Saturday, February 4, 2017

What's wrong with my popcorn?

I was having a discussion with one of my friends about popcorn being a good snack for her little girls, as long as it's not microwave popcorn. She looked at me as though I sprouted another head!
" It is microwave, why?" That lead me to realize that not everyone is aware of the health hazards and potentially toxic effects of everyday food.

It's not the popcorn that's the problem, it's the lining of the bag and the artificial butter flavor.
The coating on the inside of the bag gets hot and breaks down into a chemical called perfluorooctanoic (PFOA), a "likely carcinogen" says the EPA.

The second potential danger is the butter flavor that causes "popcorn workers lung". The workers in the popcorn factory get a dangerous form of bronchitis. I don't want that chemical flavoring in my body or my kids either.

We make our own popcorn at home.  I like air popped with real butter melted over it and sea salt or sometimes, garlic salt.  Plain and simple. My husband likes popcorn made on the stove. We refer to it as "fried popcorn".

I know my kids will go with convenient when out on their own at school and events, but I don't worry. I know the majority of their food is whole and natural. They are healthy and their immune systems are strong. They get regular Chiropractic care😉.

If you liked this blog post, or didn't like it, please leave me a comment. Also, let me know what else you would like me to post about.


As always, quality of life matters..
Tamara

www.communitychiro.org

Citation: Halldin CN, Suarthana E, Fedan KB, Lo Y-C, Turabelidze G, Kreiss K (2013) Increased Respiratory Disease Mortality at a Microwave Popcorn Production Facility with Worker Risk of Bronchiolitis Obliterans. PLoS ONE 8(2): e57935. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057935


 2005 Oct;22(10):1023-31.

Perfluorochemicals: potential sources of and migration from food packaging.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

My son has Cystic Fibrosis and loves popcorn! We make it from Organic kernels but he begs for the store bought microwave kind and sometimes I cave in... This will CERTAINLY renew my resolve to homemade organic kernels! Thanks! Ps- I love sweet stuff so I like to add a pinch of coconut sugar and cinnamon to mine:).

Tamara Lund D.C. said...

Thanks for the comment. I hope your son can learn to love the home made stuff. I'm going to try the coconut sugar! Thanks, Tamara