Did you catch this recent study from the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CPSI) studying movie popcorn?
If not, I’ll summarise it for you.
Remember a few months ago, when Ilana compared a Starbucks Frappuccino with a McDonalds hamburger? The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published an article in their latest magazine titled ” Movie Theatres Fill Buckets and Bellies”. The CPSI sent movie popcorn off to the lab to find out what damage movie popcorn could do to your diet. They sent samples of popcorn and toppings from the three largest theatre chains to an independent lab for analysis. Just to be thorough they chose popcorn from three different theatres for each chain.
The lab reported that at Regal Theatres, a medium and a large popcorn each has 1,200 calories and three days’ worth of saturated fat. At Regal Theatres, a “small” popcorn with no topping has 34 grams of saturated fat. So even if you split it with a friend (unlikely as it is small), you each get nearly a day’s worth of saturated fat. A small popcorn has the same calories as a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza and each medium or large popcorn has the same calories as two pizzas. But the two pizzas pack “only” a day’s worth of saturated fat— the medium or large popcorn has three days’ worth. (Now are you truly regretting skipping the pizza to “only” have popcorn at the movie?)
To add insult to injury, at Regal the “medium” and the “large” hold the exact same amount of popcorn even though the large costs more.
The study concluded that a bucket of Regal movie popcorn has the same calories and saturated fat as “a Hamburger plus a Quarter Pounder plus a Big Mac at Mcdonald’s”. AMC and Cinemark are the other two chains covered.
So if you are headed out to the movies this weekend, check out the full Movie Popcorn Equals Three McDonalds burgers here. The study also analyzed movie soda and candy.
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