Popcorn Consumption Research Articles

Factors associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) serum concentrations in residents of New Hanover County, North Carolina: The GenX exposure study

In 2017, people living in New Hanover County, North Carolina, learned that for ∼40 years they were unknowingly exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through drinking water sourced by the Cape Fear River. Using data from the GenX Exposure Study, which measured serum PFAS levels in county residents, we aimed to understand questionnaire-measured factors associated with serum PFAS levels. Because most residents were served by the same municipal water source, we focused on surrogate factors of drinking water exposure that may contribute to variability in PFAS levels. Our analysis included 335 participants aged 6 and older. We included seven chemicals detected in ≥75% of the study population: four well-studied perfluoroalkyl acids (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS) and three understudied fluoroethers (Nafion byproduct 2, PFO4DA, PFO5DoA). For each PFAS, we evaluated associations of variables with serum PFAS levels adjusting for key demographic characteristics. Additionally, we developed predictive models for each PFAS. We used years of residence in the lower Cape Fear Region as a surrogate for water consumption. Duration of drinking water exposure was associated with higher serum levels of all seven PFAS. Drinking municipal water treated by home filters or other sources of water (non-city) were associated with lower PFAS concentrations for all seven PFAS compared to drinking municipal water without additional filtration. Males had higher levels of well-studied PFAS, but there was no difference for fluoroethers. For six PFAS, the predictive models explained ≥30% of the variance in serum PFAS levels. While some factors were significantly associated with levels of individual PFAS, their relative importance to overall prediction was low, such as microwave popcorn consumption. Consistently, water consumption-related variables were important for both the association and predictive investigations. These analyses provide additional evidence that drinking water is a primary source for serum PFAS concentrations among New Hanover County residents.

GENETIC IMPROVEMENT IN POPCORN

Popcorn consumption in Brazil has grown significantly over the years, and genetic improvement is essential to obtain sustainable gains in multiple traits to supply this increasing demand. Thus, the objective of this review was to contribute information concerning the process of popcorn breeding in tropical regions, germplasm availability, popcorn breeding plans, the main characteristics related to popcorn quality and yield, and advances and perspectives in the process of popcorn improvement. The main focus of breeding programs is to obtain hybrids from inbred lines with high popping expansion (40 mL g-1) and yield (4.000 kg ha-1). The genetic improvement performed in Brazil has presented significant advances, mainly due to work developed in public institutions with the development of new hybrids that present more significant popping expansion and yield. However, the number of cultivars is still low, and most of them are controlled by private companies. Therefore, intrapopulation methods are recommended to develop open-pollinated varieties with high popping expansion, and this trait can be used as an early predictor of promising inbred lines to obtain superior hybrids for grain quality. Furthermore, popping expansion can be quickly recovered in backcrosses involving the cross of common maize with an inbred popcorn line.

Genetic characterization of popcorn hybrids based on SNP genotyping and development of rapid ARMS based primers

In South Korea, popcorn consumption may have boomed in recent years but little has changed little for farmers or breeders. The majority of popcorn sold in the domestic market is derived from imported hybrids. The efforts are needed to identify parental lines and develop hybrids suitable for domestic conditions. However, the major constraint remains a narrow germplasm pool. Thus, knowledge of genetic variability among germplasm as well as among commercial hybrids is important to avoid genetic uniformity, thereby reducing the risk of vulnerability to stress and yield loss. Recently, the Maize Research Institute in Hongcheon developed valuable breeding material: ‘G-popcorn’, a new hybrid, together with ‘Oryun popcorn’, ‘Oryun popcorn2′, and ‘Gichan popcorn’. In this study, we assessed the genetic relationships among domestic and imported hybrids using 55 k single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Approximately 80% of the SNP markers were highly informative for future routine and low-cost genotyping. Considerable polymorphism among the SNP markers was observed with regard to reproducibility, ease of scoring, and minor allele frequency. Broad genetic diversity was detected among the germplasm analyzed; cluster analysis revealed the presence of two distinct groups of hybrids and generally agreed with pedigree information. In addition, we demonstrated the conversion of bead-chip SNP alleles into species-specific primers and used the ARMS-PCR technique to differentiate imported and domestic popcorn hybrids. The developed method will be useful for rapid and cost-effective identification of genetic purity among popcorn hybrids.

Intake of whole grain foods and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective cohort studies

ObjectiveTo examine the associations between the intake of total and individual whole grain foods and the risk of type 2 diabetes.DesignProspective cohort studies.SettingNurses’ Health Study (1984-2014), Nurses’ Health Study II...

Diet in colonic diverticulosis: is it useful?

Diverticulosis of the colon is the most common anatomic alteration of the human colon. Diet may be important in the management of diverticular disease (DD). It is known that high‑fiber diet does not prevent diverticulosis, and there are conflicting data on the prevention and treatment of DD and acute diverticulitis. No association has been reported between nut, corn, or popcorn consumption and the development of diverticulosis, DD, and acute diverticulitis. However, there seems to be a mild association between high alcohol intake and diverticulosis, whereas alcohol dependence seems to be related to a lower risk of in‑hospital mortality due to acute diverticulitis. Higher consumption of red meat was associated with a mild increase in the risk of acute diverticulitis, especially when consumed as unprocessed red meat (defined as consumption of "beef or lamb as main dish," "pork as main dish," "hamburger," and "beef, pork or lamb as a sandwich or mixed dish"). On the other hand, higher consumption of poultry (white meat) was not associated with the risk of acute diverticulitis. Finally, higher fish intake was associated with a reduced risk of diverticulitis in an age‑adjusted model but not after adjustment for other potential confounders.

Effects of drying temperature of red popcorn grains on the morphology, technological, and digestibility properties of starch

Popcorn consumption is becoming increasingly attractive, and the effects of post-harvest operations are essential for the improvement of industrial processes. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of drying temperature on the morphology, technological, and digestibility properties from the isolated starch from red popcorn grains. Red popcorn grains were dried in oven-drying (30 °C) and fixed-bed dryer at 40, 70, and 100 °C. The morphology properties of grains and starch, the technological and digestibility properties of the starch, were evaluated. The drying temperature of 100 °C reduces the extraction yield by 13.14%, changes the internal structure of the popcorn grains and the native morphology of the starch granules, increases the pasting temperature and the gelatinization enthalpy, and reduces digestibility compared to drying temperature of 40 °C, which is more indicated due to reduced drying time.

Dietary Habits Related to Food Packaging and Population Exposure to PFASs.

Background:Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are common industrial and consumer product chemicals with widespread human exposures that have been linked to adverse health effects. PFASs are commonly detected in foods and food-contact materials (FCMs), including fast food packaging and microwave popcorn bags.Objectives:Our goal was to investigate associations between serum PFASs and consumption of restaurant food and popcorn in a representative sample of Americans.Methods:We analyzed 2003–2014 serum PFAS and dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We used multivariable linear regressions to investigate relationships between consumption of fast food, restaurant food, food eaten at home, and microwave popcorn and serum levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).Results:Calories of food eaten at home in the past 24 h had significant inverse associations with serum levels of all five PFASs; these associations were stronger in women. Consumption of meals from fast food/pizza restaurants and other restaurants was generally associated with higher serum PFAS concentrations, based on 24-h and 7-d recall, with limited statistical significance. Consumption of popcorn was associated with significantly higher serum levels of PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, and PFOS, based on 24-h and 12-month recall, up to a 63% (95% CI: 34, 99) increase in PFDA among those who ate popcorn daily over the last 12 months.Conclusions:Associations between serum PFAS and popcorn consumption may be a consequence of PFAS migration from microwave popcorn bags. Inverse associations between serum PFAS and food eaten at home—primarily from grocery stores—is consistent with less contact between home-prepared food and FCMs, some of which contain PFASs. The potential for FCMs to contribute to PFAS exposure, coupled with concerns about toxicity and persistence, support the use of alternatives to PFASs in FCMs. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4092

Are there effective dietary recommendations for preventing diverticular disease?

EVIDENCE-BASED ANSWER A vegetarian diet and a relatively high intake of dietary fiber (>25 g/d) are associated with a reduced risk of hospital admission or dying from diverticular disease (SOR: B, inception cohort study). Only fruit and cereal fiber, and not vegetable and potato fiber, showed significant risk reductions per 5 g/d fiber intake (SOR: B, prospective cohort study). Nut and popcorn consumption at least twice weekly are also associated with a decreased risk of diverticulitis (SOR: B, prospective cohort study).

The impact of nutritional labels and socioeconomic status on energy intake. An experimental field study

There is some evidence for paradoxical effects of nutritional labelling on energy intake particularly amongst restrained eaters and those with a higher body mass index (BMI) resulting in greater consumption of energy from foods with a positive health message (e.g. “low-fat”) compared with the same foods, unlabelled. This study aimed to investigate, in a UK general population sample, the likelihood of paradoxical effects of nutritional labelling on energy intake. Participants (n = 287) attended a London cinema and were offered a large tub of salted or toffee popcorn. Participants were randomised to receive their selected flavour with one of three labels: a green low-fat label, a red high-fat label or no label. Participants watched two film clips while completing measures of demographic characteristics, emotional state and taste of the popcorn. Following the experiment, popcorn consumption was measured. There were no main effects of nutritional labelling on consumption. Contrary to predictions neither BMI nor weight concern moderated the effect of label on consumption. There was a three-way interaction between low-fat label, weight concern and socioeconomic status (SES) such that weight-concerned participants of higher SES who saw a low-fat label consumed more than weight unconcerned participants of similar SES (t = −2.7, P = .04). By contrast, weight-concerned participants of lower SES seeing either type of label, consumed less than those seeing no label (t = −2.04, P = .04). Nutritional labelling may have different effects in different socioeconomic groups. Further studies are required to understand fully the possible contribution of food labelling to health inequalities.

Popcorn snack more satiating than almonds, party mix or pretzels

This study compared satiety of whole grain 94% fat free microwave popcorn, dry roasted almonds, party mix (a mix of ready‐to‐eat cereal squares) and pretzels. Eucaloric (100 kcal) portions of these foods where tested in a counterbalanced, within subject design, with 29 normal weight participants (9 males and 20 females, ages 20–50 years). Participants consumed a standard breakfast followed three hours later by the test snack. Hunger, fullness, thirst, desire for a snack and general mood were recorded on 11‐point scales before and 30 minutes after the snack. Overall liking, appearance, flavor, texture and satisfaction were rated on 9‐point hedonic scales. Popcorn consumption resulted in less hunger, more fullness and less interest in a snack than almonds, party mix or pretzels (p<0.05) 30 minutes post consumption. These results support previous research showing popcorn is more satiating than other popular snacks. The satiety attribute, combined with popcorn's contribution to whole grain and fiber intakes, supports the consumption of low fat popcorn as a snack that can add to a healthy dietary pattern.Supported by ConAgra Foods

Nut, corn, and popcorn consumption and the incidence of diverticular disease

Nut, corn, and popcorn consumption and the incidence of diverticular disease

Nut, corn and popcorn consumption does not increase the risk of diverticulitis

Nut, corn and popcorn consumption does not increase the risk of diverticulitis

Nut, Corn, and Popcorn Consumption and the Incidence of Diverticular Disease

Patients with diverticular disease are frequently advised to avoid eating nuts, corn, popcorn, and seeds to reduce the risk of complications. However, there is little evidence to support this recommendation. To determine whether nut, corn, or popcorn consumption is associated with diverticulitis and diverticular bleeding. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study is a cohort of US men followed up prospectively from 1986 to 2004 via self-administered questionnaires about medical (biennial) and dietary (every 4 years) information. Men reporting newly diagnosed diverticulosis or diverticulitis were mailed supplemental questionnaires. The study included 47,228 men aged 40 to 75 years who at baseline were free of diverticulosis or its complications, cancer, and inflammatory bowel disease and returned a food-frequency questionnaire. Incident diverticulitis and diverticular bleeding. During 18 years of follow-up, there were 801 incident cases of diverticulitis and 383 incident cases of diverticular bleeding. We found inverse associations between nut and popcorn consumption and the risk of diverticulitis. The multivariate hazard ratios for men with the highest intake of each food (at least twice per week) compared with men with the lowest intake (less than once per month) were 0.80 (95% confidence interval, 0.63-1.01; P for trend = .04) for nuts and 0.72 (95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.92; P for trend = .007) for popcorn. No associations were seen between corn consumption and diverticulitis or between nut, corn, or popcorn consumption and diverticular bleeding or uncomplicated diverticulosis. In this large, prospective study of men without known diverticular disease, nut, corn, and popcorn consumption did not increase the risk of diverticulosis or diverticular complications. The recommendation to avoid these foods to prevent diverticular complications should be reconsidered.

Early Cinema and the Variety of Moving Images

For decades people knew what movies were: huge, illuminated moving images projected on a screen before a seated audience, attractions shown in movie theaters. The screen had a standard shape (slightly wider than a square), and moviegoing involved fairly standard rituals—entering through lobbies into auditoriums with rows of upholstered seats (usually red), the opening of a curtain (again usually red) that concealed the screen, lowered lights during projection, and, in the U.S.A. at least, the consumption of popcorn. While these elements still signify the “movies” to most of us, increasingly they appear as figures of nostalgia, knowingly employed to reference a nearly vanished movie culture (families now microwave popcorn before they gather around a television set to watch a DVD, or revival theaters raise velvet curtains to open their programs). The introduction of commercial television soon after World War II and then the VCR in the 1970s changed a predominantly public act of visual entertainment and consumption into a domestic, intimate event. Curiously, competition with smaller television screens at home also prompted a transformation of screen shape in theaters, stretched to new proportions and a range of shapes, from nearly twice as wide (the standard shape adopted in the mid-1950s) to the more-than-twiceas-wide ratio of the various anamorphic forms of Cinemascope and Panavision. Thus film in the 1950s became simultaneously larger and smaller, more spectacular and more intimate, offering a range of cinematic experiences. But if recent transformations in viewing seem radically different from the classical Hollywood film era, they should also remind us that it took some time for the movies to emerge even after motion pictures were invented. Furthermore, during most of film history ways of viewing and displaying motion pictures other than the “movie theater” also existed. Pictures that moved first became commercialized in the nineteenth century as educational toys for curious children, and the earliest photographic motion pictures on celluloid resembled these toys more than theatrical movies. Thomas Edison’s first commercial motion pictures were displayed through the Kinetoscope (“the viewer of motion”), a peepshow device into which a single viewer peered to see short films of dancers, acrobats, or May Irwin and John Rice’s famous stage kiss. Edison had been working on the Kinetoscope since 1888, and it appeared commercially in urban centers in 1894 as rows of coin-operated machines that offered viewers a brief dose of visual pleasure and technical novelty, one by one. The Kinetoscope provided a glimpse into a miniature world, recalling the noncinematic peepshows of eighteenthand nineteenth-century fairgrounds and the stereoscope viewer found in Tom Gunning

Popcorn Consumption and Dietary and Physiological Parameters of US Children and Adults: Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2002 Dietary Survey Data

Popcorn is a whole-grain food/snack that is included among foods recommended in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid to increase whole-grain consumption. The purpose of the present study was to use 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 24-hour dietary recall data to determine the average popcorn intake among Americans, and whether popcorn consumers exhibited different dietary intake patterns or physiological biomarkers of cardiovascular disease compared with popcorn nonconsumers. Mean intake among consumers of popcorn was 38.8 g/day. Compared with nonconsumers, popcorn consumers had approximately 250% higher ( P<0.01) intake of whole grains (2.5 vs 0.70 servings/day) and approximately 22% higher ( P<0.01) intake of fiber (18.1 vs 14.9 g/day). Small but significant differences ( P<0.01) were also observed for intake of carbohydrate, magnesium (higher intake in popcorn consumers), protein, niacin, and folate (lower intake in popcorn consumers). In addition, popcorn consumers had a greater ( P<0.01) intake of total grains and consumed fewer meat servings. Popcorn consumption was associated with increased intake of whole grains, dietary fiber, and certain other nutrients.

LIKING OF POPCORN CONTAINING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SALT1

ABSTRACTApproximately 300 subjects participated in a test to determine whether the level of salt in popcorn affected the change in overall liking observed as a consequence of consuming a serving of popcorn. Subjects tasted and rated three samples of popcorn (low, medium, high salt levels), ate a serving of popcorn at one of the salt levels and then tasted and rated the three samples again. Subjects returned one or seven days later and tasted and rated the samples again. Overall liking, salt intensity and salt liking were measured. The subjects also completed a questionnaire about their liking and consumption of popcorn. Liking scores for the popcorns decreased after eating a 3‐cup serving; however, sensory specific satiety for the different levels of salt was not observed. Consuming low salt popcorn increased the rated saltiness of the popcorns, whereas consuming high salt popcorn decreased the rated saltiness — probably a frequency effect. When subjects retasted the popcorns one or seven days later, all liking ratings increased except the salt liking ratings for the high salt sample. There was also a trend for the overall liking of this high salt sample to increase less than for the medium and low salt samples. Questionnaire measures of liking or consumption were not related to the changes in liking observed.