Confused about microwave popcorn nutrition info...

deckerjj

Happened to notice this while looking for something else, so I'll put my two cents into this:

Popcorn is a good weight loss tool, but most of those microwaved popcorn bags are not. The reason why is because they tend to be pretty heavily loaded with hydrogenated oils and a little too much salt. This is even true of the so called "light" ones. If you are only concerned about calories, they push that a bit high too.

In addition to that, they are expensive.

What I like to do is this: Buy a bag of kroger white popcorn seeds, and put four tablespoons inside of a brown lunch bag, and put that in the microwave for 90 seconds, pull the popcorn out of the bag without removing the seeds at the bottom, then pop those for another 60 seconds. Time will vary depending on your microwave, but the goal is to pop as many seeds as possible without browning the popcorn too much (otherwise it loses a bit of its flavor.)

This results in very fluffy popcorn, and the bag is very much reusable afterwards. Then spray them with butter spray. I like either parkay butter spray or the kernel season's popcorn spritzer, though the later is probably healthier. Then after that I use kernel season's ranch and white cheddar. You'll end up with lots of popcorn while being under 180 calories (not all of the kernels end up popped and the ones that do get popped end up losing calories during the chemical reaction,) almost zero fat and very low sodium, and the whole snack will have cost you about 30 cents, as opposed to these bags which can run about 3 dollars each.

Yes, you'll literally save ten times as much money and consume a lot less calories this way. I've also tried griddle popping and air popping, but it doesn't turn out as fluffy as the way I described above. In addition, the brand of popcorn makes a difference - I've found I like kroger white kernels the best - and it's cheap too.

Another good weight loss snack is jerky - though that's another subject.

takumaku

OP, the reason the popped calorie content is different from the unpopped is the amount of unpopped kernels and residual oil left oil from the cooking process (and in theory not eaten) is subtracted from the final product.

armfriz

Takumaku got it exactly right. Unless you are licking the inside of the bag dry and eating all of the unpopped kernels, you are not going to get the unpopped kernel calories listed. The manufacturer is required by law to put the raw calorie count (unpopped) on the bag (that has since been changed and some are starting to leave it out), they are doing you a service by giving you the second number and estimating what average residual product (fat/sugar and unpopped kernels) is left in the bag and not eaten.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Bump...just had a bag of Orville Redenbacher's - Natural Simply Salted - Microwave Popcorn...the label says 170 cals, after eating the popcorn and then re-reading the label--it was confusing to me, so I googled it and I found a twitter discussion from a person that contacted Con-agra to find out why the confusing label and the discussion had a link to this discussion...ONE bag of this popcorn is far more than 170 cals. One of the many listing for this popcorn on Mfp food database (with 6 confirmations) has this micro-wavable bag at a whopping 425 cals for one bag.

cmtigger

Mickmelie wrote: »

You can get a hot air popper at Wal Mart or Target for $20 or less. Just dump some seeds in and and push the button. No oil or anything needed. I'd probably die without mine. I love hot air popped popcorn.

My hot air popper sends popcorn flying in all directions. It's very annoying.

I use a glass popper that you put the kernels in and put it in the microwave.

Francl27

NewLIFEstyle4ME wrote: »

Bump...just had a bag of Orville Redenbacher's - Natural Simply Salted - Microwave Popcorn...the label says 170 cals, after eating the popcorn and then re-reading the label--it was confusing to me, so I googled it and I found a twitter discussion from a person that contacted Con-agra to find out why the confusing label and the discussion had a link to this discussion...ONE bag of this popcorn is far more than 170 cals. One of the many listing for this popcorn on Mfp food database (with 6 confirmations) has this micro-wavable bag at a whopping 425 cals for one bag.

Sounds about right.

But seriously, buy your own air popper so you can just weigh your kernels yourself. Much less of a headache (or buy 100 calories bags of popcorn or something).

tsukinomahou

After this lengthy discussion, I still do not see a proper answer regarding how to calculate *all* of the nutritional information in a bag of microwaved popcorn.

The example I have is Orville Redenbacher's Smart Pop 94% Fat Free Kettle Corn, Classic Bag. One bag is 76.3 gms. One cup popped is 15 calories. A serving is 6.5 cups popped, so 6.5 cups x 15 =97.5 calories. There are 2 servings per bag or 2 x 97 = 194 calories. That part I have figured out.

Where I am stumped is on the rest of the nutrition label. Can anyone please calculate this per cup of popped corn? They list if for unpopped corn, but trying to translate the fats, carbohydrates, fiber, sodium, etc. from unpopped corn to popped is very confusing!

Total fat 2 gm (3% unpopped Daily Value (DV), 0% DV for popped)
Saturated fat 0.5 gm (3% unpopped DV, 0% DV for popped)
Polyunsaturated fat 0.5 gm
Sodium 150 mg (6% unpopped DV, 1% popped DV)
Potassium 110 mg (3% unpopped DV, 0% popped DV)
Total Carbohydrates 27 gm (9% unpopped DV, 1% popped DV)
Dietary Fiber 4 gm (16% unpopped DV, 0% popped DV)
Protein 4 gm
Iron (4% DV unpopped, 0% popped DV)

DV = Daily Value

I know for example that 13 popped cups of corn are not going to contain 0% fiber! This nutritional label is confusing!

And please don't interject comments like "this is how to pop corn in a paper bag" or anything else that doesn't directly address the issue of calculating popcorn nutrition info, which is what this thread is about, so can we please stick to the topic at hand?

It would be nice to figure this out once and for all.

tsukinomahou

I got an answer from one manufacturer, American Pop Corn Company, which makes Jolly Time popcorn.

The product I inquired about is Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter 85 gm bag (3 ounce bag).

The confusion for me, which they assisted me with, is the result of numbers which are greater than 0 yet less than 1. So a value which states <1 gm for 1 cup of popped corn or even 0 may be .5 or .99 per cup of popped corn, which when multiplied by the number of cups eaten could be a much larger number.

By the way, this is not the type of inquiry a typical customer service rep can handle. It requires input from a nutritionist or dietitian, or other specialist within the company, as they are using "actuals" or actual numbers, versus the rounded off numbers found on a typical nutrition label on a box of popcorn.

To illustrate: The box states 2 gms of total fat in 2 Tbsp of unpopped, or 0 gms in one cup of popped. However, the "actual" number is not 0 gms for popped, but instead is 0.3 gms (which for the label has been rounded down to 0). Therefore, for 5 cups of popped corn, there would be 0.3 gms x 5 = 1.5 gms of total fat.

Actual numbers for one cup of popped corn:

Total fat 0.3 gm
Saturated fat 0.1 gm
Polyunsaturated fat 0.2 gm
Total carbs 4.8 gm
Fiber .938 gm
Protein .6 gm

For five cups of popped corn (one serving size), these numbers would be:

Total fat 1.5 gm
Saturated fat .5 gm
Polyunsaturated fat 1 gm
Total carbs 24 gms
Fiber 5 gms
Sugar .4
Protein 3 gms

For one 85 gm bag, or 12.5 cups popped, these numbers would be:

Total fat 3.8 gms
Saturated fat 1.2 gms
Polyunsaturated fat 2.5 gms
Total carbs 60 gms
Fiber 12.5 gms
Sugars 1 gm
Protein 7.5 gms

Therefore, the numbers printed on cartons of popcorn for one cup of popped corn should not be used to calculate the nutritional value of an entire bag of popcorn.

Other numbers:

For five cups:

Sodium 225 mg
Iron: 3.8% (rounded up to 4%) - vitamins and minerals use a different calculation since they are percentages.
Vitamin A: 1.8% (rounded up to 2%)

For 12.5 cups or an entire bag of popcorn:

Sodium 562.5 mg
Vitamin A 5%
Iron 10%


I have not yet received a satisfactory answer from ConAgra Foods, which makes Orville Redenbacher. Two customer service reps gave me wildly differing answers. If you call these manufacturers, you have to be very specific about what you are looking for; otherwise, they will likely just go by what is on the box, which does not translate from one popped cup to an entire bag of popped corn, as I have attempted to illustrate here. Your best bet is to ask to speak with a specialist who has this information.

Note: I have to doublecheck the fiber number but everything else should be accurate.