Warning on Microwave Buttered Popcorn, and How to Make Healthy Popcorn

Our family of seven enjoys eating a lot of popcorn for the health and economy of it. Never using microwave varieties, we use the method Dr. Kim describes. We add real butter and, this is our favourite way to eat it, nutritional yeast. Try it, with or without the butter.
Thank you for your newsletter, Dr. Kim.

We use the all natural microwave popcorn, no artificial anything. Whenever we've tried making popcorn the way Dr. Kim describes it, it always turns out soggy. Too much steam I suppose. That's why we've chosen the all natural type of microwave popcorn. Then, typically we add powdered garlic - yum! We also don't eat it very often, 1 or two times per month perhaps.

Thanks Dr. Kim for all your excellent advice.

My husband and I have been making our own popcorn this way for years. The only difference is that I will squeeze a clove or two of raw garlic, add the juice to the olive oil and then drizzle it on the popcorn. It is far superior to any prepared popcorn on the market!

Dr. Kim,

I saw the article in the NYT as well and had a good chuckle although his situation is a serious one. Just another instance of a company not telling people what is actually hurting them.

On another note, I was curious about how you feel about the saturated fat debate today? That is, how vegetable-based saturated fats are much better at withstanding heat and cooking with (like extra-virgin coconut oil and palm oil) rather than an polyunsaturated oil (like extra-virgin olive oil) that has its EFAs mutate into transfats when even a low heat is applied to them giving the liver an unnecessary work out to break down the mutant transfats.

That said, I completely agree that extra-virgin olive oil is fantastic when sprinkled on top of fresh popcorn with some gray sea-salt and should put melted butter to rest.

Thanks for the great newsletter too, Dr. Kim! It's always welcome in my inbox. :)

I've heard from a few good sources that heating olive oil is not good. An even better recipe is to use coconut oil in place of the olive oil...you can also crank the heat up a little higher in this case without the oil smoking. This makes for delicious popcorn.

We use a hot-air popcorn maker we've had for 24 years - works great and you can use actual melted butter or coconut oil (or no fat!)on your popcorn, then add sea salt.

I like to make a sweet popcorn adding stevia and lots of cinnamon to the melted butter before I pour it over the popcorn - it satisfies my sweet tooth!

At our house, we've been making popcorn with organic coconut oil the past several years. The popcorn is so good this way I rarely even want to add butter. And, yes, coconut oil hangs tough in high temperatures. That's another reason I like to use it.

You remember how movie popcorn used to taste in the good old days? When you could eat a huge bag of it and enjoy every kernel? Well, that's because most theaters used to pop with coconut oil or palm oil. Then in the early 90's (I think it was) the so-called Center for Science in the Public Interest made a huge stink about using coconut and palm oils and most theaters switched over to popping with partially hydrogenated soybean oil or canola oil. Ugh, gag me with a spoon!

Apparently some theaters have quietly flown under the politically correct food police radar and gone back to popping with coconut oil, but that's not the case in the town where I live, where the popcorn tastes so bad there are days I don't even buy a bag.

Indeed, the popcorn problems at our local multiplex are so maddening I'm tempted to smuggle my own corn into the theater. In fact, I may try it one of these days. I'll brazenly walk in with a big open container of popcorn. Most likely they'll start acting like Nazis, telling me in a firm voice, "You can't bring that in here!" My response will be: "Because of my heart, my doctor said I had to eat popcorn popped with the oil he prescribed." If that doesn't get me into the theater with my own popcorn, nothing will.

Finally, Dr. Kim has excellent articles about healthy oils here on his site, and you'll also find plenty of good reading on the topic at http://westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html#art

Chet "Pop Me Up a Big Sack of Corn with Coconut Oil" Day

In our house we use extra virgin organic coconut butter to pop our porcorn and lots of it. The way that it works with your metabolism and thyroid in my opinion makes a ususally fattening snack almost a calorie-burner. After doing some research in the past, the debate is still there but the saturated fats in tropical oils that are processed correctly are not as hard on the body as other saturated fats.

The smell in the house after we pop it is reminisent of the old days when they popped popcorn in the theaters in coconut butter (unfortunately hydrogenated at the time.) But the smell and the taste is out of this world!

Nancy

We have used the brown paper bag method in the microwave. Then sprinkle on some parmesan cheese or a little chili powder with a little melted butter and it tastes great. We will try the olive oil dripped on top. Otherwise we will just use the airpopper. Never did like the high fat content in the bought popcorn packets.

I use a hot air popper, put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the bowl where the popcorn will go into. I add some sea salt to the oil. The heat from the hot air popper heats the oil and disolves the salt. I stir it around a bit. I don't know if the next step is healthy or not. I add some parmesean cheese to the popcorn.
Delicious!