Ask Martha: How Many Calories are in Movie Theater Popcorn?
Question from Sharon: In the colder weather, I tend to go to more
movies. How bad is the movie theater popcorn?
Answer from Martha: It is true that with the colder weather, city girls often head to the movies as opposed to sitting at outside cafés. And when we think of movies, many of us think of popcorn. So to answer your question - I usually don’t like to use the word “bad” when it comes to food, but I will use it now … movie theater popcorn is bad, bad, bad! Bad for 2 reasons - the portions are jumbo sized and it is popped in oil.
I think most of us realize that movie theater popcorn is not exactly a health food, but did you realize that a medium size popcorn without added butter contains 11-16 cups (depending on which movie theater you are in), 650 - 900 calories and 43-60 grams of fat? You probably thought it wasn’t so bad because you didn’t add butter! Now if you add butter, the calories jump to 910-1220 calories and 71-97 grams of fat. This is more than 6 McDonald cheeseburgers! And even worse, much of that fat might be saturated, depending on what kind of oil it was popped in. Saturated fat is the kind of fat that raises LDL cholesterol (the kind that clogs arteries).
A few years ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest made headlines with its expose on movie theatre popcorn. This caused many theaters to change from using a saturated oil such as coconut oil to an unsaturated oil such as peanut oil. While this was better for the heart, your waistline doesn’t know the difference between good fat and bad fat. In any case, many theaters have changed back to using the saturated oils - so back to bad for the heart and waistline.
Check out the calories and fat content of movie theater popcorn:
| ***Popcorn Size | Calories | Total Fat | Saturated Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kid's without butter (5 cups) | 300 | 20 | 14 |
| Kid's with butter | 470 | 37 | 22 |
| Small without butter (7 cups) | 400 | 27 | 19 |
| Small with butter | 630 | 50 | 29 |
| Medium without butter (11 cups) | 650 | 43 | 31 |
| Medium with butter | 910 | 71 | 41 |
| Medium without butter (16 cups) | 900 | 60 | 43 |
| Medium with butter | 1220 | 97 | 56 |
| Large without butter (20 cups) | 1160 | 77 | 55 |
| Large with butter | 1640 | 126 | 73 |
Tips to improve your movie munchies:
1. Bring in your own snack- discreetly of course! Pop a 100 calorie mini bag of popcorn at home and eat that instead of the movie theater popcorn. Check out my post on crunchy snacks for other ideas.
2. If you really have the urge for real movie popcorn, get a kid size if they have it - no butter of course! A small sans butter would be your next best choice.
3. If you have the real movie theater popcorn, try to make your next meal a little lighter.
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