorn has concerns about high saturated fat and trans fat.

The important thing again, 2 popcorn =2 dried corn kernels =2 dried rice (a small bowl of rice)=2 white flour (a large steamed bun), so it's up to you to decide how to eat it.