Speaker 1: Do you love popcorn as a snack or as a
Speaker 1: special treat at the movies? There are loads of different
Speaker 1: varieties of popcorn, both flavored and unflavored, at the supermarkets,
Speaker 1: and today on the Nutrition Couch, we thought we would
Speaker 1: take a closer look at one of my favorite food popcorn?
Speaker 1: But is it really as healthy as what we think? Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Leanne Ward and I'm Cez Burrow and as two
Speaker 1: of austrayas leading dieticians who specialize in evidence space nutrition,
Speaker 1: we bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly
Speaker 1: chat on new products and old favorites that you can
Speaker 1: find at the supermarkets. So, Susie, popcorn, you can pop
Speaker 1: your own, you can buy it pre cooked, you can
Speaker 1: get it at the movies.
Speaker 2: You can get it coated in caramel. Are you a
Speaker 2: popcorn lover? Does it do it for you?
Speaker 3: I'm going to the movies tonight see the new chop
Speaker 3: Gun movie. Will I be buying popcorn?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: I'm not a massive fan. Actually, I tell you what
Speaker 3: I do love though. I love the popcorn crackers.
Speaker 2: Popcorn crackers?
Speaker 4: What are they? That's popcorn? Like corn thins?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Corn Thin's okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I like those boys quite light popcorn. I usually have
Speaker 3: some around, you know, I find in the car, they'll
Speaker 3: have it. I think what we know about more process popcorn,
Speaker 3: which we'll go through in a second, probably is a
Speaker 3: little bit of a turn off. But I recommend it
Speaker 3: to clients, and I actually call it a bit of
Speaker 3: a free food because it's quite low in like quite
Speaker 3: low in calories overall, and fiber rich and a whole grain.
Speaker 3: So I recommend it frequently, but it's probably not my
Speaker 3: go to but if I'm honest, I also try and
Speaker 3: stay away from kind of snacky stuff like that as
Speaker 3: much as I can. But yeah, certainly I use it
Speaker 3: regularly with clients in meal plans because of it it's
Speaker 3: in its natural form. As we'll discuss in a second,
Speaker 3: it's a whole grain, really rich in fiber, and pretty
Speaker 3: good for us.
Speaker 2: I'm a big popcorn band devid and I eat it regularly.
Speaker 1: Is this sort of a snack option, so I mean,
Speaker 1: I much prefer it to you know, buying like a
Speaker 1: although I love my bag of kettle or I'm red
Speaker 1: rock Dalli potato chips. I find that, yeah, popcorn keeps
Speaker 1: me under control a little bit more, and I like
Speaker 1: to buy the just because I'm lazy. I buy the
Speaker 1: pre sort of portion, you know, kitty snack packs of them,
Speaker 1: because I really liked that they're pre portioned. I used
Speaker 1: to have a popcorn maker as kids growing up. Mum
Speaker 1: had this popcorn maker, and you know, we were we
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of money growing up, so if
Speaker 1: we went to the movies, my siblings and I, Mum
Speaker 1: would always make our own popcorn. And back in those days,
Speaker 1: you could take whatever food you wanted into the movies.
Speaker 2: They didn't care.
Speaker 1: So Moe used to make popcorn and then we'd sprinkle
Speaker 1: like smooky paprika or something over the top of it
Speaker 1: to give it a little bit of flavor. Because one
Speaker 1: was very health conscious, she wouldn't let us put salt
Speaker 1: or butter or anything on it. So we'd just sprinkle
Speaker 1: a little bit of some sort of seasoning on top
Speaker 1: of it and take it in with us.
Speaker 3: Because they charged three hundred dollars for yeah, exactly, the movies,
Speaker 3: and I make all their money, which is dodging itself.
Speaker 3: It's a great snack for kids, and it's school friendly. Yes,
Speaker 3: all right, we've got a few to have a look.
Speaker 1: At, all right, So our first one today, Susie is
Speaker 1: the Coals salted microwave popcorn, so it is about ninety
Speaker 1: five cents per little baggy, which is good. So a
Speaker 1: little bag of it is twenty grams, so I like
Speaker 1: that it's pre portioned. It's Coals brands, so it's quite
Speaker 1: affordable as well, So a little bag is twenty grams.
Speaker 1: But I think that SUSI will do the comparison YA
Speaker 1: one hundred grams today because we're comparing three separate products,
Speaker 1: and one's twenty grams, one's twenty five grams of one's
Speaker 1: thirteen grams.
Speaker 2: So just as a reference for our listeners.
Speaker 1: At home, I think it's going to be easy to
Speaker 1: compare the similar serving sizes. We might go per one
Speaker 1: hundred grams, but just quickly, for this little baggy in
Speaker 1: the twenty grams, it's only eighty one calories, so it's
Speaker 1: quite a low calorie snack and it's quite a volume
Speaker 1: dense snack. So that's why I really like popcorn because
Speaker 1: I work with a lot of my female clients for
Speaker 1: fat loss, and something like popcorn is quite low calorie
Speaker 1: and it does tend to give you a bit more box.
Speaker 1: So I really do like per one hundred grams, We've
Speaker 1: got seventeen hundred kilodels, which is roughly four hundred calories.
Speaker 1: We've got nearly nine grams of protein, twelve grams of fat,
Speaker 1: six of that being saturated fat, so probably a little
Speaker 1: bit high in terms of the fat profile that we'd like,
Speaker 1: probably a little.
Speaker 2: Bit more saturated fat.
Speaker 1: We've got sixty grams of carbohydrate, which sounds like a lot,
Speaker 1: but it makes sense because popcorn is a carbohydrate, less
Speaker 1: than a gram of sugar, eight point five grams of
Speaker 1: total dietary fiber, which is quite good, and one hundred
Speaker 1: milligrams of sodium, so quite low. And when we look
Speaker 1: at the ingredient list, there's only a couple of ingredients.
Speaker 1: We've got Australian corn, which is eighty nine percent. We've
Speaker 1: got vegetable oil which they've disclosed as palm oil, antioxidant salts,
Speaker 1: and that's it made from eighty nine percent Australian ingredients.
Speaker 1: That's basically the Australian corn. There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: palm oil and a little bit of salt there. So
Speaker 1: pretty quote unquote clean ingredient lists. Although we're not a
Speaker 1: fan of palm oil. Susy, but I think it is
Speaker 1: sort of a small amount of that in that little
Speaker 1: serving size, there's only two point five grams of fat
Speaker 1: in there, so sort of a smaller amount overall.
Speaker 3: Can I ask you so that when you say twenty grams,
Speaker 3: so like that's a mini bag, but they look quite big.
Speaker 3: These are like ones you would pop for a family. Yeah,
Speaker 3: these are more like us said, adult size. So the
Speaker 3: third product a we're doing is more of like a
Speaker 3: little kitty size. So this is actually quite a decent snack.
Speaker 3: So this is something that I would give my adult
Speaker 3: based clients because it is actually quite a decent size. Basically,
Speaker 3: it's quite high percentage fat though, Like if you think
Speaker 3: that just air pop popcorn. So if you buy kernels
Speaker 3: and stick them on the stove, go back into the eighties,
Speaker 3: do it with a bit of olive oil, like you know,
Speaker 3: just to pop it, you're gonna get like very little fat,
Speaker 3: whereas this is like twelve percent fat overall, like they're loading.
Speaker 4: Up on the vegetable oil.
Speaker 3: Definitely, I know that the serving side a small, but
Speaker 3: it's you know, not insignificant really, I think compared because
Speaker 3: I think that fresh pop popcorn is really nice on
Speaker 3: its own, so I I, you know, think you'd have
Speaker 3: to be pushed to be buying this over even though
Speaker 3: it's cheap in proportion.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just think twelve percent fat and some palm oil
Speaker 3: for the flavor. You're certainly better if you can to
Speaker 3: get the kernels and do it yourself with a bit
Speaker 3: of olive oil.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent yere better.
Speaker 1: But I guess for our busy working, you know, adults,
Speaker 1: family is that sort of thing. I wouldn't hesitate to
Speaker 1: recommend this.
Speaker 4: I personally think.
Speaker 1: It's okay, but of course you're always going to be
Speaker 1: better doing it yourself.
Speaker 3: The sodium's low, there's you know, the sodium's low, twenty
Speaker 3: milligrams per serve or one hundred for the whole hundred.
Speaker 3: So I guess the difference if you go to pop
Speaker 3: popcorn at the movie is the salt is through the roof,
Speaker 3: and you know that just by how thirsty you.
Speaker 1: Are, and the fat will be a lot higher as well.
Speaker 3: And there's a bit of concern around transfats in that
Speaker 3: sort of mass produced popcorn that I'd be absolutely concerned
Speaker 3: of too, So you know, i'd give this a six
Speaker 3: or seven, I guess out of ten, would I buy it? No,
Speaker 3: I'd probably just by playing, if I'm honest. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's interesting out there. What else is out there?
Speaker 1: It's actually really hard to get just plain popcorn because
Speaker 1: even the ones that say no butter, they've still.
Speaker 4: Got oil in them.
Speaker 1: It's actually really hard to get which is like secularly
Speaker 1: plain popcorn, yeah, because I could easily give or take
Speaker 1: the butter or the oil. But I really do like
Speaker 1: my popcorn salted. But even that this variety is called
Speaker 1: lightly salted coals popcorn. Yeah, but it is still obviously
Speaker 1: quite heavily it's got you know, the palm oil and
Speaker 1: the vegetable oil in there. So it's actually really hard
Speaker 1: to find pre popped popcorn that is just one hundred
Speaker 1: percent popcorn. I correct me if I'm wrong, but I
Speaker 1: have not seen any on the market that's just one
Speaker 1: hundred percent pre pop popcorn.
Speaker 4: Okay, good to know. Okay.
Speaker 1: So then the second one, Susie I thought was interesting
Speaker 1: because it's popping microwave popcorn light butter. So it's eighty
Speaker 1: five grams. You can get it cols the will Weas,
Speaker 1: and it's two dollars. So this is the one where
Speaker 1: you put it in the microwave and you make it yourself,
Speaker 1: so it's not.
Speaker 2: Pre popped like the other the Coals variety that we had.
Speaker 2: You make it yourself.
Speaker 1: It's almost like you're having, you know, microwave type popcorn
Speaker 1: at home where you're watching a movie with the family.
Speaker 1: So this is something that we used to have quite
Speaker 1: routinely growing up. Susie one would always buy the light
Speaker 1: the salt one, not the butter one. But I think
Speaker 1: this one's an interesting one because you think that this
Speaker 1: would be a lot more unhealthy than the previous one,
Speaker 1: which is a lightly salted one. We look at the
Speaker 1: ingredient panel, so per one hundred grams, so we're comparing
Speaker 1: the same amount. We've got about seventeen hundred kilodules, was
Speaker 1: roughly the same eleven grams of protein, nearly eleven grams
Speaker 1: of fat, two of that being saturated, so a lot
Speaker 1: lower in saturated fat, sixty one grams of carbs, nearly
Speaker 1: twelve grams of dietary fiber, and three hundred milligrams of sodium,
Speaker 1: so about three times the amount of sodium than the
Speaker 1: Coals brand.
Speaker 2: And when you look at.
Speaker 1: The fat overall, the fat profile is nearly double, so
Speaker 1: sort of what you would expect in terms of the
Speaker 1: you know, being a bit more butter. And when you
Speaker 1: look at the ingredient list, it's popping corn ninety one percent,
Speaker 1: which explains why the fiber is high because this has
Speaker 1: a little bit more corn. It's got ninety one percent
Speaker 1: versus eighty nine percent. It's also got vegetable oil. They
Speaker 1: haven't disclosed what type. Probably what a safe bet to
Speaker 1: assume it may bee palm oil or some sort of
Speaker 1: refined vegetable.
Speaker 3: Oilundred percent if it says if it says vegetable and
Speaker 3: doesn't specify to be palm oil, especially with antioxidants in it,
Speaker 3: one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And then we've also got salt and natural flavor which
Speaker 1: contains milk. So there's actually no butter in this product,
Speaker 1: but they've added a natural flavor in to mimic the
Speaker 1: butter flavor. So the actual the amount of saturated vat
Speaker 1: is low, but it still does have quite a lot
Speaker 1: of palm oil. And I think we would imagine so
Speaker 1: sort of similar nutrient panel compared to the previous product
Speaker 1: in terms of calories, a little bit higher in five
Speaker 1: of this one is. But the fat profile is fairly
Speaker 1: similar eleven grams versus twelve grams I guess, so, you know,
Speaker 1: not too vastly different.
Speaker 4: I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's interesting, isn't it. When you take a close look
Speaker 4: at them.
Speaker 1: You would think that this one would be a lot
Speaker 1: quote un quite worse because it's a butter flavor compared
Speaker 1: to the other one is just marketed as lightly salted.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's something that a lot of
Speaker 1: people would think, Oh, this one's a lot worse than
Speaker 1: the other one because one's only got salt, one's only
Speaker 1: got butter. But I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: unaware that even the lightly salted popcorn still adds a
Speaker 1: lot of oil to it, so the fat profile is
Speaker 1: lot higher.
Speaker 3: It's hard to know because in Australia it's not mandatory
Speaker 3: to label for trans fats. Because the research that I
Speaker 3: was doing, and admittedly it was more American, was the
Speaker 3: concern around transfats in popcorn due to processing. So it
Speaker 3: would be really interesting to know if you're a product
Speaker 3: like this which is sort of processed, if you know
Speaker 3: the trans fats differed between the pre made one and
Speaker 3: the one that you're popping yourself. And as I said,
Speaker 3: it's really unfortunate we don't have that. But I'm actually
Speaker 3: surprised they're so they're quite high in fat, so they're
Speaker 3: not holding back to the first one actually is looking
Speaker 3: really good compared to.
Speaker 1: This one, and then that brings us to a bad one,
Speaker 1: which is the Cobs Sweet and Salty gluten free popcorn.
Speaker 1: So interesting they've labeled that one as gluten free because
Speaker 1: the first one as well, even though they haven't really
Speaker 1: marketed as the Coals lightly salted popcorn, is gluten free
Speaker 1: as well, so the Cobs one's also gluten free. It's
Speaker 1: the sweet and salty flavor. So I've actually tried this
Speaker 1: one zoozy and it is delicious. But they do actually
Speaker 1: add sugar in there to get that sort of sweet
Speaker 1: flavor and the balance with the saltiness as well. So
Speaker 1: looking again, per hundred grams, these are only thirteen grams
Speaker 1: serving sizes, so they're not smaller, so they're much more
Speaker 1: kitty serving sizes compared to the first Calls one, which
Speaker 1: is much more of an adult serving size. So this
Speaker 1: is a smaller serving size, so again we'll go, you know,
Speaker 1: per one hundred grams, so it's about two thousand kilodules,
Speaker 1: which is nearly five hundred calories, so a bit more
Speaker 1: energy dens than the other two. We've got five grams
Speaker 1: of protein, so the protein is actually lower. And then
Speaker 1: in terms of the fat, we've got twenty two point
Speaker 1: four grams of fat, so the protein's about half, the
Speaker 1: fat's about double. So we'll have a lot less popcorn
Speaker 1: in this one compared to the other two. And we'll
Speaker 1: see in a second why that is. When it comes
Speaker 1: to the ingredient list, the total fats twenty two point
Speaker 1: four grams and the saturated's two grams. The carbohydrates about
Speaker 1: sixty one grams sugars sixteen point two so added sugars
Speaker 1: in this product sousy dietary fiber is eight gram sodiums
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy two milligrams per hundred grams. So
Speaker 1: looking at the ingredient list, we've got popcorn as the
Speaker 1: first ingredient at sixty three percent. When we looked at
Speaker 1: the popping microwave one, it had ninety one percent popcorn,
Speaker 1: so that was the highest, and the first coals pre
Speaker 1: made packets was eighty nine percent. So this one the
Speaker 1: COB's one only sitting at sixty seven. It's not a
Speaker 1: huge amount of you know, it's only just over half
Speaker 1: of the product is actually popcorn. The rest of it's
Speaker 1: made up of sunflour, oil, raw sugar, and sea salt.
Speaker 1: So it's added sugars in this one. So it does
Speaker 1: actually taste delicious, SUSI, but we are actually adding sugar
Speaker 1: and extra salt and oil into this as well to
Speaker 1: make out the product. So although it does taste delicious,
Speaker 1: although the serving size is smaller, so of course the
Speaker 1: calorie amount is lower. It's only sixty four calories for
Speaker 1: the little thirteen grand bag. It's definitely not This is
Speaker 1: probably my lowest sort of recommendation because it does have
Speaker 1: the added you know, the addition of the oil, the
Speaker 1: salt and the sugar in this one.
Speaker 3: And I'm just having a look because I'm a bit
Speaker 3: surprised how high in fat all of these popcorns are
Speaker 3: because I'm just looking at Cobs, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: a very well known brand in this space, and you're right,
Speaker 3: you know, they're all coming in at twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: grams percentage fat. Even though because popcorn is so light,
Speaker 3: the individual serves which is making the first one look
Speaker 3: really good at just twelve percent fat. So this is
Speaker 3: the fart by far the lowest one the Cole saltied micropopcorn.
Speaker 4: And I'm a bit shock because I thought there were more.
Speaker 3: That were really sort of basically just popcorn in a
Speaker 3: bit of salt, But no, there's actually not, and I
Speaker 3: guess that's because people don't buy them because they tasting
Speaker 3: exactly that they're too plain compared to these ones. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I really thought cobs would have a plane of variety.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the first one's coming in pretty good. I'm
Speaker 3: just looking though the woolies popping corn kernels, which you can.
Speaker 4: Get to do yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's four point one percent fat, So that's
Speaker 3: just coming from the whole grain. So absolutely if you
Speaker 3: can get the plain one, you're really saving yourself fat
Speaker 3: because you know, if we were talking about chipsley and
Speaker 3: and we were saying, like chips are high fat food,
Speaker 3: they're twenty five percent fat, whereas this is, you know,
Speaker 3: still twenty five percent fat. It's just the benefit is
Speaker 3: that it's a whole grain and very light, so you
Speaker 3: don't actually get enough. But in terms of percentage fat
Speaker 3: they're certainly not low, so you know, if you can
Speaker 3: pop your own, really it's far better nutritionally. But yeah,
Speaker 3: the take home one would have to be the first
Speaker 3: one at twelve percent, which is about half what we're
Speaker 3: finding in all of these varieties, and it was very
Speaker 3: low in sodium as well. That here, at least the
Speaker 3: Cobs use better oil. They're using a sunflow, a higher lake,
Speaker 3: I said, sunflow, which is certainly better I would compared
Speaker 3: to the others, which is a palm So that's in
Speaker 3: their favor as a company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And also the cost wise, like the Cobs is
Speaker 1: you know, three dollars fifteen for a small pack of
Speaker 1: five versus I think the Coals want. I think you
Speaker 1: get a pack of ten, and I think it's you know,
Speaker 1: maybe three dollars or something. So you're getting you know,
Speaker 1: larger packets in the single serve and you're getting double
Speaker 1: the amount as well, So affordability and budget wise, I
Speaker 1: think the Coals one is definitely a better product. So overall,
Speaker 1: I probably would recommend the Calls is my number one,
Speaker 1: despite it having some palm oil in there, but it
Speaker 1: is you know, only one point two grams of saturated
Speaker 1: fat per serving, so it is quite a small amount
Speaker 1: compared to the other too as well.
Speaker 4: No, I would two absolutely.
Speaker 3: I'm just having a look at the Messy Monkeys one
Speaker 3: because that's one that is sort of in the kids
Speaker 3: lunch box snack section. But I think the other take
Speaker 3: home message is if you're going to the movies, you
Speaker 3: are a million times better to take your own than
Speaker 3: the stuff you're getting there, because there is some question
Speaker 3: around the type of fat and whether they even contain
Speaker 3: some trans fats, which we know are almost toxic to
Speaker 3: the body. So even though you would say yes, they
Speaker 3: do have some fat, they're going to have far far
Speaker 3: less and far less salt than when you're getting it
Speaker 3: from the actual outlet. Plus you're going to save a
Speaker 3: lot of money because it's so expensive by there.
Speaker 2: It was like ten dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, certainly popcorn at the movies is not
Speaker 3: a healthy choice by any means, and if you can
Speaker 3: avoid it, you're going to be much better nutritionally with
Speaker 3: any of these that you take in, both from a
Speaker 3: price perspective and nutritionally, because yeah, I'd be sort of
Speaker 3: concerned about the type of fat they're using, and you know,
Speaker 3: even questioning if it does contain some trans fats, but
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to get a number on this. Messy
Speaker 3: Monkey's brand says no palm oil, no MSG lightly salted popcorn.
Speaker 1: So the Messy Monkey is one which is sort of
Speaker 1: marketed at more kids. So thirteen grams serving size is
Speaker 1: much smaller portion, definitely kid appropriate, twenty one point five
Speaker 1: grams of fat, and they are using some flat oil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still twenty three percent fat, so they're not
Speaker 3: like either coals is the winner.
Speaker 1: It is actually very hard to find a pre popped
Speaker 1: popcorn on the market without either some sort of butter
Speaker 1: or butter equivalent or some sort of oil in it.
Speaker 1: They're actually quite high and in fat when you look
Speaker 1: at it in terms of the nutrient panel overall, but
Speaker 1: in terms of the serving sizes, like thirteen grams for
Speaker 1: little kids, it's got you know, two point eight grams
Speaker 1: of fat total, so it is you know, a lower
Speaker 1: amountain I do, you know, I'd much prefer the meeting
Speaker 1: something like popcorn than I would, you know, a bag
Speaker 1: of potato chips, So I do think, you know, popcorn
Speaker 1: definitely has a place in the market, particularly because it
Speaker 1: is a whole grain as well, so we're adding beneficial
Speaker 1: five but into our diet, particularly for our gut heals
Speaker 1: as well, and it's very allergy friendly as well. Popcorn,
Speaker 1: the pain in the butt is that it does tend
Speaker 1: to get stuck in your teeth. So I used to
Speaker 1: always hate taking it as a work snack because I
Speaker 1: could never brush my teeth afterwards. I need to floss
Speaker 1: after I have some popcorn.
Speaker 3: And you do have to be careful with smaller kids
Speaker 3: obviously because of the small pieces around it. But you know,
Speaker 3: it's certainly if your kids like it, and it's you know,
Speaker 3: a packet snack, it's a million times better than biscuits
Speaker 3: and sweet products like that, So there's certainly a place
Speaker 3: for it. And I'd be looking for ones with better
Speaker 3: quality oil and the lower the sodium. So and if
Speaker 3: you can get away with getting that rather than buying
Speaker 3: the movie popcorn, you'll be on the right track as well.
Speaker 1: So Nutrition Couch green Light for the home brand again,
Speaker 1: so budget friendly and probably the better option out of
Speaker 1: the three that we looked at today. Susie True True True,
Speaker 1: which is very pertinent at the moment when we're paying
Speaker 1: twelve dollars for lettuce and eight dollars for a broccoli.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that brings us to the end of
Speaker 1: the Nutrition Couch product review for another week.
Speaker 2: Susie.
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Speaker 4: Have a great week.