Why don’t I ever hear anyone recommend (low fat) popcorn as a snack?
It is my favorite muscle friendly treat.
I love the Orville Redenbacher 94% fat free Kettle Korn variety.
I eat the whole bag every night and it gives me;
240 calories
8 grams of protein
56 grams of low GI carbs
14 GRAMS OF FIBER
5 grams of fat.
The only downside I see is that is contains a small amount of partiallly hydrogenated soybean oil.
If you want to cut out the partially hydrogenated oil and fat all together, pick up an air popper from Wal-Mart for about $14 and some butter flavored Pam from the grocery store. While it’s popping spray the Pam on the popcorn and sprinkle some salt/seasoning (I personally like Old Bay) and shake it around to distribute. You’ll also spend less money this way since you’re not paying for all that microwave packaging.
I always thought it was high GI, corn is high GI isn’t it?
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, b/c I loooove popcorn!!!
Did a search on Google and popcorn (air popped) is about 55 on the GI which is at upper end of the low GI range. Don’t know what it is on the Insulin Index.
I have found some microwave popcorn at my gorcery store, I believe it is made by a company called Full Circle and they market as being organic most of the time. This stuff has no Trans-Fats or partially hydrogenated oils in it. That was my factor in buying it. I have read that some consumer organizations are trying to get the FDA to force all food manufactureres to remove the uses of partially hydogentated oils because there are plenty of alternatives that get similar taste results. Soybean is just big business and they fight everything to make sure thier crap stays in the food supply.
55 sounds pretty decent…Yeeeehaaa!
My first search found popcorn at 62 for Glycemic score and 54 for Insulin score.
Then I did some more searches some sites listed G score as high as 79 others as low as 52. Makes you wonder what to believe.
heh. With our luck, just BECAUSE it’s so tasty, it’ll end up being on the higher end.
But maybe to lower the scores a bit, we could sprinkle some orange flavored Metamucil over it??
Yummm…fibrous popcornious!
BTW, there’s no need to buy popcorn lathered with any type of oil, nor is it necessary to buy an air-popper. Just buy the plain old corn kernals they sell in jars, toss a bunch into a paper bag, seal the top of the bag, and stick it in a microwave. Keep an eye on things so they don’t burn, but you can usually guage things are ready when the popping dramatically slows down.
When it’s done, you can sprinkle on Butter Buds or–if you want some oil–spray your choice of healthy fat right on top.
BTW, it’s cheaper, too.
Here, check out this link with some basic food choices GI and II on it. It shows popcorn to be fairly low, but you’re probably better off eating peanuts if you’re trying to get in more calories.
CU Aerostallion-
Thanks for posting that link to the GI and II table. Holy shnikies!!! I had no idea a cookie was much lower GI than a cracker - cake being almost GI equivalent to an apple! A freaking doughnut at about the same GI as popcorn?!?!
I am assuming these traditionally fattening junk foods are made with high levels of fat, which in turn slows down their sugar metabolism. That doesn’t mean I will switch to the “Pop-Tart and bacon” diet like an All-American teammate of mine in college! But, I now know that if I do cheat my diet with these foods, as long as I am accounting for the calories, they really aren’t going to cause an insulin spike and subsequent fat storage.
I guess when you check out the entire list, all the high-fat junk food is actually lower GI. Low-fat foods and low-fat junk foods tend to be higher GI, no matter how healthy/unhealthy. How intriquing!
Thanks again.
If you read the text above the score tables on the mendosa site, you will find that the numbers are not actual GI and II numbers.
Whoops, my mistake. The glycemic scores are not GI values but the insulin scores are II values. sorry