Whether you’ve just bought movie tickets, or you’re taking a walk with someone, we all love taking some snack by the way. The most common choice would be – popcorn! We all enjoy popcorns, whether we make it salty, sweet or spicy. Still, not many people are familiar with all health benefits coming from our favourite snack. We highly recommend you checking out how many benefits you’ll be getting just by eating popcorn – and we assure you that you won’t believe them all!
1. Weight-loss snack
Here, we are not just talking about some cheap and delicious snack. We are talking about a meal that can help you lose your weight, while enjoying it, rather than eating something you do not like and starving yourself. To show you how healthy this snack is, here is a fact – one cup of popcorn has only 31 calories! It is both fat-free and sugar-free – what could be better?
Popcorn is a “whole grain”, meaning it has got dietary fibre, antioxidants and so on. The concentration of antioxidants is comparable to fruit and vegetables – so are you finally getting a picture of how healthy this is? Right now, we really can not think of a better way to relax, than to enjoy a movie with your beloved, while eating popcorn (and staying healthy while doing it!).
2. Gluten-free
Many diets are based on gluten-free products. Well, guess what, popcorn’s one of them! Even though this isn’t something you should treat as your most important meal of the day, it’s a perfect snack. Reducing daily intake of gluten won’t do much for you (unless you’re gluten sensitive), but it will help you feel better. Keep in mind that, not every “GLUTEN-FREE” marked food is good for you. Many of them probably have a high amount of carbohydrates, calories and fat; meaning you’ll be getting fat and eating unhealthy (we’re not saying every meal is like that, so you should read the label). Because of that, stay with your popcorn, and you’re fine!
3. Fibre
Many people do not consider their digestion as something important – at least not until they go a week without cooked food, ending stuck on a toilet for a long time. When it comes to the digestion, high fibre content affects your bowel in a good way, not causing any digestion problems.
Also, there is plenty of vitamin E, minerals and B-complex vitamins stored in it. As you can see, the fiber that comes with the popcorn isn’t just allowing you to have a healthy diet; it’s also got other things your body needs on a daily basis. Therefore, eating popcorn brings you many benefits – so keep enjoying it!
4. Protein
We all know how much eggs and spinach do bodybuilders eat – because meals like those are full of iron, phosphorus and protein. What would you say if we told you that popcorn has more iron than eggs and spinach, and more protein than potato chips? You might think this is the reason to stop eating too much popcorn, but it is not – first of all, protein and iron are not something you can easily get too much, so it can not hurt you. Still, you can not go to the gym, eating popcorn all day and expect to become Arnold Schwarzenegger – it is going to take much more than that, but if that is your goal – good luck!
5. Preventing cancer
As we have already mentioned, there is a significant amount of antioxidant coming by consuming popcorn, giving you huge amounts of polyphenolic compounds, which is much more than you would get by taking a daily dose of fruits and vegetables. Something we have not mentioned yet is that researchers have found out that popcorn is not an “unhealthy junk food”, but something that could be supporting prevention to cancer cells. What is actually going on, is that antioxidants represent a very powerful tool against cancer cells – they are scavenging and eliminating free radicals, which are associated with many diseases, such as cancer. Who would say that such delicious snack is preventing cancer?
6. Diabetics dive in!
We are aware of how difficult it is for people with diabetes to stay on track, fighting this severe disease. Therefore, we’re providing the fact that diabetics will find very satisfying. Fibre, which we have talked about already, has another bonus effect – it has enough positive impact on your blood sugar! If there are big amounts of fibre in your body, it controls the management and release of blood sugar, and your insulin level is much better, compared to people with low levels of fibre. Therefore, this snack is very recommended to people who have diabetes.
7. Perfect snack
Besides all right sides of this snack, such as cancer prevention, healthy ingredients improving your diet and movie snack, there is another way that can help you take care of your stomach. Because of the fibre and everything else that popcorn contains, not only that you will be consuming healthy snack, but you will also be staving off hunger. Therefore, air popped corn is the perfect snack to take when you are hungry and you know you should not be eating any big meal right now. Helps your diet, fills your stomach – what else can this snack do for you?
8. No more ageing!
Alzheimer’s disease, blindness, age spots, wrinkles, hair loss, osteoporosis, and many many more signs of ageing represent something none of us is looking forward to, as we age. Right now, we really can not continue keeping track of how many benefits are coming from our favourite movie snack. Another one to add to the list is anti-ageing! Again thanks to antioxidants, you will not feel nor look like old if you are consuming popcorn regularly. The way antioxidants are helping you this time, is by combating the ageing effects, coming from free radicals.