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Movie munchies
The facts behind concession food
By Rebecca Kolar
Concession calorie countdown
**Large popcorn**
1160 calories
77 grams fat (55 grams saturated) **Nachos**
554 calories
29.5 grams fat (9.5 grams saturated fat) **Large drink**
400 calories
When you go to the movie theater, do you consider how many calories and grams of fat are in the popcorn, nachos and candy you’re about to eat? The extent to which these items are bad for your health may be worse than you think.
Let’s start with that delicious theater popcorn. It’s hard to resist, but a large bucket of popcorn (around 20 cups) from AMC Theater has approximately 1,160 calories and 77 grams of fat, 55 of them saturated. That is enough saturated fat for over two days! There is one upside to eating all of this popcorn. If you were to eat all 20 cups you would be getting 24 grams of dietary fiber, and that’s all the fiber you need for a day.
The reason why movie theater popcorn is nutritionally horrible is because of the oil that is used to pop it. Most movie theaters use coconut oil, which has by far the most saturated fat out of all the oils. But there are alternatives to use when popping popcorn, for example, canola oil is a great source. Some movie theaters, like Star Cinema in Johnson Creek, use a mixture of canola and coconut oil. This popcorn has half as much saturated fat, therefore it’s better for you.
Another common movie theater treat is nachos and cheese, which includes 20 nacho chips and the normal amount of cheese given. These nachos contain 554 calories, 29.5 grams of fat, with 9.5 grams from saturated fat. If you get extra cheese, that’s an additional 105 calories.
Let’s not forget about the drinks. A large soda (32 oz.) contains almost 400 calories. And what if you get a refill? That’s a total of 800 calories!
So what should you be eating when watching a movie on the big screen? That is a tricky question. The real answer is that you should be eating none of these items. Since the craving is not always easy to overcome, a better alternative would be to eat a small popcorn with a small drink. Some lower calorie movie-snack items include licorice, gummy bears and air-popped popcorn from home.
The best alternative, however, would be to eat a meal before going to the movie and skip the concessions all together.
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