A film executive has urged cinemas to offer healthier food, but actually popcorn is relatively nutritious – as long as you lay off the buttery oil, writes Kate Holmquist
CINEMAGOERS COULD soon be munching fruit and crudites if an international film boss has his way. Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures, has urged cinema chain owners to join the fight against obesity by replacing popcorn with healthier snacks. Yet popcorn has a healthy reputation in Ireland. “Popcorn is a healthy whole food,” confirms Richard Burton, founder and director of the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health.
It seems that the panic over popcorn is a case study in how a food scare can challenge common sense. The controversy started in the US last November when the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reported that, in the US, a medium tub of popcorn with a non-diet soft drink was equal in calories and fat to three McDonald’s quarter pounders plus 12 individual-sized pats of butter. A medium-sized popcorn and a drink at Regal cinemas, the biggest chain in the US, contained 1,620 calories and 60g of saturated fat – roughly the amount of fat in a quarter pound of butter. The popcorn tested had butter-flavoured oil at the customer’s request.
Dr Marian Faughnan, specialist in nutrition at Safefood, says plain popcorn is the healthiest food at the cinema but you should be aware of portion size. A small box – the most popular size – purchased in an Irish cinema weighs 30g and has 0.2 g of salt and 140 calories, according to The Irish Popcorn and Snackfood Company, which has sent its popcorn for calorie-analysis and supplies 80 per cent of cinemas in the Republic. “A study led by Dr Joe Vinson, a chemist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, found that popcorn and other wholegrain cereals contain surprisingly large amounts of polyphenol, a type of antioxidant linked to a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases,” says Clare Stewart of the Irish Popcorn and Snackfood Company.
Dr Faughnan suggests that to judge how many calories are in your popcorn, remember a 30g bag of shop-bought popcorn has 150 calories. So a large tub of popcorn at the cinema is equivalent to several bags. It’s easy to overeat at the cinema, but if the portion is small, it is just as satisfying, since it’s not hunger that rules the act of eating there, but thoughtless hand-to-mouth action.
Dr Faughnan adds that the calories and saturated fat in Irish cinema popcorn could reach US-style calorie levels if buttery oil is added. Some Irish cinemas offer this oil, which has about 130 calories and 9g of saturated fat per tablespoon. The IMC chain – which doesn’t offer it – receives the occasional complaint from people who want it. IMC’s research has found Irish cinemagoers don’t want healthy options, and the smoothies it introduced are not selling. “Cinemagoing is linked to indulgence,” says an IMC spokesperson. The Irish Popcorn and Snackfood Company has also introduced “healthier” options, such as an organic slushie, but cinemagoers don’t want them.
It seems that it will take more than a popcorn panic to change Irish eating habits – at the cinema, anyway.
