Confused about microwave popcorn nutrition info...
LarryPGH
Posts: 349 Member
OK, so while I was at Target, I picked up some "Market Pantry Whole Grain Microwave Popcorn with butter", and now that I look at it, the nutrition facts are making me scratch my head.
There's one entry here that looks similar, but the one in the database says "with 94% fat-free butter", which is something that my box of popcorn doesn't say.
I'm wondering exactly how many calories that a bag of popcorn has, but it seems that the nutrition facts are worded in a way specifically designed to be confusing! Here's what it says:
Serving size 2 Tbsp (35g) unpopped (makes about 4 cups popped)
Servings per Bag about 2.5
Amount ................ 2 Tbsp. ............... 1 cup
Per Serving .......... Unpopped ............ Popped
Calories .................. 150 ................ 25
Now, here's where I'm confused. If 2 tbsp unpopped makes about 4 cups popped, and 2 tbsp unpopped is 150 calories, how can 1/4 of unpopped kernels -- which should make 1 cup popped, right? -- be 150 * 1/4 (that is, 37) calories, when the number for "1 cup popped" is 25 calories?
Moreover, they're saying that their bag of popcorn turns out 2.5 * 4 = 10 cups of popcorn? That seems like a lot. On this scale, then, a bag of popcorn produces either 2.5 *150 = 375 cals (if we go by the "unpopped" number) or 4 * 2.5 * 25 = 250 calories (if we go by the "popped" number).
So, which is it? 375 / bag or 250 / bag? :huh: :grumble:
Can anybody make any better sense of this? Am I missing something?
(Edited to try and format the table of Nutrition Facts...)
There's one entry here that looks similar, but the one in the database says "with 94% fat-free butter", which is something that my box of popcorn doesn't say.
I'm wondering exactly how many calories that a bag of popcorn has, but it seems that the nutrition facts are worded in a way specifically designed to be confusing! Here's what it says:
Serving size 2 Tbsp (35g) unpopped (makes about 4 cups popped)
Servings per Bag about 2.5
Amount ................ 2 Tbsp. ............... 1 cup
Per Serving .......... Unpopped ............ Popped
Calories .................. 150 ................ 25
Now, here's where I'm confused. If 2 tbsp unpopped makes about 4 cups popped, and 2 tbsp unpopped is 150 calories, how can 1/4 of unpopped kernels -- which should make 1 cup popped, right? -- be 150 * 1/4 (that is, 37) calories, when the number for "1 cup popped" is 25 calories?
Moreover, they're saying that their bag of popcorn turns out 2.5 * 4 = 10 cups of popcorn? That seems like a lot. On this scale, then, a bag of popcorn produces either 2.5 *150 = 375 cals (if we go by the "unpopped" number) or 4 * 2.5 * 25 = 250 calories (if we go by the "popped" number).
So, which is it? 375 / bag or 250 / bag? :huh: :grumble:
Can anybody make any better sense of this? Am I missing something?
(Edited to try and format the table of Nutrition Facts...)
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Replies
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Isn't it the most confusing thing in the world. I buy my kids the ones that say right on the box that the bag is 100 calories--just so I don't have to think about it.0
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250....the bags I eat all the time have 12 cups popped which = 300 calories...I dont care what anyone says popcorn is where your bang for the buck is...1
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It's seriously confusing! And I consider myself a math guy, too!!!0
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Most brands of microwave popcorn rot my stomach. Feel horrible the next day, the butter in there is like pure lard or something and salty! Everytime I eat it have the worst next day (probably because every time I do eat it I'm also drinking and not thinking clearly!)0
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Good question. I always wonder the same thing. I hope someone has the answer!0
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ok, so you would simply do the 2tbs nutrition facts times the amount per bag....0
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I am always confused on that! I have never seen nutrition facts look so stupid before! I eat Pop Weaver Popcorn and someone on here entered it as Pop Weaver 280 Calories Bag...so I use that one?0
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From my understanding, you cannot go by the "unpopped" number at all (unless you are eating unpopped popcorn) because parts of the kernel are destroyed by the mini explosion that turns the kernel into popped corn. This mini explosion reduces the amount of calories drastically. Since the kernel and the pop corn are two chemically different substances there is no or very little corrilation between the calories in one and the calories in the other. Our bodies also digest popped corn more effectively than unpopped kernels which may have something to do with it.0
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You could always just not eat the popcorn. I stopped bothering with it a long time ago. It's really not that good to snack on.0
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It's 250 calories. Always look at the "popped" info. 10 cups does seem like a lot but I actually measured it once and it's true. The problem is the density of popcporn, it takes up a lot of room but does't weigh hardly anything at all. Also, be sure you read the fine print on the box (under the nutrition table) to find the true number of fat grams, carbs, etc.
I stopped buying the brands that have that type of misleading information. Popcorn has way more calories than people realize because the nutrition panel gives values based on only 1 cup popped when in fact, each bag has between 8-10 cups. You will see many entries in the MFP database that are wrong because people don't know how to interpret the confusing nutrition label. Now I buy the brands sold in mini bags and all info is given to you by the entire bag.0 -
just stop getting those bags of microwave popcorn. any popcorn can be popped in a microwave, put a few tablespoons of kernels in a paper lunch bag with a little bit of oil and some popcorn salt, staple it shut and pop it in the microwave.1
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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.
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Unless you're eating spoonfuls of unpopped popcorn kernels, always ignore the nutrition info there.
Most "regular" sized bags of popcorn contain between 10-12.5 cups of popped corn after microwaving (depending on the size of the popped kernels).
So to find the total calories for one full bag, just multiply the number of calories in the popped serving size by the number of popped servings in the bag.
The only caveat is that I've seen brands give nutritionals for one cup popped, then say that a serving size is four or five cups and then give a number of servings per bag based on that serving size (typically 2.5). So if you were to multiply the nutritional info by 2.5 you'd be grossly low because you'd have to actually first multiply it by how many cups is in the serving and then by the servings per bag.
Oh, and the Jolly Time 94% fat free regular size bags say 100 calories/3 WW PP points all over the boxes and even directly on the bags. But thats per serving, even though the lil' blue oval doesn't say that on the front. And the large bags are 2.5 servings, so 250 cal/7.5 points. And the new boxes are a bit clearer, but a box that I found in the snack drawer at work only had the 100 cal/3 point info everywhere but in one fine printed area to the side of the nutrition label. My poor coworker had been eating the entire full size bag thinking it was 100 cal until I pointed it out. (I knew that 100cal for a full sized bag was too good to be true, but I actually had to get to the Jolly Time website to find actual, clear, info cuz nothing on the bag or box was clear enough to go off of.0 -
I just today came across this great popcorn debate. I don't know why the NI has to be so difficult to understand. I did notice on the popcorn I eat there is teeny tiny print with a teeny tiny * next to it that reads
*amount in unpopped popcorn. As popped 1 cup provides 0.5g fat, 0g satureated fat, 0g trans fat, 48mg sodium, 3 g total carbohydrates, <1g fiber 0g protiein. And one cup of popped corn has 20 calories.0 -
Hey look! We were talking about Popcorn back in February!!!0
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I buy Amish popcorn (ingredients = popcorn, nothing else), pour it into a paper lunch bag and microwave it, air popper it or put it in my "over the campfire popper". No salt, no additives, unless I add them. Nutrition info on the label easy to understand. The kind that comes on the hulls is fun! Good stuff and no hassle 0
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Can you really call it "Amish" if you used a microwave to pop it?0
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Can you really call it "Amish" if you used a microwave to pop it?
Lol! Hahaha! Touché!0 -
So yeah...whole grain popcorn...
All popcorn is whole grain.
Hope you didn't pay more for that...lol0 -
I like the Pop Secret (Butter) brand. I looked at the nutrition label for several minutes before I consulted my friend--a calculus nerd--and after having it explained several times, I think I understand. It's very tricky. I'm going to take it slow.
serving size: 2 tbsp unpopped / 4.5 cups popped
servings per bag: 3
So that would be roughly 13.5 cups of popped popcorn per bag, right? And come on, really, 1 bag is 1 serving for most of us. So we'll simplify the above to the following:
serving size x servings = 6 tbsp unpopped / 13.5 cups popped
Now that we have that figured out, we looked at the calories. According to my box, below is what they offer for calories per serving:
2 tbsp unpopped = 180 calories
1 cup popped = 30 calories
However, there's still more math involved to figure out the actual calories in 1 bag. Multiply the calories by the actual serving size.
6 / 2 x 180 = 540 unpopped
30 x 13.5 = 405 popped
So, per bag, the final calorie count comes out to 540 unpopped / 405 popped. That is way more than I had assumed, which is probably they make it so confusing to figure out.0 -
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.0 -
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.0
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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.0
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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.
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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.1 -
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).0 -
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.
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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.0
This discussion has been closed.
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