New Survey Reveals "Shocking" Levels of Salt and Sugar in Popcorn
17 Jun 2015 --- According to a new survey by Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH), the perceived ‘healthy snack’ popcorn is stuffing us with unnecessary amounts of salt and sugar, with over a third (39%) containing as much salt, if not more, as standard salted peanuts.
CASH surveyed the salt content of 154 flavoured popcorn products sold in major supermarkets, cafés and cinemas, and found nearly one in four popcorn products (23%) contained dangerously high levels of salt.
The saltiest popcorn in the survey (based on 100g) contained 3.5g salt/100g (over half teaspoon of salt).
Examples of the saltiest popcorns sold in supermarkets and cafes (per suggested portion size) include:
* Metcalfe’s Skinny Topcorn Wasabi Glaze – 0.9g salt per 25g portion
* McEnnedy Microwave Popcorn Butter Flavour (Lidl) – 0.88g salt per 40g portion
* Metcalfe’s Skinny Popcorn White Cheese – 0.86g salt per 25g portion
* Pret A Manger Popcorn Rock Salt – 0.8g salt per 29g portion
* Asda Chosen by You Toffee Popcorn – 0.78g salt per 50g portion
* Popcorn Kitchen Sea Salt & Olive Oil – 0.77g salt per 22g portion
When it comes to the ‘Big Screen’, cinema popcorn has shockingly MORE salt with Cineworld’s Large Salted Popcorn (255g) containing a whopping 5.1g salt – that’s nearly an adult’s daily maximum recommended intake for salt, and a staggering 1213.8kcal, almost half of an adult males recommended daily calories. This is equivalent to eating two McDonalds Big Mac’s and a small portion of fries, according to CASH>
CASH also notes that because eating more salt increases thirst, eating it is therefore likely to increase the amount of fluid you drink. If part of this increase in fluid intake is obtained from sugar sweetened soft drinks (like those easily obtainable at the local cinema), approximately one extra can would be consumed. This would add unnecessary amounts of calories to the diet, and thereby increase risk of obesity and obesity related disease.
Other examples include:
* Empire Cinemas Salted Popcorn (192g) containing 3.7g salt per pack
* My Vue Large Salted Popcorn (158g) containing 3.1g salt per pack
* Odeon Salt Popcorn Large (weight not given) containing 3.02g salt per pack
Sonia Pombo, nutritionist for CASH said: “Popcorn has reinvented itself as a healthy and flavoursome snack but not all brands are delivering on this – with certain products containing dangerously high levels of salt and sugars.
Plain popcorn can still be eaten as part of a healthy diet and provides whole grains, fibre and antioxidants, so be sure to read the label and opt for healthier versions. Or better yet, make your own from scratch!”
Examples of savoury popcorn with the lowest amounts of salt (per suggested portion size) include:
• Waitrose Good to Go Wasabi & Ginger Popcorn – 0.11g salt per 25g portion
• Butterkist Butter Microwave Popcorn – 0.15g salt per 20g portion
• PROPERCORN Lightly Sea Salted – 0.15g salt per 20g portion
• Tyrrell’s Poshcorn Sea Salted – 0.2g salt per 17g portion
• Morrisons Salted Popcorn – 0.2g salt per 25g portion
Professor Graham MacGregor, CASH Chairman and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary University of London added: “This is a perfect example of the food industry taking something that is good for health, and ruining it by adding large amounts of salt and sugar. Salt puts up our blood pressure, leading to strokes and heart disease. Reducing salt is one of the most cost-effective measures to reduce the number of people suffering and dying; the food industry needs to act now!”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends we limit our intake of free sugars to ideally 5% total energy intake (approximately six teaspoons of sugar a day for a woman), so eating a bag of some of toffee popcorn for example, means that in some cases you would be eating five days’ worth of sugar.
Out of the 151 products with labelled information on sugars, 71 products (47%) would have a red (high) colour coded warning on front of pack, according to CASH. Furthermore, 13 products have 24g or more of sugars per portion – more than the daily maximum recommended intake.
Examples of the sweetest popcorn sold in supermarkets and cafés (per suggested portion size), according to the CASH survey, include:
• Morrisons Toffee Popcorn – 32.5g sugars per 50g portion (8.1 teaspoons)
• Asda Chosen by You Toffee Popcorn – 29g sugars per 50g portion (7.3 teaspoons)
• Morrisons Chocolate Coated Toffee Popcorn – 21.2g sugars per 35g portion (5.3 teaspoons)
• Aldi Popcorn Toffee – 19g sugars per 40g portion (4.8 teaspoons)
• Butterkist Toffee Popcorn (snack pack) – 16.7g sugars per 30g portion (4.2 teaspoons)
Examples of sweet popcorn with the lowest amount of sugars (per suggested portion size) include:
• Butterkist Sweet Microwave Popcorn – 0.3g sugars per 20g portion (0 teaspoons)
• PROPERCORN Sweet Coconut & Vanilla – 1.6g sugars per 25g portion (1/2 teaspoon)
• Marks & Spencer Guilt Free Snacking Sweet Popcorn – 2.5g sugars per 15g portion (1/2 teaspoon)
• The Co-operative Loved by Us Spiced Ginger Flavour Popcorn – 4.2g sugars per 20g portion (1.1 teaspoons)
• The Co-operative Cinema Style Popcorn Sweet – 4.2g sugars per 25g portion (1.1 teaspoons)
Kawther Hashem, Nutritionist for Action on Sugar said: “Obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay are serious health problems for many of us. As a nation we should be doing all we can to reduce the amount of unnecessary sugars and calories from our diet, including cutting back on processed snacks. Unfortunately the food industry doesn’t make it easy for us, disguising highly processed snacks like popcorn with a healthy halo.
“We call on manufactures to stop misleading us and to reduce the amount of sugars in our food and drink immediately.”
