Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
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
I love popcorn, but it doesn’t love me. Migraine headaches, joint pain, difficulty thinking and breathing; just not worth it. I don’t allow any corn products in the house – it does the same thing to the rest of my family, as well.
Hi Sarah
Would it make sense then that homemade corn chips in palm oil or coconut oil would be good for you too. We love taco salad with these.
Wow, these comments are out of control! (As I sit here reading them with my delicious bowl of popcorn popped in coconut oil and sprinkled with sea salt)! LOL
LOL! Better than going to the movies 😉
Popcorn (organic of course)….so innocent…..who’da thought it would get this crazy?
We eat popcorn a couple times of week. My daughter loves it and so do I. We just make it on our stove top in some coconut oil. And then I add butter and real salt, of course. So satisfying!
Sarah in the video I just watched on making healthy snacks is there another flour that can be used besides arrowroot? I have a sensitivity to it and can’t eat it.
Only one problem with this. All of our corn is genetically modified…
Chipotle restaurants use all NON GMO corn. This is a corporate pledge.
Amazing how these rumors get started and seem to have a life of their own. Not all corn is GMO by a long shot.
Sarah, it’s NOT TRUE that Chipotle restaurants use all non-GMO corn! There was a big issue with them not disclosing their ingredients last year (2012) and they finally did and have GMOs listed in their products. Disappointed a lot of people, but I wasn’t completely surprised. I’ve emailed them a couple times about this issue. Here’s a link to their ingredients statement and you can see a number GMO notations:
HOWEVER! Chipotle just last week – October 2013 – stated that they are going to be non-GMO by some point in 2014 (not animal feed though). Price will rise a little (they state 3 – 5 %). I hope you or you readers weren’t eating corn chips or other Chipotle items (lots of soybean oil, but they’ve started to phase it out) thinking they were non-GMO. I’m perplexed why you wouldn’t have looked into this further….??
I realize this is an old post, but I wanted to let you know. Chipotle is definitely one of the better small, quick food restaurant chains, with a focus on healthier food and an awareness of the problems in our food system. But they aren’t perfect or 100% non-GMO (yet). They will apparently be the first chain type restaurant to be non-GMO when they achieve that in the next year or two.
They just put out this interesting video about the food system; so good that they are aware and seem to care:
Not all corn is GMO for sure, but you have to be very careful. Even at farmer’s markets now you are starting to find GMO sweet corn which was introduced in 2012. You have to ask and/or get organic corn at farmer’s markets!
Yes! I really wish people would spreading around this rumor! There are dozens and dozens of strains of corn. Not all are GMO. Organic and heirloom corns never are!
We make popcorn on the stove top with a Victorio popper, you know the whirly kind! Stainless steel, extra thick bottom. we use organic popcorn from Azure Standard, some times we get the rainbow kind, it’s natural not dyed, made with white, black, and yellow corn. We add our coconut oil (virgin organic from Tropical Traditions) and a blob of organic virgin red palm oil. then we grind in our sea salt right into the oil and throw in the popcorn and pop it up! It comes out flavorful and salted! and yellow! covered with antioxidants, that are not damaged by heat cause red palm oil is one oil that can handle it! it’s extra healthy that way! but i have to try nutritional yeast now! anyway my kids love it and so do my cub scouts! they ask for it every week for the snack and tell me i make the best popcorn ever!
I’m one of those people who makes popcorn from scratch and I always use either ghee or coconut oil just as Sarah recommends. I did it for health reasons but my popcorn has been so popular with guests and grandchildren that I know I’ve found the perfect solution for a cheap and healthy snack.
I love popcorn made on the stove top with coconut oil!
I would like to request a blog post on ideas of
Things to send in a care package to someone. I have relatives starting college and would like to send them a care package, but can’t in good conscience send the usually candy bars and ramen noodles most might send to a college student. Any ideas would be appreciated!!
Thank you.
Organic popcorn with nutritional yeast is a great alternative! My kids love it.