Eating microwave popcorn increases the level of PFAS in body (2022)
uclahealth.org
uclahealth.org
Take one large pot (the kind that holds like 10qts).
Cover the bottom with kernels.
Add a bit of oil, basically just enough to swirl and have everything covered in an oil sheen, not enough to have them submerged.
Cover, put on high (I use gas). I like to suspend a paper towel between the lid and the rest of the pot, absorbs excess oil and water.
Once popping slows, turn off the stove. Dump popcorn into large mixing bowl.
Toss 1/8 cup butter in the hot pot, melt the butter with residual heat.
Pour popcorn back in and toss to get the popcorn evenly lightly buttered, transfer back to the mixing bowl.
Salt(I prefer a salt grinder) and toss, add a bit of grated Parmesan and toss.
There should be less than 10 unpopped kernels, no burned popcorn at all.
Cleanup is a wipe down of the large pot with the moisture capture paper towel.
Method:
- Prepare: Measure out 1/3 cup of popcorn and have a serving bowl ready.
- Add high temp oil to the pot. I use 1-2tbs of coconut oil.
- Place in stock pot along with 3 kernels over medium high heat.
- Cover with a kitchen towel (to let out some steam during popping, don't want a soggy popcorn).
- Once the kernels pop, immediately dump in the rest of the kernels (I usually do 1/3 cup, whatever the instructions recommend).
- Immediately take off the heat and shake gently to the count of 30. The kids love participating in the count.
- Put back on the heat and shake a little to make sure the kernels are evenly distributed.
- Once the popping slows, immediately take it off the heat and dump into a serving bowl. This prevents burning.
You have to study the grain. Most kernels have a left to right grain, and they will pop between 140-150C, because the cell structure of the skin is weak in several places. A relatively rare genetic mutation leads to around 1-2% of kernels having a right to left grain, and because of this orientation the skin is actually more robust in the typical popping spots, meaning that temperatures as high as 450C are required to pop these! That's why they typically will remain unpopped when cooking popcorn in this legacy manner.
To detect the right-to-left kernels, you can actually use a UV flashlight - you will see that they have a softer glow compared to the bright left to right kernels.
Hope that helps!
1: https://americasfavoritepopcorn.com/blogs/all-blogs/why-do-s... 2: https://popcornity.com/why-some-popcorn-kernels-dont-pop/
And the way the salt "tastes" is different because the powder dissolves on your tongue differently/quicker.
Salt "dust" is a really interesting way of adding salt to food -- and you actually end up adding less than larger grains
I've never seen on-the-spot ground salt smaller than the stuff you can buy already grounded. Except if you buy flakes, but then why do so if you want finer salt?
I only realize that I've never thought of comparing, but I've got the habit of using unground salt when cooking. My grandmother used to do this for some reason, so I picked it up.
Unground salt is also useful for cleaning things, like cooking pans.
It's therefore easier to only buy salt in one big pack that lasts forever.
A 1 kilo bag is like 0,23 EUR
In my neck of the woods, unground salt is the most expensive kind, because the only place you can find it is in upscale gourmet stores.
I was recently planning to get back to a regular pestle/mortar setup after yet another costly failure. Did you manage to find a way to work this around?
Totally without evidence.
For some reason, normal salt just sticks on the top of the tomato despite it being wet and I can "taste" the salt not just saltiness. However, with crunched salt crystals, they basically dissolve and disappear into the moisture of the tomato. This just tastes better too.
Don't ask me why or how it all happens, it's just what I've found using my taste buds.
It's nothing special, some no-name Himalayan pink salt in a plastic grinder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_salt
> Some salts mined in Pakistan are not suitable for food or industrial use without purification due to impurities... Although a study of pink salts commercially available in Australia showed Himalayan salt to contain higher levels of a range of elements, including calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, aluminum, barium, silicon, and sulfur, and reduced levels of sodium, compared to table salt, the authors concluded that "exceedingly high intake" (a level in excess of the recommended daily salt intake by almost 600%) would be required for the differences to be clinically significant, levels at which any potential nutritional benefit would be outweighed by the risks of elevated sodium consumption such an intake would entail.
Usually you see anti-caking agents and Iodide added.
I never bothered with the butter etc, though maybe I should.
The silicone bowls are by far the best. Big consistent, crisp pops. Minimal waste, you can even repop the unopposed kernels. But easy to burn if you are not careful.
Air poppers are by far the worst. The pop corn always came out like styrofoam. I’d bite into the popcorn and it would just flatten.
I don’t believe the comments about getting minimal un-popped kernels using a pot, by just swirling around a bit of oil. Sounds like baloney to me. Results are good but waste is relatively high in a flat bottomed pot.
The best vessel for stove top is a metal container with a curved bottom - wok, large metal bowl. Add popcorn and oil as normal. Heat for about a minute. Turn the heat off. Stir the kernels for 30s to a minute to let the heat even out. Turn the heat back on and cover. As they pop shake the container to help the kernels settle to the bottom. The same technique can be used in a normal pot, but the heat distribution is not as good.
Also, try using coconut oil instead of canola oil to cook the popcorn--its pricier, but its a great taste. I think it removes the need to add butter afterwards.
* truffle zest (a powder, smells good, not much taste) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FDFL2RQ
* truffle sauce (it's bits of truffle and other mushrooms in oil) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V3M9VLI
* truffle salt (it's a very fine salt and very good for popcorn) https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Black-Truffle-Sea-Salt/dp/B00...
(or just do the truffle salt alone)
i like this combo because it's not as chemical smelling as the "white truffle oil" or whatever they sell that doesn't contain any truffle at all.
But plain old butter is still my favorite.
We have much to learn from their culture.
Corn explosion is louder than rice one.
Heat oil first. Use the 3 kernel method to make sure oil is hot enough then add sugar and rest of kernels. Use a large lightweight pot with lid to shake every few seconds or you get uneven coated or crispy burnt pieces.
I tried different oils and sugar mixes but coconut with white sugar seems the best.
I read there are ways to use an air fryer also but haven’t tried yet.
In my experiments heating the pan and oil to a medium-high temperature, just before smoking, with 3-4 test kernels preloaded allows them to generate an alert by their popping, signalling the optimal time for addition of the rest of the kernel package.
Stir popcorn maker something like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RC6R
flavacol salt (optional if you use flour salt) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W8LT10 or flour salt https://www.amazon.com/Morton-Popcorn-Salt-Green-French/dp/B... or both 1/2-1 tea spoons at most.
'butter' oil https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UZLQG2 1/4 cup after cooking (warm it in a microwave)
The butter oil is a bit of a pain as there is so much of it and you can not really buy in small quantities, and it will go rancid before you use it all. It is meant for movie theaters to use. I have not found any supermarket versions that are correct. Usually they are kinda gross.
You can use a coconut oil for cooking with. Most theaters do not do this at all. The butter oil is closest to the same as movie theater as that is what they use during cooking and topping at the end. I personally use the coconut oil when cooking as it imparts a nice texture and flavor to the popcorn. 1-2 tsps for cooking with for either. Then top with the butter oil.
The flavacol and butter oil are the key ingredients.
For the popcorn I just buy orville redenbacher popcorn. They have a decent process of removing the duds before they get into the container. You can buy generic just expect a few duds.
My favorite is to use beef tallow.
* 3 tablespoons bacon grease * 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Put the bacon grease in a large pot and add three kernels of popcorn. Heat it on half heat (5 on a gas burner, anyway) until the three kernels all pop -- this will usually be the point at which smoke from the grease is accumulating in the pot (if you have a large lid you can watch). Once the three pop, dump the rest in. Scoot the pot vigorously back and forth on the stove to shake the unpopped kernels to the bottom. Turn off the heat when the popping stops.
Pour in a bowl and salt to taste. No butter required. As above, you get almost no unpopped kernels this way!
We use "rainbow popcorn," which is multi-color and we think tastes better. It doesn't pop as big as the regular yellow kind.
I'll have to try the paper towel trick, especially with the smaller pot I sometimes use.
> I like to suspend a paper towel between the lid and the rest of the pot, absorbs excess oil and water.
Brilliant! I never thought of this, and I'm going to start doing doing it. Thank you!
Also, more of the world needs this in their lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fG8rNHUspU
(not bdg - well yes also bdg - but in this case the pep corn)
Why do we just happen to glance over those issues so easily?
How is that not sustainable? It means that you can turn the heat off earlier and coast on the stored heat.
I don't cook on gas, so that's not a concern for me. But no butter?? That's the same as saying "no popcorn".
Also I usually toss in 3 kernels to the oil. When they pop you add the 1/3 cup as the oil is preheated and ready to get to work.
Cool tip, thanks. I use basically the same steps except fort this one. Living in a high humidity environment (it's rarely below 70%), any step to reduce excess moisture helps improve the crunchiness of the popcorn.
Interesting. I like to keep that excess oil/water, as that extra moisture on the surface of the popcorns later helps the sugar/salt stick to it - without the need for additional butter/grease.
> Take one large pot (the kind that holds like 10qts).
Ideally a dutch oven or similar heavy bottom that distributes heat well. This makes the process nearly foolproof on any heat source.
> Add a bit of oil, basically just enough to swirl and have everything covered in an oil sheen, not enough to have them submerged.
If you are looking for "movie theatre" popcorn the "secret" is using (extra virgin) coconut oil along with flavacol dissolved in the heated oil with the kernels popped in it. I use 2-3tbps of coconut oil and 2tsp of flavacol for 3/4 cup worth of kernels.
Flavacol should not be used as a topping imo, but as part of the popping substrate.
> Cover
This is tricky. Covering traps moisture released during popping, and moisture results in soggy (or at least not crisp!) popcorn. You do need some sort of cover though for obvious reasons.
I found a pot+metal strainer combo that fits perfectly together, where the strainer has about as many holes in it as you could get away with without creating oil splash mess. This lets as much steam as possible out immediately upon popping with as little kernel contact as possible. A more easy to come by lid is using a mesh oil cover meant for deep frying.
The commercial poppers accomplish this by having a very small popping pan, which kernels get "pushed out" of fairly quickly after they pop into a well vented holding tub.
> Toss 1/8 cup butter in the hot pot, melt the butter with residual heat.
Disagree on butter on popcorn, but it's a personal preference. I find butter makes popcorn soggy due to water content - and the flavacol+coconut oil is typically what most US theatre chains use vs. real butter, so it's what I "expect" the flavor to be. That said, I sometimes do melt up some butter to switch things up.
> Salt(I prefer a salt grinder)
I prefer pre-made popcorn salt in a wide metal popcorn salt shaker to really get a nice even spread.
> transfer back to the mixing bowl.
One trick: If you are making a lot of popcorn "to go" (e.g. for a party later) the best way I've found to keep it fresh is inside doubled-up paper grocery shopping bags. This helps soak up residual moisture, and the difference is noticeable after a few hours.
Thick bottom pots also reduce burning. Use a vented lid so steam can escape which prevents soggy popcorn.
Microwave is also fine, I just use a Pyrex bowl put in kernels and cover with a non-metal plate. The plate is necessary or they end up everywhere except the bowl.
This is what I've been missing...
Can't be worse than the PFAS infused kind right?
I had no idea that a quart is about a litre.
But I prefer to measure butter (and most other things -- especially sticky/messy/powdery things) by weight because it's easier. 1 cup of butter weighs about 227 grams, so 1/8 cup is about 27 grams.
Her: Why?
Me: Because you're a qt!
[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=10+imperial+quarts+in+liters
Dupont/3M did (and continue to do) a level of harm on par with CFCs and leaded gasoline, with complete regulatory impunity.
At some point the ICC needs to extend the crimes against humanity/nature to something like crimes against Human Health.
3M is on The Economist today with relevance to this matter:
> 3M, an American conglomerate, agreed to pay cities and utilities $12.5bn to settle thousands of lawsuits that had alleged chemicals emitted by the firm's products had polluted drinking-water supplies
1. Clean up PFAS from riverbeds and groundwater sediment.
2. Add PFAS cleaning stages in all water treatment systems across the globe.
At 12.5B, they are just paying up the people that can prove they now have cancer because of ridiculous exposure levels.
At 12.5B this is just the cost of doing business for Chem industry.
Probably not even that.
https://chemsec.org/reports/the-top-12-pfas-producers-in-the...
The top 12 PFAS producers in the world and the staggering societal costs of PFAS pollution
Only twelve companies account for a majority of the PFAS production in the world. PFAS production is hardly profitable, but the cost for society is massive.
If the true cost of this damage were paid, 3M would be driven to bancrupsy. Maybe then the next conpany would not be so gun-ho about dumping strange chemicals.
This is your regular reminder that many of the wealthy are only so, because they never pay for the consequences of their actions.
Littering was a social norm when these chemicals were invented. Even today, most Americans eat meat from factory farms, drive gas powered cars, and throw most trash in a landfill. Problems that will have to eventually be fixed.
If you’re born into this kind of society are you going to handicap yourself by holding yourself to a stricter set of rules than everyone else? The ‘yes’ and ‘no’s to that question don’t fall neatly into class lines.
Is this some stranhe double-hypocracy?
If 3M put their crap is a properly contained landfill, millions of people wouldn't be poisoned!
'Sins of the consumer' is a toxic ideology!
The very pervasiveness argues against PFAS being that bad for humans in real life. Despite pretty much everyone having PFAS in their blood, at a global level, health is probably better than ever and most health problems are from refined sugars and sedentary lifestyle than anything that can be attributed to PFAS.
However, how do you go after people who have so much money they can literally buy their way out of any appropriate punishment? We need something stronger than the ICC.
> The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average.
As far as I could tell the relevant study [1] merely finds association rather than causation. This is often the best you can do in the nutrition field though. I have not yet read through the entire contents.
[1] Herbert P. Susmann, Laurel A. Schaider, Kathryn M. Rodgers, and Ruthann A. Rudel. 2019. Dietary Habits Related to Food Packaging and Population Exposure to PFASs. Environmental Health Perspectives 127, 10 (October 2019). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4092
"Up to" can cover a lot of sins. Does that mean one person had 63% higher than normal and the median daily-popcorn eater was 10% higher?
Just get N people. Have the control group eat pot cooked popcorn and have the experimental group eat microwave.
You can’t get causation by just observing, but once you are willing to make someone do something, then it’s pretty easy to arrive at.
I tried to verify the GP quote but actually couldn’t find it in the study - but if it’s true, people who eat microwave popcorn every day for a year is an extreme population in all sorts of ways. I don’t eat anything every day for a year, much less popcorn.
The corn producers, the microwave popcorn brands? If any of them ever does, be sure that the study will either find no proof of causation or not be published
"Research suggests that people who regularly consume microwave popcorn have markedly higher levels of PFAS in their bodies. A study published in 2019 analyzed a decade of data about the eating habits of 10,000 people, which was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2003 and 2014. Blood samples from the study participants were also collected. The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average."
The first thing that comes to my mind if you are eating microwave popcorn every day, what other junk foods are you eating every day?
You can only control what people eat if you lock them up in a prison or similar institution.
These days locking up thousands of people and experimenting with their diet is not cool.
The best nutritional / food studies come from prisons and similar institutions.
A lot of studies are done on high-level, competitive NCAA / college athletes. Both cuz they're, like, already at a university, but also NCAA has mandatory physicals, and high level athletics lends itself to controlled lifestyles.
Both tend to rule out most health issues as well; in theory you can be diabetic and play NCAA Div 1 ball, but selection bias tends to weed them out, while the Army explicitly does so.
What I mean is, if you make homemade microwave popcorn with good oils and a pinch of salt it's presumably fine. But the cheap packets you buy in the store, brand-name or not, are full of crap - rancid, cheap oils, additives and preservatives of all kinds, weird artificial flavors, almost certainly a ridiculous amount of salt and sugar, and now possibly packaging that's of such poor quality it leeches PFAs. It's not the corn that's the problem.
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/flavorings/exposure.html#:~....
> In a plant where workers with uncontrolled exposures to butter-flavoring chemicals in microwave popcorn production had rapidly developed severe, irreversible lung disease, increased ventilation and isolation of flavor sources in mixing, holding tanks, and microwave popping decreased the risk for most workers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3115208/
> Man Wins $7 Million In Suit Claiming Microwave Popcorn Caused Lung Disease
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/09/20/161489994/ma...
Put 1/3 cup kernels in a large brown paper lunch bag and fold the top down several times. Microwave as normal, bag standing up, listening for pops to slow down. Air pops in the bag with no issues.
Salt (and ghee) after you dump it in the bowl.
I have stopped using my whirlypopper.
The process is surprisingly reproducible. I get very few unpopped kernels, usually around 5 of them.
66g of popcorn (that's two servings, according to the label).
2 minutes and 8 seconds.
After cooking, add oil/butter and popcorn salt, then toss. Popcorn salt likes to fall to the bottom, so after tossing, I put on the popper lid, carefully flip it upside down, and shake.
Also, I use a silicone popper, not a paper bag. (Above, I meant to reply to a different comment.)
I'm eating some right now, turns out. When I'm done, I'll edit this comment with a count of unpopped kernels. :-)
---
EDIT: 2 unpopped kernels!
Personally I'd just use some kind of metal-free chip clamp instead of actual staples, just to be safe.
I measure a heaping tablespoon of solidified ghee and melt it and add 1 tsp flavacol and toss the popped corn with it to get a similar flavor.
I used to work at a movie theater, this is the way.
I'll give that paper bag trick a try sometime, thanks!
Since the beginning of this year, our family has been much more conscious of the ingredients in the food labels. Lots of additives with many different numbers. We've been trying to get back to more natural things with less numbers. We bought breadmaker and started making our own bread (fun and messy). Bought a second hand ice cream maker (fun, tedious, but yum). Never knew how simple popcorn making was! Lots of colours of vegetables, home-grown spring onions. Our grocery bills on vegetables and fruits went up sharply. But it went down on crackers, chocolates and other things sharply.
I don't feel anything - but it helps me to think that I'm eating less numbers.
I worry more about what's not in the labels (like pesticides used, antibiotics in meats, packaging etc). Your approach seems to be directionally correct tho, if you source your ingredients right.
Of course it doesn't work on stuff without barcodes like vegetables and fruit, meat bought fresh, etc. but still it's extremely helpful and useful.
Not that im saying you should avoid using a bread maker, but it doesn't avoid all chemicals...
But if you're really bothered by this, you can actually get a non-stick ceramic coated insert instead. Or do it the classic way with steel or glass and fat, just like cake.
Or get bread that's not packed in plastic heh.
In my head I imagine the dough sticking to the surface and removing a monolayer of PFAS and integrating it in the dough.
Michael Pollan
https://www.clearlyfiltered.com/pages/performance-data-for-t...
I have it, and purely ergonomically, it's the best filter I've ever used. It's also quite expensive with expensive filters that need replacing frequently.
Fluoride in your water supply is key to reducing tooth decay. Every medical association every scrap of evidence that we have says it's useful and important. It cuts tooth decay by 25% or so at all ages. You're doing yourself and your family a massive disservice by not adding it back in, never mind causing yourself a lot of pain and losing a lot of money in the long term.
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/index.html
I think it's ironic that people don't listen to doctors when they suggest simple proven methods that have a worldwide consensus behind them and unlimited evidence. But then are willing to let those same doctors drill into their skulls when they're in pain. Don't be that person :)
Some toothpaste have both, Dr jens for example which does have the 10% concentration shown most effective in clinical trials
It keeps fluoride in your saliva. Which toothpaste cannot do.
I know this is posed as a positive, but I have a feeling in 1000 years we are going to be laughed at like the Romans for putting lead in their wine.
Anyway, my dentist told me to leave the fluoride on my teeth for a few minutes. Wonder if that is more dangerous due to the concentration.
Which is why you're not supposed to rinse the toothpaste you used to brush your teeth.
1. Is it too much to ask for a link to the original research in an article like this?
2. Given that every human alive has detectable levels of PFAS in blood, 63% elevation after eating every single day of the year doesn't seem like a lot.
3. Those advocating popping in pans/pots might want to consider what that pan/pot is coated with.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/13r7r3k/...
Also incredibly cheap.
Every time I take a bite, it’s like a buttery explosion.
I recommend taking it off heat for 30 seconds after adding all the kernels so they all heat up to an even temperature and roast a little in the butter. Use a screen to cover the pot rather than a lid so that steam can escape and your popcorn stays crunchy.
It tolerates the high heat of popcorn popping quite well and tastes great with a hint of chicken. Usually has notes of the seasoning too... which in my case is mostly black pepper.
+1 on the screen hack, that's definitely a pro-tip.
You're probably fine if you have microwave popcorn once a fortnight, tho as other said you can use a pan or pot just fine.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Proper-Popper-Microwave-Collapsible-D...
Cooking in silicone is something I would probably also avoid, especially if one can't be certain of its composition: https://www.beuc.eu/sites/default/files/publications/BEUC-X-...
If so, I suspect there are better uses for their time...
It let to a forum from 5 years ago with someone accusing someone else of doing the same thing!
In the end, it seems like it's something google appends to their search
Fun little read for you:
https://www.forestriverforums.com/forums/f218/50a-trailer-30...
not just this 11$ product
To prevent burning, shaking and occasionally lifting off the hob is required. Also not adding too much corn helps a lot. The maximum a saucepan can take is when the entire base is covered with them.
Decide if you like white or yellow corn, find a good brand, and buy it cheap, in-bulk, for a cheap and nutritious snack. You'll notice significant variation in unpopped kernels between brands.
I spray my kernels lightly with avocado oil and sprinkle popcorn salt(finer than normal to improve adhesion) before popping. I eat at least one large bowl a day now.
If it's the first, I'd expect almost everything you nuke to be at least a risk of PFAs. If its the second, that's easier to deal with by avoiding fake popcorn butter.
It's on the paper.
Wouldn't they risk getting obese?
Source: I started getting fat of popcorn every day and am typically considered skinny/fit. Then I read the label and got sad.
The comment you reply to specifically mentions oil-less popcorn which is a low calorie stack and a good source of fiber once you get used to not lathering it in butter or olive oil.
I'm a bit skeptical about microwave popcorn increases PFAS as the study doesn't really answer this question. People eating microwave popcorn might be different from those who don't eat it and the real source could be something else.
But I'm only a bit skeptical as it sounds plausible that the manufacturers probably use PFAS-contaminated surfaces in the production.
It’s always depressing to eat inside a fast food restaurant, where they wrap all of your food in chemically treated packaging you almost immediately discard since it’s presumably cheaper and simpler than having washable dishes.
Do you know what chemicals or products restaurants tend to use?
As top vote getting comment points out, regular popcorn is SO easy and SO much better. I have no idea why anyone wants to make microwave popcorn when the regular way is just as easy, taste better, and in now demonstrably healthier.
Microwave popcorn is an abomination, suitable only for annoying your fellow office workers. Especially if you burn it.
One day this will be the “why did they put lead in toys” of our period
Every night?!
Well yes…