How to Make Popcorn a Healthy Snack

Did you know that popcorn is a great fiber food? In just 3 cups of popcorn you get 4 grams of fiber. To keep popcorn on your healthy snack list you need to practice 2 things:

    Portion Control     and     Butter Control

Reasonable portion suggestions are:

    5-6 cups air popped popcorn

    1/2 bag of microwave popcorn or 1 snack size bag

    1/2 of a small buttered popcorn at the movie theater

Any guess how many calories are in a medium buttered popcorn at the movie theater?

1075 calories . . . . . . and 73 grams fat (well over our healthy daily limit)  Yikes!!!

1 cup of plain popcorn is only 20 calories so a 100 calorie snack would allow you 5 cups of popcorn. Microwave butter popcorn gives you 175 calories in 5 cups . . . and if you pop it in oil that 100 calorie snack goes up to 275 calories.

If you're counting carbohydrates every 3 cups = 1 carb choice.

You can also pop your popcorn in the microwave in a bowl made just for microwaving popcorn. I just recently tried popping popcorn in a brown paper lunch size bag and it worked great! 1/4 cup popcorn for about 2 minutes and you've got a really low cost, high fiber snack!! 

So the bottom line is that popcorn can be a very healthy snack if you pre-portion and go light or no butter. My personal favorite is stove-top popcorn popped in Canola oil and lightly salted. I'm still practicing on the portion control.

Comments

[Eat Smart Age Smart]

Wow! Just can't believe that we can prepare healthy snacks from popcorn. I'm surely going to give a try to this recipe over the weekend.

[fioricet online]

That's what I like about this blog the recipe here is very much healthier.