National Popcorn Day ~ Trivia Yesterday, January 19 was National Popcorn Day, an occasion to celebrate Americas love affair with this popular treat, a mainstay at the movies and a favorite at home as well. Although folks in other countries around the world also enjoy this snack food, Americans still eat more popcorn than any other country. See how much you know about one of Americas favorite foods by trying your luck with our popcorn trivia questions. Is It True That Popcorns a Healthy, Low-Calorie Snack? Popcorn is a hugely popular snack with Americans, who manage to put away roughly 17 billion quarts of this tasty treat every year. Well, it depends pretty much on how you like your popcorn. A cup of air-popped popcorn is a mere 31 calories, and the same-size serving of oil-popped popcorn is still a pretty modest 55 calories, which isnt bad at all for the amount of snack youre getting. However, if you opt for a cup of popcorn thats lightly buttered, the calorie count jumps to 133 calories. And if you like your popcorn coated with caramel or truly slathered with butter, then the calorie count increases even more sharply. As a whole grain, popcorn itself -- without all the other less healthy embellishments -- is a good addition to your diet, providing energy-rich complex carbohydrates. When eaten without unhealthy additions, popcorn is low in fat and sugar-free and also provides some dietary fiber, which is an important part of a healthy diet. Nebraska each year produces more than 250 million pounds of popcorn, accounting for at least 25 percent of total U.S. production. Other major popcorn-producing states include Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. In 2004, state legislators in Illinois designated popcorn as the states official snack. The legislative action represented the successful culmination of a campaign launched by second- and third-graders at Cunningham Elementary School in Joliet. Who Were the First People to Eat Popcorn? Like all other forms of corn, or maize as it was known by most Native Americans, popcorn originated in the Americas and was not introduced to Europeans until they discovered it on their journeys of exploration to the New World. As for popcorn, archaeological research traces its origins to Peru, where it appears to have been a popular snack as far back as 4700 B.C. According to a study presented at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, early Peruvian natives not only popped the corn for eating as a snack but also ground the popcorn to a flour-like consistency so that it could be consumed in other ways as well. How Did Popcorn Become the No. 1 Snack at the Movies? Were it not for the profits they make on popcorn sales, many movie theater owners probably couldnt afford to keep their doors open. Only a tiny percentage of the price you pay for admission ever makes it to the movie theaters bottom line, but concession popcorn really helps to pay the bills. Richard McKenzie, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, told CNN Money that a medium-size bag of movie popcorn costs only 60 cents to make but carries a price tag of $6.00, a markup of 900 percent. A lot of theater owners tell me, I consider myself working in concessions, not movies, says McKenzie.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 05:51:42 +0000
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