[aschenbrodel]

How is that possible that 1 cup of popped air pop popcorn, NO oil, No salt is double the calories of Orville Reddenbacker's Smart Pop??

I have figired and added and subtracted and divided and the calories keep multiplying!

It's driving me crazy!

Smart Pop
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/cal...XJ0IHBvcA.html

Air-popped popcorn
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/cal...BvcGNvcm4.html

[JayEll]

They are saying that the one with the higher calories has more carbohydrate than the other one. That's the only difference I can see.

Jay

[kaw]

Just an idea but...

Calorie king gets its nutritional information from non-branded foods (e.g., "popcorn") from the USDA's nutritional database. It gets nutritional info for branded foods from the manufacturers.

This creates two disparities:
1) Manufacturers are allowed to round down, whereas the USDA doesn't.

In this case, air-popped popcorn contains (per cup) 0.36 g. fat. Smart Pop is rounded down to 0g fat.

It's not just the fat, though: smart-pop has .5 g. protein vs. 1.04 for air-popped popcorn (not that this is a good thing!) and 5 g. carb instead of 6.23. So, here are two other hypotheses:

2) Post-farm manufacturing processes may remove more of the kernel.

3) "Independent testing" more often than not works in the manufacturer's favor. (Remember the frozen yogurt episode from Seinfeld?)

Anyway, for one-ingredient foods I always use the USDA database, because I think it's more accurate. You can access it on line directly here:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Kim

[aschenbrodel]

Well, I still don't get it.
But maybe a glimmer of truth in the fiber aspect. Manufacturing would take some of the husk off.
So whereas the plain air popped corn might be more calories, some of it is undigestible waste.

Hmmmm......well, I might buy that for a dollar.

I did write ConAgra foods to see what they say.

[JayEll]

Nutrition isn't an exact science. Measuring the nutritional calories in foods isn't exact, either--it's done indirectly. So there is bound to be variation. What we can say is, a cup of popcorn has 15-30 calories, depending. There is no such thing as an exact value.

If you go by the Nutrition Panel on the popcorn you buy, you'll be able to figure out the calories of a "serving" of that brand, and that's what you should use.

Jay

[girl81]

Originally Posted by aschenbrodel

Well, I still don't get it.
But maybe a glimmer of truth in the fiber aspect. Manufacturing would take some of the husk off.
So whereas the plain air popped corn might be more calories, some of it is undigestible waste.

Hmmmm......well, I might buy that for a dollar.

I did write ConAgra foods to see what they say.

Did they reply?

[aschenbrodel]

No, they never did reply.

Turkeys!
I may have to write them again.