pop corn calories - can someone explain

[johntaylorny]

I had my first cheat meal tonight (after 3 weeks) while watching a movie. It was 1 bag of orville redenbacker light pop corn. I can't figure out how many calories I ate.

The serving size per bag is 2.5.

But then it lists the calories as "unpopped" = 120 and "popped" = 20.

So did I eat 300 calories (120x2.5) or 50 calories (20x2.5) and how does the "popped" pop corn drop from 120 cals to 20 cals.

I'm confused!

[CF10]

Hmm, only explanation I can think of is that it lists serving size as some measurement, like say 1 cup. So 1 cup of unpopped popcorn = 120 cals (because there's more kernels in it since it takes up so much less space when unpopped), but 1 cup of popped only = 20 cals (because when popped, much fewer kernels fit inside the cup).

[CHM]

Its just like oats, rice, or pasta. They are smaller normally, but expand with cooking.

[Messly1]

...i've also noticed that on popcorn i just searched it and found 2 answers that may help you out...

answer 1-If you take a look at Orville Redenbacher?s Smart Pop! Popping Corn, it states on the label that each bag yields about 15 cups popped corn and the servings per bag is two. We now know that about 7.5 cups popped (half the bag) equals one serving. The tricky part is on most microwave popcorn labels, they list the amount of calories per "1 cup popped" corn... even though that isn?t even a serving! To figure out your calories, simply multiply the amount of calories per 1 cup (say 15 calories) by the number of cups in a serving (7.5 cups). This will give you the total number of calories per serving.


answer 2-Unpopped popcorn has more calories because non of the carbs have been destroyed yet by heating. Carbs (esp starch or sugar) is converted to caramel (charred sugar) which literally have no nutritional value. Some of the starch is charred when popped and that reduces the net caloric value.some of the soybean oil is burned during popping

...hope those help you!

Leslie