Searching for the Best Popcorn

by Shereen Jegtvig

In my last post, I offered some tips for buying and making healthier popcorn. Plain popcorn is very good for you because it’s high in fiber and low in calories, but when you use lots of oil or butter, you can easily double the calories and add unhealthy trans-fats or saturated fats (depending on what types of oil you use).

While popping your own corn is the best way to prepare healthy popcorn, there may be times when you want the convenience of popcorn that you make in your microwave, so in this post, we’ll use the FoodEssentials database to hunt for the best types of microwave popcorn. First, we’ll look for fat grams and calories – hopefully we’ll find some low-fat, yet tasty, brands of popcorn. We’ll also look for the brands that contain the least amounts of additives by searching of unnecessary preservatives and colors. Last, we’ll snoop through the lists to see what types of sneaky allergens may be lurking in those bags of popcorn.

Fat and Calories

We’ll start by searching for ‘popcorn’ and arranging the list by amount of total fat per 100 grams of popcorn.

There are four different varieties of Orville Redenbacher’s microwave popcorn that are at the top of the chart for being low in fat. They’re joined by Act II 94% Fat Free brand and Healthy Choice Natural Low Fat. Let’s look closer at these low-fat snacks. The Orville Redenbacher’s brands all contain extra additives such as artificial flavorings and colors. The Healthy Choice brand is low fat and doesn’t have added artificial ingredients, so it’s probably the best choice if you’re looking for low-fat popcorn.

Preservatives and Colors

We can also look at the preservatives and coloring used in all of the brands of popcorn.

Wise brands offer several brands of popcorn without preservatives, however, we find that the Wise brands use artificial colors.

While the Orville Redenbacher’s Butter and Healthy Choice are both preservative free and colored with natural salt (but the Orville Redenbacher’s contains some artificial flavors.

Looks like the Healthy Choice popcorn comes out on top again.

Possible Allergens

Perhaps your main concern for choosing a particular brand of popcorn is about some type of hidden allergen. Anyone with allergies knows just how sneaky some of those food manufacturers can be. Obviously, if you’re allergic to corn, you’re not going to be able to eat popcorn, but if you are allergic to dairy, soy , peanuts, or eggs, you’ll need to look at the following lists to see which brands to avoid.

You’ll notice that Healthy Choice doesn’t show up in red on any of these lists.

And the Winner Is…

The Healthy Choice brand popcorn is a very good choice for a convenient and healthy snack. It’s low in fat and calories and doesn’t contain many additional ingredients.

Use our Foodessentials database to explore other types of snacks:

Cashew Snacks For Presence of Soy

Artificial Color Yellow-Free Corn Snacks

Mixed Nuts by Calories

Mixed Nuts by Amount of Sodium

What Else Would You Like to Know About the Foods You Eat?

Shereen Jegtvig has a masters degree in human nutrition and 16 years clinical experience in nutritional counseling. She writes about nutrition for About.com and TypeAMom.net.  She is also the co-author of the upcoming book, Superfoods For Dummies.

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