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We all have them–that one food that we love so much, that we just can’t get enough of once we start eating. I call them “food-cracks.”
For me, my “food-crack” has always been popcorn. I can’t seem to stop myself when I’m around it. When I was in high school, the first thing I’d do when I got home was pop two bags of microwavable popcorn. And when I go to the movies, once I am filled with the smell of fresh popcorn, I can’t resist and end up buying a bag, and eating it down to the bottom.
Unfortunately, as much as I’ve always loved the movie theater popcorn with all the extra butter, it is extremely unhealthy for you. I could and would have eaten a large popcorn all on my own in the past. Well, a large popcorn at the movies can be up to 1,500 calories! That’s more than half of the recommended daily calorie amount!
As part of this fitness journey, I have been attempting to find healthier choices to make. But I still really want my popcorn when I go to the movies and smell the popcorn there!
So, in order for me to get my popcorn fix without going way over my daily calorie intake, my boyfriend and I now use air poppers to pop our own popcorn.
The air popper is great, and much healthier since it uses hot air instead of oils or butter to pop the popcorn. Three tablespoons of un-popped popcorn is 120 calories. So we’d each pop our three tablespoons, and add zero calorie butter spray and spices to make it just a 120 calorie snack.
Unluckily, my boyfriend stumbled across this article, http://scienceblog.com/55899/artificial-butter-flavoring-ingredient-linked-to-key-alzheimers-disease-process/ about artificial butter flavoring containing diacetyl, which could cause protein clumping, which could lead to Alzheimer’s. I try to be as healthy as I can and will attempt to avoid these diseases if I can, so I was trying to find a healthy alternative to the butter spray to get the spices to stick better.
For now, I will stick with just the spices. Mrs Dash Southwest blend has a nice flavor to it. Or I also like to combine cayenne pepper and paprika.
As for getting into the theater with the bags, I usually bring a blanket with me to the theater since I am always cold, and just wrap the bags in it.
Great tip! My food crack has been, and will always be, cheesecake. I love it so much.