h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Popcorn made in a hot air popcorn maker and eaten without any sort of additive such as salt or butter is a very healthy snack and good for filling you up when you are peckish. Despite what it says in this entry, it is far healthier than toffee-covered popcorn made by frying the corn in oil.

Of course toffee popcorn isn't healthy. The source is made with syrup, butter and sugar, not a very nutritous combination. But that's not the point. Toffee popcorn's best for a treat when going to the cinema, not as regular snack food. Hot air cooked popcorn is undoubtably healthier, but if eaten often, on the whole, it isn't. The corn itself is 75% starch, 11% protein and 5% fat. That's a lot of carbohydrates, which are easily converted into fats. Popcorn's simply not healthy, but as a one-off, it doesn't really matter.

But if you want really healthy popcoren you eat it in it's original form as sweetcorn.

But that's no fun.

I disagree with unconformity, by the way. Carbohydrates are a large part of a healthy diet.

They are indeed, but toffee sauce isn't. I really don't know what point me four years ago was trying to make as my post there doesn't make any sense, popcorn with no oil or additives is a relatively healthy snack.

Well there's probably a lot of truth on that. It *is* basically a vegetable. It's the oil/sauce/salt/butter that's the unhealthy part.

The thing is, it takes only a few tablespoons of corn kernels to make a huge mixing bowl full. So if you're having 20g of corn, you get a huge amount with, going by the listing "75% starch, 11% protein and 5% fat"

15 g carbohydrates
2.2 g protein
1 g fat.

Truly terrible

Doesn't sound like the most healthy option really then.

As I said in the first posting, pure popcorn without salt or butter is very healthy, as it fills you up with giving you bad stuff, which is what you need a snack to do.

And can be more fun than a bowl of sweetcorn.