Popcorn Nutrition Facts: A Healthy, Low-Calorie Snack?
The nutrition facts label on the package of popcorn contains a lot of useful information. It tells us how much fat and calorie are contained in one serving. However, it does not tell us what kind of fat and calorie are contained in each serving. So let’s get to the bottom of this!
What Are Popcorn Calories?
A “calorie” is a unit of energy used to measure the amount of work or energy required to do something. For example, if you have a job at McDonald’s, then your daily calorie intake equals to 1000 calories. If you eat only french fries and drink soda for breakfast, then your daily calorie intake equals to 1500 calories. These numbers may seem very confusing because they don’t make sense unless you understand them in their exact terms.
According to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a food is considered low-fat if less than 10% of its calories come from saturated fats, such as those found in animal products like beef, pork, or lamb. And a food is considered low-carbohydrate if fewer than 5 grams of carbohydrate are consumed per day for women and less than 8 grams for men.
The number on a food label tells us how much energy is required to do something. One serving of popped popcorn usually contains less than 5 grams of fat and fewer than 5 grams of carbohydrate.
We can say that it contains very few calories, and only small amounts of good fat and carbohydrate.
Now you know the meaning of ‘calorie’ and the nutrition facts label on the package of your favorite snack. Thus, you already know that one serving of popcorn has very few calories.
In fact, one serving of your favorite snack contains only about 31 calories. So go ahead and enjoy yourself a serving or two!
Serving size: 1 cup (5.3 oz)
Calories: 31
Protein: 1.2 g
Carbohydrate: 6 g
Total fat: 0.2 g
Saturated fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 6.0 mg
Exchange: 0.1 other carbohydrate
Source: food-facts.net
Common Questions
Can You Tell Me More About Air Popped, Oil-Popped, And Homemade Popcorn?
Nothing can match the taste of a bowl of popcorn cooked in an hot air popper. Most pre-packaged microwaveable popcorn is made with fake tasting fat powders and chemical flavor enhancers. Nothing beats fresh hot corn. Try it, you’ll like it!
I decided to put some of my own butter on my bowl of popcorn and now I have a lot of calories.
How many?
One tablespoon of butter has about 100 calories. If you use 2 tablespoons of butter on your 2 serving of popcorn, then you have just consumed 200 calories. However, this is a good source of energy and it taste really good!
Is there anything else I can do to cut down on the number of calories?
Yes!
Sources & references used in this article:
Low-calorie foods: general category by LA Quesada, WL Clark – FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY …, 1993 – books.google.com
Can nutrition information increase sales of healthful vended snacks? by SM Hoerr, VA Louden – Journal of School Health, 1993 – Wiley Online Library
Sweet and salty. An assessment of the snacks and beverages sold in vending machines on US post-secondary institution campuses by C Byrd-Bredbenner, M Johnson, VM Quick, J Walsh… – Appetite, 2012 – Elsevier
Can information costs affect consumer choice? Nutritional labels in a supermarket experiment by K Kiesel, SB Villas-Boas – International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2013 – Elsevier
Snacking your weigh to good health by C Crawley – 2013 – athenaeum.libs.uga.edu
Trends in snacking among US children by C Piernas, BM Popkin – Health affairs, 2010 – healthaffairs.org
Nutritional labelling for healthier food or non‐alcoholic drink purchasing and consumption by RA Crockett, SE King, TM Marteau… – Cochrane Database …, 2018 – cochranelibrary.com
Low-Calorie Snacks by E Reorder, M Content, IS Nuts, M Nuts, M Nuts… – nuts.com
The 40 Best Low-Calorie Foods by E This – bodybuilding.com
