You eat it at movie theaters, fairs and even at home. It is light, fluffy, and coated in layers of salty butter. It’s a childhood snack, and a timeless treat; it’s popcorn. However, this seemingly innocent snack is known to be a likely cause of cancer.
How could something so fluffy and tasty be so harming to one’s body? Popcorn that is made on the stove, or in a professional popcorn cooker is perfectly healthy. Obviously besides the immense amounts of salt, artificial flavoring, and calories that it contains. On the other hand, microwavable popcorn has multiple risk factors that have been linked to causing cancer.
For starters, the bag that the popcorn is held in is lined with chemicals that allow the paper to be heated without catching fire. By heating this chemical it has been known to cause infertility or cancer. Also, the companies that produce microwave popcorn aren’t forced by the government to advertise the type of kernels they are using. These kernels that are covered in soybean oil are also known as GMO kernels. GMO kernels have multiple preservatives that have been connected to different types of cancer. Lastly, many microwavable popcorn producing companies coat their popcorn in a chemical called diacetyl. Some companies have banned the use of that chemical due to situations in which it possibly caused lung cancer.
Next time you decide to eat a microwavable bag of popcorn, take a second to look at the ingredients and make sure you’re not ingesting the deadly chemicals that some companies get away with using.
http://naturalon.com/10-of-the-most-cancer-causing-foods/
My mother always makes popcorn using an old-fashioned machine and those kernels you can buy in bulk. For anyone out there who thinks home popped popcorn is bland, it doesn’t have to be. We always put some margarine and a little salt over it and it makes it tastes delicious. I have a friend who enjoys eating it with chili powder. The only problem we have as students is we don’t exactly have access to fresh popped popcorn and the desire to be lazy and pop it in the room is strong. But I think ill stick with something else to munch on
It is scary to think that so many people eat microwavable popcorn and would never have any idea of the side effects it has. This is especially scary being that people start eating popcorn at such an early age. I would have never thought that the bag would be lined with chemicals but it makes sense now. This is definitely an eye opener because this is probably just one of the many foods people eat that have cancer causing chemicals in them.
At first this post confused me when you stated that popcorn cooked on the stove or in a professional popcorn cooker is health. I was questioning how that could be healthier than making popcorn in the microwave, but I didn’t realize the chemicals and GMO’s linked to microwave popcorn. I’m not surprised that such a convenience food is so bad for you. As simple and easy as it is to make must have a catch and you described it perfectly for us avid popcorn eaters! I don’t know if I agree that eating this popcorn will give you cancer, but there can’t be anything good about it. There is nothing healthy about digesting chemicals such as these. The results of it are still up in the air, in my opinion.
I saw this post while i was sitting down and eating my bag of popcorn!! i threw it out right away! I can’t believe there are certain chemicals in microwaveable popcorn that is linked to cancer. I hope more popcorn companies see the evolving risk and decide to do something about it because this is a past time especially for americans laying around and eating a bag of popcorn, such a shame and i hope it is fixed soon!
Wow, as soon as I saw the title of your article I immediately clicked and began reading. My mom is a cancer survivor, so anything having to do with cancer is of interest to me. I had absolutely no idea that microwavable popcorn can cause cancer, I eat a good amount of it so finding this out is quite scary. I will no longer be consuming microwavable popcorn, just sticking to the bagged popcorn instead! Thank you for informing me about this. Here is a website that contains some every day foods that also cause cancer: http://naturalon.com/10-of-the-most-cancer-causing-foods/
It always a little scary to see that something so innocent could cause cancer. It does not make a whole lot of sense for these companies to be allowed to get away with using these cancer-causing chemicals in their products. Hopefully more companies will take the initiative of getting rid of these deadly chemicals. I am also interested in finding out how many times a person would have to ingest these chemicals before getting cancer and how long would it take.
Wow, I didn’t realize that popcorn could possibly cause cancer! I do have to ask though, how much popcorn would you have to eat to actually get cancer from it? Green potatoes also have a little bit of poison in them, but you have to eat a whole bunch of green potatoes to actually get sick from it. Very interesting stuff though!
Any title that involves “cancer” immediately strikes my interest. However, this one specifically scared me a little bit because I eat popcorn all the time. To be honest, I even scrape off the stuff on the side of the bag because it tastes salty and good with the popcorn. It’s a really good thing that you specifically mentioned it was lined with chemicals that can cause cancer. I am curious to find out how much this increases one’s risk of obtaining cancer. Also, I am curious to find out how much popcorn one would need to consume in order to even be affected.