Popcorn as healthy as veggies? Depends how you pop it

msnbc.com

By Joy Bauer, TODAY nutrition expert

Who doesn’t love unwinding on a Friday night with a terrific movie and a great big bowl of fluffy popcorn? When prepared with just the right ingredients, popcorn is low in calories, heart-smart, and surprisingly chock-full of healthy nutrients. Adding to popcorn’s wholesome reputation, researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania reported this week that popcorn has more antioxidant substances called polyphenols than fruits and vegetables.

Lou Jones / ZUMA Press file

Popcorn has more antioxidant substances called polyphenols than fruits and vegetables.

Polyphenols have been linked to a reduction in heart disease and certain cancers. And, since it’s 100% whole grain, popcorn is also a great source of fiber -- you get 5 grams in a 4-cup portion. That's pretty darn impressive for a snack food.

Popcorn will never be a replacement for produce, which is brimming with essential nutrients and antioxidants not found in grains. But it’s still a terrific, low-cal munchie. And you do need to steer clear of varieties doused in butter, oil, and/or salt, ingredients that negate the health perks.

Movie theater popcorn is the worst culprit of all. A recent report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest revealed that a medium tub at Regal theaters has 1,200 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat — three times your daily allotment. Chomping through an entire container (easy enough to do when you’re totally distracted by whatever’s on screen) is the caloric equivalent of eating three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders — before you factor in the extra fat and calories from the greasy, buttery topping they squirt on top.

Your best bet is “naked” air-popped popcorn, made with a hot air popper (or using my microwave “hack,” below!). Popped without any oil, this diet-friendly snack “weighs in” at just 30 calories per cup. That’s a steal in the snack world, considering a cup of potato chips will cost you 150 calories and the same portion of “snack mix” clocks in at 220.

Microwave popcorn is convenient, but it has its drawbacks, even if you choose the light or low-fat varieties. Diacetyl and related compounds used in “artificial butter flavoring” can cause lung disease when inhaled in large quantities, such as by factory workers employed at microwave popcorn manufacturing plants. And most microwave bags are coated with PFCs (perfluorinated compounds), chemicals that have been shown to suppress immune function in children and cause cancer in animals. In fact, most manufacturers are working on phasing out use of this chemical.

There are a few healthy, natural brands on the market that avoid all of these artificial, potentially harmful ingredients, like Quinn Popcorn, but it’s also easy enough to make your “microwave” air-popped popcorn at home.

Simply pour 3 to 4 tablespoons plain kernels into a brown paper lunch bag, fold over the top of the bag twice to seal it closed, and microwave for about 2 minutes, or until the popping slows to a few seconds between pops. (Cook time will vary from depending upon the microwave, so it may take you a few tries to figure out the perfect pop time for your unit.)

If you’re looking to add some personality to your popcorn, experiment with these ideas: 

Lightly mist with olive oil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and black pepper Sprinkle with chili powder and a dash of coarse sea saltTop with nutritional yeast, a vegan source of vitamin B-12, for a cheese-like flavorMake traditional air-popped corn into a modest-calorie sweet treat by mixing one cup of popcorn with dark chocolate shavings and a dusting of cinnamon

And if you prefer the convenience of buying your kernels already popped, here are some terrific brands that go light on the oil and salt: 

Skinny Pop

3.5 cups = 135 calories, 90 mg sodium

Skinny Pop wins for “tastes most like movie theater popcorn” – but unlike the real stuff, it has just 39 cals per cup.

365 Everyday Value Organic Popcorn Reduced Fat & Low Sodium

3.5 cups = 130 calories, 85 mg sodium

With just a mist of sunflower oil and a dash of sea salt, you can satisfy your snack craving without a sodium overload. 

Good Health Half Naked Popcorn

3.5 cups = 105 calories, 122 mg sodium

Big poofy white kernels – and the lowest calorie count of all the brands featured here.

Bearitos 50% Less Oil Lite Organic Popcorn

3.5 cups = 140 calories, 100 mg sodium

This organic popcorn contains 50% less oil than regular varieties.

For more healthy snacking ideas, visit JoyBauer.com, and follow Joy on Facebook and Twitter

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Work burnout tied to stressed eating in women

Women who are fed up with their jobs may be more likely to turn to food for comfort in times of stress, according to a Finnish study.

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The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who reported work burnout were also more likely to have a habit of "emotional" eating, or eating when stressed, anxious or down, rather than just hungry.

What's more, they were more prone to "uncontrolled" eating -- the feeling that you're always hungry or can't stop eating until all the food's gone.

"Those experiencing burnout may be more vulnerable to emotional eating and uncontrolled eating and have a hindered ability to make changes in their eating behavior," wrote Nina Nevanpera of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, who led the study.

"We recommend that burnout should be treated first and that burnout and eating behavior should be evaluated in obesity treatment."

The findings are based on 230 women ages 30 to 55 who were part of a clinical trial looking at healthy lifestyle changes. All were employed, and at the start of the trial they completed surveys on job burnout and eating habits.

Overall, 22 percent of the women had some degree of work burnout. As a group, they scored higher on measures of emotional eating and uncontrolled eating.

On top of that, women who did not have job burnout at the study's start tended to cut down on uncontrolled eating over one year. But, on average, the burnout group failed to make that change.

"Work permeates our lives," said Sherry Pagoto, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a clinician at the university's Weight Center.

"People may be in a job where they're unhappy, or a marriage where they're unhappy, and eating can become one of the few pleasures in their lives," added Pagoto, who was not involved in the study.

There was no obvious effect of burnout on the women's weight, however. At the outset, half of the women reporting work burnout were normal weight -- compared with a third of women reporting no burnout.

One reason might be education, Nevanpera said. Women with work burnout generally had a higher education level, and education, in turn, was linked to lower weight.

Still, she added, emotional eating is a potential risk factor for becoming heavy in the future. And it's not particularly healthy, since stressed-out people are more likely to reach for chocolate or fast food than an apple.

Pagoto agreed that addressing sources of stress in general was important, adding that big stress triggers in life may make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off.

When people are not overweight, emotional eating is still not a good idea, she said. "It's reinforcing a habit that's not healthy."

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Salt overload: Nearly all U.S. adults consume too much

The Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday on average Americans consume 3,300 mgs of sodium every day, putting people at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

Despite public health messages telling Americans to lower the amount of salt in their diets, most of us still eat too much of the stuff, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nine out of 10 people ages 2 and older in the United States consume more than the recommended amount of sodium each day, the report says, and the leading culprit is not potato chips or popcorn but slices of bread and dinner rolls.

Bread may not have much salt in a single serving, but when eaten several times a day can raise daily salt intake. A single slice of white bread could contain as many as 230 milligrams of salt, according to the CDC.

The average American takes in about 3,300 milligrams of sodium per day — and that's not counting the salt you might shake onto your food before you eat it. The 2010 U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend people limit the salt in their diet to 2,300 milligrams per day. And for 6 out of every 10 adults, the recommended limit is substantially lower: those who are 51 years or older, African-American, have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney diseases are advised to limit their sodium intake to 1,500 milligrams per day. About 99 percent of people in this latter group eat too much salt, the report says.

"Too much sodium raises blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a statement. "These diseases kill more than 800,000 Americans each year, and contribute an estimated $273 billion in health care costs," he said.

A 2010 report from the CDC, based on surveys from 2005 to 2006, also found that 9 in 10 Americans consume too much salt. However, the average daily sodium intake reported back then was slighly higher, about 3,500 milligrams.

Top sources of sodium
The report identified the top 10 sources of sodium in our diets, which include a lot of food we find tasty. These are, in order: breads and rolls, luncheon meats, pizza, poultry, soups, cheeseburgers and other sandwiches, cheese, pasta dishes, meat dishes such as meat loaf, and snack foods like potato chips and pretzels. These foods account for 44 percent of all the sodium we eat in a day.

About 65 percent of our total daily sodium comes from foods we buy at the store. But within some of the food categories, such as pizza, about 50 percent comes from foods we buy at restaurants and fast food outlets.

For children ages 2 to 19, only about 8 percent of sodium comes from foods obtained from school cafeterias and day care centers, the report says.

The findings are based on surveys of 7,227 Americans conducted between 2007 and 2008.

Cutting back on salt
Cutting back on salt isn't easy, the report acknowledged. Some foods that may seem healthy, such as turkey lunchmeat that is low in calories and fat, may have high levels of sodium, the report said. In addition, a lot of the salt we eat comes from processed foods.

The CDC recommended Americans check food labels to purchase foods with lower sodium content. People should also try to consume a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and limit the amount of processed foods with high sodium content, the CDC says.

Frieden said that some food manufacturers and restaurants are making efforts to lower the amount of salt added to their foods.

"We're encouraged that some food manufacturers are already taking steps to reduce sodium," Frieden said. "Kraft Foods has committed to an average 10 percent reduction of sodium in their products over a two-year period, and dozens of companies have joined a national initiative to reduce sodium. The leading supplier of cheese for pizza, Leprino Foods, is actively working on providing customers and consumers with healthier options," Frieden said.

Lowering the average American's salt intake by 400 milligrams could prevent up to 28,000 deaths, and save $7 billion in health-care costs, each year, according to projections in the report.

However, not all studies have been able to find benefits of a reduced salt diet. A review study published last year that included information from 6,500 people found that moderate reductions in salt in the diet lowered blood pressure, but did not reduce participants' risk of having heart disease or dying. Still, those researchers said that perhaps even greater reductions in salt were needed to see a benefit.

Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter@MyHealth_MHND. Find us onFacebook.

Reuters wire service contributed to this story.

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Sweet! Weird ways chocolate keeps you healthy

Eric Risberg / AP

By Mara Betsch
Prevention

Show your heart some love this Valentine’s Day by nibbling a few chocolates—and making them a regular treat throughout the year. A recent study found that those consuming the highest levels of chocolate had a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29% reduction in stroke compared to those with lower chocolate intakes.

1. Chocolate may help you with math. 

 Flavonols, compounds in chocolate with antioxidant-like properties, are thought to improve circulation, including blood flow to the brain. A 2009 study asked participants to count backward in groups of three from a number between 800 and 999. After drinking hot cocoa filled with flavonols, the participants were able to do calculations more quickly and accurately and were less likely to feel tired or mentally drained.

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2. Chocolate fills you up.

 Moms have forever warned of spoiling dinner by eating a treat beforehand. Turns out they were right. Danish researchers gave 16 participants 100 g of either dark or milk chocolate and 2 hours later offered them pizza. Those who consumed the dark chocolate ate 15% fewer calories than those who had milk chocolate, and they were less interested in fatty, salty, and sugary foods.

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3. Chocolate makes you feel better.

Chocolate contains phenethylamine, which triggers the release of endorphins. This reaction is similar to the one that people experience when they fall in love. Don’t believe us? Doctors at the Mind Lab in England asked six couples to let squares of dark chocolate melt in their mouths and then kiss, all while hooked up to brain and heart monitors. Both tasks made participants’ hearts pound and brains buzz, but chocolate doubled excitation rates in the brain’s pleasure center during the kiss, especially in women. Cocoa’s blend of sugar and caffeine produces a longer-lasting high, according to researchers.

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4. Chocolate helps you relax.
Reach for a Hershey bar when you’re stressed? There’s a biological reason for that. Studies have shown that chocolate contains the compound anandamide that activates the same brain receptors as marijuana. No wonder a bite brings on bliss.

5. Chocolate may help you live longer.

A study in the British Medical Journal found that candy consumption can help you live longer—almost a full year longer!—than those who abstain from the sweet stuff. Participants who ate candy one to three times a month had the lowest mortality rates of the group, and researches postulate this may be due to the antioxidants in chocolate. A 2009 study also found that heart attack survivors who ate chocolate were less likely to die than those who went without. Stick to a one-ounce serving to get your fix without wrecking your waistline.

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3 weight loss drugs make 2nd bid for approval

The Food and Drug Administration has rejected three prescription diet pills in the last three years, raising questions of whether any weight loss drug can win approval in the U.S. The agency has not approved a new prescription weight loss drug in 13 years. Historically, medications that attempt to burn fat or suppress appetite have been plagued by safety issues.

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Despite the latest rejections, all three drugmakers are resubmitting their products for a second review. Here's a look at the contenders and where they are in the review process:

— Qnexa is a combination of two older drugs: the amphetamine phentermine, which is approved for short-term weight loss, and topiramate, an anti-convulsant drug sold by Johnson & Johnson as Topamax. Phentermine helps suppress appetite, while topiramate is believed to make patients feel more satiated

Many experts view the combination pill as the most promising of the new weight loss drugs, due to studies showing most patients lost nearly 10 percent of their weight — the highest reduction reported with any recent diet pill. But the FDA rejected the drug in October 2010, raising a number of safety concerns, including higher heart rate and birth defects in women who become pregnant.

This week a panel of advisers to the FDA overwhelmingly recommended approval for Qnexa, on the condition Vivus Inc. conduct a follow-up study to make sure the drug doesn't cause heart problems. The FDA is expected to make its second ruling on the drug by April 17.

— Orexigen Therapeutics Inc.'s Contrave is another combination pill aimed at curbing appetite, mixing the antidepressant ingredient in Wellbutrin with the anti-smoking drug bupropion. The company's results have been lackluster, with about 40 percent of patients taking Contrave losing 5 percent of their body weight. Those figures narrowly achieved FDA's minimum requirements for an effective weight loss pill. But Contrave has also been plagued by the heart safety concerns associated with past diet pills. The FDA is requiring the company to conduct a 10,000-patient study of cardiovascular health. That study is slated for completion by 2014.

— Arena Pharmaceutical Inc.'s lorcaserin is the only first-of-a-kind diet drug currently before the FDA. It uses a new type of ingredient to stimulate serotonin receptors in the brain linked with feelings of satiety. But lorcaserin has faced the most severe safety questions from FDA, which rejected the drug in 2010 after raising concerns about cancerous tumors seen in rats who received the drug.

Early this year Arena submitted new information evaluating the link between its drug and cancer. The FDA is scheduled to make a new ruling on the drug by June 27.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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'Pink slime' panic grows online: Are we overreacting?

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, calls for outright ban of "pink slime" after the USDA offers schools the opportunity to opt-out of serving it.

By Jane Weaver, Deputy health editor

Updated March 9: An online petition urging the government to stop the use of "pink slime" -- the scrape and waste meat products that are treated with ammonium-hydroxide -- in school food has collected almost 20,000 signatures over the last several days.

After reports that school districts around the country were serving kids hamburgers containing up to 15 percent of the processed product known in the meat industry as "Lean Finely Textured Beef', parents and consumers poured online to express their disgust. As of Friday afternoon "pink slime" became the most searched phrase on Google Trends and Twitter users were expressing their disgust on #pinkslime.

@mz_gael tweeted, "i don't know when i'll be able to eat hamburger again."

Danielle @danzerotti, a self-described "happily married mother of 4, tweeted "Another reason my 4 kids should be glad that I take the time to prepare their lunches at home every day. As much as I complain."  

"Pink slime" is bits of meat and muscle salvaged from slaughterhouse floors that are treated with a pink chemical to kill any dangerous pathogens. According to an earlier report by msnbc.com, the unappetizing pink goo is widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavener in bread and cake products. It's regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department, which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe." Nevertheless,  McDonald's, have said they are pulling the infamous "pink slime" from their hamburgers.

Although the chemical has been used in ground beef products sold commercially since the 1990s, the sudden concern erupted this week over the USDA's plans to ship 7 million pounds of the processed meat product to schools all over the country. School cafeterias nationwide receive part of the ground beef they serve from the USDA.

The USDA's continued purchase of pink slime for school lunches was first reported Monday by TheDaily.com, which spoke to two former microbiologists at the Food Safety Inspection Service.

"We don't know which districts are receiving what meat, and this meat isn't labeled to show pink slime. They don't have to under federal law," said Bettina Siegal, of TheLunchTray.com earlier this week. Siegal started the petition seeking to ban the ammonia-based waste from school menus. "We should step back and say, 'Why would we feed this to our kid?" said Siegal.

When asked whether the USDA would consider banning "pink slime" from school meat shipments, spokesman Michael Jarvis responded via email: “All USDA ground beef purchases for the National School Lunch Program must meet the highest standards for food safety.  This includes stringent pathogen testing and compliance with all applicable food safety regulations. USDA has strengthened ground beef food safety standards in recent years and only allows products into commerce - and especially into schools -- that we have confidence are safe.”

New York nutritionist and msnbc.com contributor Elisa Zied (@elisazied ) said,"people have a right to know what exactly is in their food, so they can make a judgment whether to eat it or not," but shouldn't panic the meat was unsafe just because of the "yuk" factor. "Like with all food, this idea of pink slime in ground beef does speak to the fact that we need to mix up the foods we consume from all the basic food groups to minimize potentially harmful ingredients and maximize nutrient intake," said Zied.

The processed meat reportedly accounts for 70 percent of all ground beef consumed in the U.S.

KPRC contributed to this report

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