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Do you crave a big bucket of popcorn when you go to the movies? How about at home when you fire up your DVD player to watch a late-night flick with your sweetie?
As it turns out, popcorn is one of the healthiest snacks you can eat (far healthier than the much-touted edamame) and polyphenols are the reason why.
Polyphenols are a type of chemical found in plant foods that help neutralize free radicals, those nasty little baddies that damage your cells and contribute to rapid aging.
Popcorn has one of the highest levels of polyphenols of any plant food – including most fruit!
According to Joe Vinson, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton:
“Popcorn has more antioxidants in total than other snack foods that you can consume and it also has quite a bit of fiber.”
While the fiber aspect of popcorn is not particularly impressive to me as fiber is not necessarily a good thing in large quantities (people just need so much of it as they are typically so constipated from their lousy diets), the polyphenol aspect of the research is indeed compelling and should encourage folks to fire up that popcorn maker more often.
Don’t Buy Microwave or Processed Popcorn
As with any food, preparation and sourcing are critical, so don’t run out to the supermarket and load up on microwave popcorn after reading this post. It also would be wise to avoid popcorn at the movies as the synthetic factory fats and processed salt used to flavor the popcorn is less than ideal and overrides any benefit of the popcorn itself!
One other type of popcorn to skip: popcorn in snack bags specifically packaged for lunchboxes which are loaded with all manner of chemicals and synthetics for flavoring and coloring.
The healthiest popcorn is made yourself the old fashioned way on the stovetop. Popcorn makers are ok too, but in my experience, the stove is just as fast and easy with less cleanup. Popcorn is so cheap, most people will find that a nice big bag of organic kernels easily fits into even the tightest of food budgets.
The best oils to cook your popcorn in include homemade ghee or a quality brand of expeller-pressed coconut oil.
After popping, sprinkle with a good quality sea salt to complete your delicious and healthful snack. Some folks I know sprinkle with nutritional yeast powder for a nice boost of B vitamins.
Even though homemade popcorn is a fantastic and healthy snack choice, don’t overdo it. Corn that is not soaked or sprouted prior to cooking contains anti-nutrients that can inflame digestion if consumed to excess.
By the way, if someone in your family is allergic to corn, try popped sorghum. It looks and tastes the same, just smaller kernels.
How to Make Stovetop Popcorn (Video)
Below is a video I filmed for the Weston A. Price Foundation on Healthy Snacks. Click here for a transcript if you don’t prefer videos. The video includes a segment on making healthy popcorn. This visual can be helpful if you’ve never made it on the stovetop before. This is the healthiest way to enjoy it!
Organic, preferably heirloom corn kernels popped on the stovetop is a great snack to pack in your children’s lunchboxes. It is very affordable and you can feel good about making it!
Source: Study: The Snack Loaded with Antioxidants
Tiff , will they eat home popped popcorn?
So if you pop corn is it as nutritious as the niximated corn?
Corn is not natural. It was genetically engineered by pre-columbian people living in Central America. Corn will not grow without man’s help. The people that have corn-based diets (Mexican food) suffer from obesity and diabetes when they live affluent sedentary lifestyles.
As my father told me, “Don’t feed the horses corn, it will make them fat. Feed the horses oats, the corn is for fattening the cattle before they go to market.”
I use only Orville Redenbacher whole kernel popcorn. Cook in corn oil in an old pot (dedicated for popcorn only) my grandma gave me which has seen 1000’s of pots of popcorn cooked in its lifetime. Drizzle with extra real butter and sprinkle with salt. Make enough to give the dogs a couple large handfuls before I salt and butter. I make this at least once every weekend (sometimes twice). Stove top popcorn completely ROCKS THIS WORLD!
Hi!
I found your video while trying to find out if popcorn seed &/or kernels are sprout-able; and is there a difference in popcorn seeds and kernels? It looked like I’d find the answer to my question here but I did not find it.
Do you have any info on that? Can I sprout popcorn seed or Kernels (which one am I tyring to figure out, please?)?
However, I did watch the video I’m commenting on now, bc I have some Qs re the info on the video:
1a. I appreciate you informing us (readers/watchers) how to be healthy. I never knew about soaking my nuts and seeds and then toasting them. I’ve always soaked them, in hopes they grow a bit and i can eat all the goodies that happen while they are coming back to life!!
1b. Are your instructions to then toast or dry them simply a way to make them more attractive to the general public’s palate? Or is the toasting and/or drying part of the process that makes the nutrients better. I’m so very interested bc I knew about soaking. I’m the daughter of person who used homeopathic remixes (she’s not a veggie, like I’ve been since age7, about 33yrs ago) but she was way ahead of her time, nonetheless. From what I gathered while watching this vid, toasting or drying is part of how to get out any bad stuff. Normally, what i do, if I’m not soaking for a few days and then sprouting (depending on the nut or seed) is stick it in my Vitamix serving by serving so that the nutrients coming from them don’t die via be pre-pulverized. I would really REALLY love to get put on the right track. CouldUwouldU help?
2. So can I soak popcorn kernel, and then sprout them, or what? -I mean, can I sprout them like I do lentils and then eat them while raw?
2B. … Or can I soak them and then I guess dry and eat them or something.
* My main concern with popcorn seed/kernels is I want to know if I can sprout them, rather than popping them. After watching your lovely 8-min vid, I’m now ALSO (besides the former Q) wondering if there is a better way to prepare them for popping; meaning is there a way to get more nutrients by soaking and drying and/or some other method??
Thank you and BlesSings to All,
S:D
I love popcorn, but only theater-style. I actually have an old-style popcorn machine and the popcorn packs I use still end up being about 600 calories. Far from healthy, but it’s a nice treat every once and a while.