Daily Dose of Diet – Popcorn

TW’s least favorite scent in the world is burnt popcorn. Michelle’s favorite scent is popcorn. When Michelle is here, our house smells like cat litter (we have too many darn cats) and stinky dog (we have one who is old and deaf and blind and incontinent but otherwise too healthy to go wherever dogs who are done here go) and popcorn.

Michelle eats popcorn twice a day. It’s her food of choice, which is good since she has two moms who rarely cook. That’s how you know Michelle is living here, the scent of popcorn. When she lived with her dad for nine months in 2003-2004, there was a serious lack of popcorn scent and I was sad. She came back… popcorn scent… life was good. She’s been gone for NINE LONG WEEKS and we’ve made popcorn just twice. I miss popcorn. It masks the scent of the animals and reminds me of Michelle. Oops, I got off track, didn’t I?

Folks trying to lose weight often like popcorn almost as much as Michelle. It’s low calorie and if you don’t smother it in butter or oil or salt like at the movie theater then it’s a pretty healthy choice. And it can be a real lifesaver for folks trying to lose weight who are salty snack addicts like I am. It can also be a lifesaver for people using the WLC because that program is a firm believer in the National Academy of Science recommendations that 45-65% of all calories should come from carbs.

Popcorn is good.

Which is why I said “Ugh, not again!” when I saw this article come across my aggregator. UGH, NOT AGAIN!

Last year when we ran the story about the possibilty of popcorn causing lung cancer in factory workers people zoomed in on the “popcorn” and the “lung cancer” bits and totally missed the “factory workers” part. I had teenagers and dieters in a panic. You’d have thought we were facing a national disaster!

So do me a favor please – if you hear family, friends or coworkers talking about how popcorn can cause cancer, set them straight. It MIGHT cause lung cancer in POPCORN FACTORY WORKERS and if they don’t work in a popcorn factory then they’re pretty safe. If they do, then I’d encourage them to talk to their health care professional and possibly a job placement service.

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can provide me in preventing full scale panic among our people!

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