How many calories in showcase popcorn

We took a look at some of the calorie counts from movie-theater popcorn sold at national theater chains via MyFitnessPal , and the results are pretty shocking. For example, a small popcorn, without butter, from AMC weighs in at calories and 11 grams of fat.

A large AMC popcorn, without butter, contains 1, calories and 41 grams of fat. Moving along to Regal Cinemas, things get even heavier. There are a couple of differing calorie counts for a small, unbuttered popcorn, but they range from calories and 27 grams of fat to calories and 34 grams of fat.

Either way, not a light nosh. Both Regal and AMC pop their popcorn in the incredibly unhealthy coconut oil, which is essentially all artery-clogging saturated fat. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. During the s, the kernels were popped manually, being sold under names such as Pearls and Nonpareil which means having no match.

These manually popped corns were sold across the east coast of the United States. It was only until when the term popped corn was coined by one John Russel Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanisms. Charles Cretor has been accredited with creating the first official, steam-powered popcorn maker in the s. They were originally used for roasting nuts, but Charles saw the opportunity to pop kernels on them as well.

Fast forward to the 20 th century, and popcorn was starting to take the world by storm. It was extremely popular during the Great Depression due to its low cost of 5 cents per bag. As you know, from that point onwards, popcorn has taken the world by storm. To cut a long story short — the price was the main catalyst for the huge boom of popcorn in movie theaters. Expanded the story just a little — back when movie theaters only played silent films, it was extremely silly to offer a loud, crunchy food to patrons disturbing the others around them.

They had absolutely no interest in serving popcorn. This boom led to far more visitors and a far wider range as well. And the calorie large became a 1,calorie behemoth with 57 grams of sat fat. Toppings: Fake-butter fans must love AMC. The chain lets patrons pump their own "buttery" topping. No skimpy tablespoon of extra fat on a small or two tablespoons on a large, like Regal claims to use.

With calories per tablespoon, you should be able to squeeze another to calories into the bucket of fat cells in your lap. The OmniHeart diets weren't designed to melt pounds, even though many of the participants were overweight or obese. In a separate study, Sacks put overweight adults on diets that were high or low in fat, carbs, or protein.

After two years, weight loss was about the same. However, we've tweaked the diet to make it easier for people to lose—or not gain—weight by cutting caloric beverages and eating foods that are less calorie dense.

Cinemark, with theaters in 39 states, deserves some applause. The nation's third largest chain pops in non-hydrogenated canola oil instead of coconut. Assuming you add no "buttery" topping, your heart can escape a Cinemark popcorn relatively unscathed. Your belly and blood pressure won't be so lucky. If you share an unbuttered 8-cup small with a fellow moviegoer, each of you will walk away with about calories seasoned with milligrams of sodium. That's the best you can expect from movie theater popcorn, unless you ask the theater to pop you a batch without salt.

A medium popcorn 14 cups at Cinemark reaches calories and a large 17 cups hits calories and 1, mg of sodium—an entire day's quota. Since when is half-a-day's-calories' worth of corn, oil, and salt called a "snack"?

Toppings: Cinemark may use the healthiest popping oil, but you can still run into problems at the pump. At some Cinemarks, the topping is essentially the same "buttery" non-hydrogenated soybean oil used by other chains.

So for each tablespoon that you or the servers pour over your popcorn, you're adding another calories that we're guessing you won't burn by the end of the day. At other Cinemarks especially in the West , the topping is made from real butter. Would you add butter to your French fries? Each tablespoon of the butter topping delivers 9 grams of saturated fat—half a day's limit—plus 0.

So get out the calculator…and that extra dose of Lipitor. You just turned your large popcorn into two Big Macs. A bag or tub of popcorn can make you thirsty, and theaters aren't about to let their customers suffer. So they offer sodas to wash down the salt and oil. At Regal, a medium combo a medium popcorn plus a medium drink has 1, calories. That's like eating six scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, four bacon strips, and four sausage links before the lights come up.

A small ranges from 16 ounces 2 cups at Cinemark to 32 ounces 4 cups at Regal. Assume that about a quarter of it is filled with ice. Even so, you're talking to calories' worth of sugar unless you get a diet soda or water. A large is only for those who possess a reinforced bladder or arrive with a supply of Depends.