Movie Theater Snacks? Two Thumbs Down!!

WOW! I knew that movie theater food wasn't particularly healthy, but I had no idea that noshing on a medium popcorn and soda combo was the equivalent of eating three McDonald's Quarter Pounders slathered in 12 pats of butter. According to new laboratory analyses commissioned by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the popcorn/pop meal from Regal, the country’s biggest movie theater chain, serves up 1,610 calories and three days’ worth - or 60 grams - of saturated fat. How wild is that?! CSPI researchers apparently bought different sizes of popcorn from three large cinema chains to compile their findings. For example, they discovered that a "small" popcorn at Regal has 670 calories and 34 grams of saturated fat. That’s about as many calories as a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza and provides nearly an entire day’s worth of the kind of fat that clogs arteries and promotes heart disease. And every tablespoon of "buttery" oil topping adds another 130 calories. AMC, the second largest theater chain, also pops in coconut oil but has smaller serving sizes. Its large popcorn has 1,030 calories and 57 grams of saturated fat. CSPI researchers compared it to eating a pound of baby back ribs topped with a scoop of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. The third-largest chain, Cinemark. pops in heart-healthy canola oil. A large has 910 calories with 4 grams of saturated fat; a medium has 760 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat; and a small has 420 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat. Though popping in canola gives this chain’s popcorn far less saturated fat than its competitors, it's almost as high in calories and has the most sodium - about twice as much as Regal or AMC - meaning it's more likely to elevate your blood pressure, not to mention be a thumbs down for a healthy diet.
In other CSPI news, researchers took a look at the sodas and candies sold at the movies. A small non-diet soda, for example, ranges from 150 calories at Cinemark to 300 calories at Regal. Mediums have 300 calories at AMC and Cinemark and 400 calories at Regal. A 5-ounce bag of Twizzlers has 460 calories and 15 teaspoons of sugar. An 8-ounce bag of Reese's Pieces is just a cup of candy. But with 1,160 calories and 35 grams of saturated fat, it's like eating a 16-ounce T-bone steak plus a buttered baked potato. Whoof-dee!
I'm so glad that my movie theater purchase over the years has typically consisted solely of diet soda. But while I used to base that decision on the high prices of their snacks, now it's due to the high fat and calorie count. All of the CSPI research, by the way, will be published in the December issue of their Nutrition Action Healthletter.