Beware of Sugary Beverages and Loaded Popcorn

Chuck Norris
Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:00:00 -0800
Lifestyle

If you subscribe to the resolution of eating healthier in 2025 but don't know exactly where to start, Dr. Federica Amati, a registered public health nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, has a suggestion for you.

"Start with the worst offender: soda. The evidence of links between high intakes of soda and poor health outcomes is now overwhelming," Amati explained in a recent Healthline interview. "So, if you can cut it out of your diet, you'll be doing your health a huge favor."

In this era where we are told that ultraprocessed foods are being consumed at a rate far greater than ever before, a commitment to take back one's health by eating healthier may require a starting point.
Updated: Fri Jan 17, 2025

If you subscribe to the resolution of eating healthier in 2025 but don't know exactly where to start, Dr. Federica Amati, a registered public health nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, has a suggestion for you.

"Start with the worst offender: soda. The evidence of links between high intakes of soda and poor health outcomes is now overwhelming," Amati explained in a recent Healthline interview. "So, if you can cut it out of your diet, you'll be doing your health a huge favor."

In this era where we are told that ultraprocessed foods are being consumed at a rate far greater than ever before, a commitment to take back one's health by eating healthier may require a starting point.

Medical News Today reports that a study published in Nature Medicine on "the global impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease ... found that in 2020, sugar-sweetened beverages were responsible for an estimated 9.8% of type 2 diabetes cases and 3.1% of cardiovascular disease cases worldwide. ... Researchers estimated that around 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular cases were attributable to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages."

There are various potential options that people can take to replace sugary beverages. At the top of most lists is water. To the surprise of some folks, another option is coffee, though not any of the fancy sugar-laden versions of the beverage: just a straight cup of joe.

Writes Medical News Today's Corrie Pelc, "Over the last few years, there have been a number of studies examining the potential health benefits and drawbacks of daily coffee drinking. ... (S)tudies published in 2024 found that drinking coffee may help negate some of the harmful health effects of living a sedentary lifestyle and consuming caffeine may help improve vascular health." Researchers at Tulane University found that "participants who drank coffee in the morning were 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease and a 16% reduced risk in all-cause mortality risk. These benefits were seen in morning coffee drinkers regardless if they were moderate drinkers — two to three cups — or heavy drinkers — more than three cups — a day. There was only a small risk benefit for light morning drinkers who drank one cup of coffee or less."

These studies also clearly demonstrate that it is time we, once and for all, break coffee's link to smoking. Says a Tobacco-Free Life report, "Smokers claim that having a coffee and a cigarette is a good way to relax, but in actual fact both nicotine and caffeine are stimulants, and the effects they have on your heart can combine to increase your risk even further. ... There has been a long-standing assumption that coffee is bad for you, but in fact most of the stated risks disappear when studied in a reliable fashion."

And if you are looking for a way to break away from ultraprocessed packaged snack foods, let me recommend a time-honored snack choice that can be low in calories, high in fiber, and a healthy choice if you're looking to lose weight. You probably know it well: It's popcorn. But today its nutritional value, like with so many other snacks, is often compromised. It depends on how the snack is prepared.

Anthea Levi, RD, writes in a Health.com report that a serving of buttered popcorn at the movie theater has little in common with "oil-popped popcorn made ... at home with olive or vegetable oil."

Interesting Facts states that "archeological evidence suggests people have been popping (popcorn) for more than a thousand years. ... (W)hen U.S. movie theaters first emerged in the early 1900s," popcorn eating while watching a move soon became an "inseparable" part of the moviegoing experience. It took the Great Depression to hit for theater operators to realize that selling their own popcorn, rather than what was until then sold by vendors stationed outside, could help their business survive. "By the mid-1940s, more than half the popcorn consumed in the U.S. was eaten at the movies."

But let's not confuse that product with what you will find sold in movie theaters now.

"Flavacol is a salt seasoning commonly added to popcorn sold in movie theaters," Levi reports. Flavacol "contains the food dyes yellow #5 and yellow #6, which come with health warning labels in the European Union. Yellow #5 has been highlighted as a 'food ingredient of public health concern' in the United States. It's still permitted for use in food products." You can expect the movie theater product to also be high in calories, salt and saturated fat. In addition to popcorn sold at movie theaters, the product sold in microwaveable bags at stores "can be high in these nutrients due to added ingredients. ... Popcorns made with butter flavoring can contain harmful substances like diacetyl. This chemical has been linked to severe lung disease in people and cancer in animals. Diacetyl is most dangerous when you inhale it, so it's safest to avoid popcorn made with this artificial butter flavoring."

Levi suggests avoiding microwavable popcorn and instead buying pre-popped popcorn in a bag — but check the nutrition facts label for its ingredients. "Look for popcorn made from just a few simple ingredients, like organic popcorn, coconut or extra virgin olive oil, and salt." When making popcorn at home, consider using "heart-healthy ingredients like vegetable oil or olive oil."