BrainStuff Classics: What's in Movie Theater Popcorn?

The satly, buttery popcorn sold in movie theaters is nigh irresistible, but there's zero butter involved. Learn what it's made of in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/food-nutrition/facts/what-heck-is-in-movie-theater-popcorn.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogel Bomb here with another classic episode for you.
This one is about one of my favorite food topics
and one we've talked about in a couple other episodes,
the flavor of butter, and relatedly, how that nine irresistible

(00:22):
popcorn sold in movie theaters can taste so buttery while
containing zero butter. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogel Bomb,
and it's time we talked about movie theater popcorn, that
salty siren of the cinema. You come without nutrition labels
and sizes that defy sensibility. We consume you in the dark.

(00:42):
You're inadvertently vegan and gluten free, but that still doesn't
mean you're good for us. So what the heck are
you made of anyway?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Meat? Movie theater popcorns two main ingredients after poppedcorn, of course,
flavorcle and butter flavored topping. Let's break those down. Flavocol
is a proprietary seasoned powder that goes on the corn
before it's popped. It contains only four ingredients, superfine salt,
artificial flavor, and two synthetic yellow dyes that help give

(01:12):
the popcorn its violently yellow, butteryish color. A butter can
naturally be yellow because of a pigment and vitamin called
beta carotene that's found in the fresh grass that dairy
cows are sometimes fed, or butter can be dyed that
color when cows are fat other things. Flavocol has zero
calories and zero fat, carbs, and protein, but being mostly salt,

(01:35):
it packs a wallup in the sodium department. One teaspoon
contains one hundred and sixteen percent of your recommended daily
intake of sodium based on the average two thousand calorie
per day diet, and depending on the recipe and the
machine being used, you'd get about a third of a
teaspoon in a small popcorn, So heads up if you're
monitoring your sodium consumption. Next up that butter flavored topping,

(01:58):
which is what gets squirted out in pumps if you
ask for it. Warning betrayal alert. It doesn't have any
butter in it at all. What it does contain is
partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is a trans fat that
falls into the category of bad fat. These types of
fats have been linked to heart disease and other cardiovascular problems.
The topping also has some beta carotene that pigment I

(02:20):
just mentioned. Beta carotene helps add to the buttery color
and can, by the way, either be naturally derived from
plants or made in a lab. That's the difference between
it being labeled a natural versus an artificial color. The
topping also has tertiary buttle hydroquinone or TBHQ, which is
a synthetic preservative that keeps oils from becoming rancid as

(02:42):
they sit, and polydimethyl silazane or PDMS, which is a
silicone based chemical that prevents foaming in hot oil. It's
also been preliminarily shown to help hair cells grow when
applied topically, but that's a different episode. Don't rub butter
flavored topping on your scalp. The final ingredient the one
that gives movie theater popcorn. It's irresistible taste. Buttery flavoring,

(03:05):
a one hundred percent non dairy mystery chemical that mimics
the taste of butter. This and the artificial flavoring and
flavorcoll are industry secrets, but they're probably one of a
few lab synthesized molecules that taste and smell like butter
diacetyl acitoin sethyl propianal or similar. Those first two that

(03:26):
I mentioned are compounds that are naturally created in old
fashioned cultured butter by the friendly lactic acid bacteria that
helps solidify cream into butter. Butter flavor is basically a
tasty byproduct, sort of like with beta carotene. These compounds
can be naturally derived from farmed bacteria or synthesized in
a lab. They'll make that butter flavored topping taste almost

(03:49):
like the real thing. The real slap in the face, though,
is that movie theater butter flavored topping has twenty more
calories per tablespoon than real butter. So if you are
a large bucket of plane popcorn is about one thousand
calories with just the flavor call seasoning on it, and
you choose to add a minimum of three tablespoons of
buttery topping, or as much as six if you opt
for a squirt in the middle and a scort on

(04:11):
the top, the large bucket you gnash on while watching
the latest blockbuster could be more than two thousand calories.
It definitely means that movie theater popcorn is a treat
everything in moderation. Oh and a side note about diacetyl,
one of those butter flavor compounds. You may have heard
that it causes health problems. That is a real thing,

(04:31):
but the story got sort of sensationalized. Factory workers who
breathe in a whole lot of diacetyl do have an
increased risk of a particular type of lung disease, and
one guy who was popping two to three bags per
day for a number of years successfully sued a bunch
of microwave popcorn producers after contracting that disease. But there's
no known risk in eating this artificial flavor or in

(04:54):
breathing in the amount you'd realize from popping a bag
of popcorn in your microwave every now and then, And
the Flavor Call brand has come out as being diacetyle free.
Good news for movie theater popcorn. Do watch out for
it as an ingredient in vape liquid.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Though today's episode is based on the article what the
heck is in Movie theater Popcorn on how Stuffworks dot com,
written by Kerry tatrou Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
in partnership with how stuffworks dot com and is produced
by Tyler Klin. Four more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit

(05:30):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.