Welcome to Omgili,
Omgili ( Oh My God I Love It ;) is a search engine for discussions. With Omgili you can find answers and solutions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, opinions and more... To learn more about Omgili click here.
This is a complete preview of the discussion as it was indexed by Omgili crawlers. Use this preview if the original discussion is unavailable.
Click here to view the original discussion.
 |
|
 |
|
Popcorn - health food or junk food? - VegFamily Vegan Forums
I gave up popcorn when my little guy was big enough to be interested in it ...
Thinking it fell in the junk food category.
But after reading about it on this forum, I rushed out and bought some organic popcorn, popped it in canola oil, added nutritional yeast and raisins and chowed down ...
As did my 3-year-old!
Now I'm wondering if this was wise.
How do others incorporate popcorn?
The two of us shared a big bowl two days in a row!
Maybe "in moderation" would be a good idea?!
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Well if it comes down to a choice between popcorn and other junk food like chips or something, I would choose the popcorn.
Also, you could air pop it if you wanted to and thus reduce the fat.
After we make our popcorn we season it with Vegit and sometimes other things.
Homemade popcorn is not too bad in my opinion.
It's the stuff at the movies that dastardly!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I agree with Erin.
I guess it depends on how you define junk food.
We pop our popcorn at home in canola or olive oil & add nutritional yeast to it, as well.
My girls & I love it & eat it sometimes once/week, sometimes several times/week.
The way that I look at it, "junk food" is usually something with hydrogenated oils, refined sugar, food coloring, and/or no vitamins or other beneficial stuff!
Homemade popcorn like you did has lots of fiber (great for your intestinal tract!), whatever vitamins your nutritional yeast has (at least B-12), & some fat, but a reasonably healthy fat, & everyone, especially kids, has to have some fat in their diets.
Definately better than many snack foods.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I think that kids are going to want some kind of "treat" or "junk food." If you have them think its junk food, then they will want it.
If they think its healthy, then it won't be a treat.
(Kinda like what we all heard as kids...
No dessert until your dinner plate is clean!
We wanted dessert, no matter what it was, because it a treat.)
I would say go for the popcorn.
You may also want to try Lemon Pepper spice on popcorn too.
Someone I babysat for used it, and I was surprised at how good it tasted!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am super picky about what we eat around my home and i say, *popcorn's in!* (my family just loves to criticize me on this one frequently..*how can peanut butter & jelly be junk food?!* well, if it were real pb&j not overly processed sugared up junk on white bread...ugh) if it's the fat you're worried about, make sure you use a good oil (high in monounsaturated fats) or air pop as erin suggested.
But IMHO, the oil's a positive thing...it adds a level of flavor and some fat to our fairly fat-less diet.
So i guess there's nothing junky about popcorn in my mind...in fact, it's one of the only snack foods i actually feel good about eating and sharing with the kids!
We eat a huge bowl of popcorn around here most nights a week & everyone's happy and healthy so far!
So enjoy! i too like it with nut.
Yeast and salt and some herbs for variety if it's needed...ocassionally my hubby'll even
melt some earth balance margarine and pour it on for a more sinful delicacy!
And we do tend to eat it a lot and then burn out and not have it for months...that's kinda our style around here with most things.
This year i'm even growing a ton of corn myself designated solely for popping to close the circle more yet!
three cheers for popcorn!
Hip! hip! hooray!!!
lisa
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I feel better after hearing from all of you I'm trying so hard to stress to 3yo ds that we eat foods that are good for our bodies, and I'm having a little trouble with the nutritional content of the popped corn!!
But like some of you pointed out the oil (in our case) is a good thing, as is the B-12 in the nut.yeast, and raisins are packed with good things too.
Whew! I really didn't want to give it up again
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My no means an expert.
I can't forget out how popcorn could at all be considered bad or junk food?
It isn't something you'd want to eat everyday or huge amounts of ..but that's why it's a good snack in moderation.
Get organic & enjoy I say!
(popcorn lover)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Try this y'all:
Air pop the organic corn, spray on the good oil (I use olive or soybean) with one of those salad dressing spray bottles & season with "Vegit" All-Purpose Seasoning (for those of you who don't know what this is, it's made from veggies & herbs, so it's natural salt).
Sometimes, I use sea salt.
You could throw on some nutritional yeast too to make it really healthy.
Sheree
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last night I made popcorn with Earth Balance "butter", Veg-It Seasoning & nutritional yeast flakes.
I just wanted to add to my earlier message that the yeast flakes add a cheesy taste.
My daughter and her friend (who is extremely picky and doesn't like most of our healthy snacks) LOVED it!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I never think of popcorn as junk food.
I always use organic corn and pop it with very little organic olive oil.
Nobody would say that corn-on-the-cob is junk food and it's just the same, really.
What often makes it 'junky' is the horrific amounts of sugar and the low-quality oil that are part of most conventionally sold popcorn.
I plan on giving my son home-made organic sugar-free popcorn when he is old enough.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Katharina, does the olive oil change the taste of the corn?
I've been trying to incorporate more Omega-3's into our diet and I've read that olive oil has a better O-3/O-6 ratio than canola oil.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To me it makes the corn taste better.
I'm a big fan of olive oil.
But I use such a little amount for popping that it is hardly noticeable.
Sometimes I will sprinkle more on top once the corn is popped and add chilli and sweet pepper and some pepper.
Dh loves this!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please read:
http://www.karinya.com/canola.htm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We eat popcorn around here at least once a week.
I have an air popper, and I used to spray it with a little olive oil and put some seasoning on it (Mrs.
Dash). But when we went vegan about 6 months ago, we found Earth Balance vegan margarine.
Now my boyfriend puts that on the popcorn (sometimes too much for me!), and we're happy campers again.
We've also cut down on the hydrogenated oils, so between that and the butter, microwave popcorn was history -- I used to eat it all the time when doing homework (could have contributed to that cliche of college weight gain, eh?).
I'm definitely going to try some nutritional yeast on the popcorn.
Sounds yummy!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I remember my dad used to pop popcorn in a huge covered wok with a little margarine in it and once the popcorn has all popped, he melts some more margarine and drizzles maple syrup over the lot and sort of let's the heat caramelize the maple syrup...it's horrible washing up but it was always yummy....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|