"title": "Popcorn is high in protein. Popcorn is not high in protein.",
"tags": ["food",
"the lies they told you",
],
"date": "2020-05-12T14:00:00.000Z",
"content": "About 5 and a half thousand years ago humanity discovered popcorn. About 180 years ago humanity discovered proteins. About 20 years ago humanity told itself "Popcorn is a great snack, it's high in protein and high in fiber". And about 5 months ago I was frustrated enough to star a series of messages on WhatsApp that read: "I'm going to start a blog. 'The lies they told you'. My first post is going to be 'popcorn is high in protein, popcorn is not high in protein'".
Popcorn IS high in protein. It comes in at a little under 1/10th protein, and 1/10th fiber by weight. That's actually pretty close to lentils although it doesn't even get close to the mighty kidney bean weighing in at around 1/4 protein and 1/4 fiber. Popcorn is also NOT high in protein weighing in at a measley 40g per litre; that means you get f*** all popcorn in a large bowl or bag. If you used one of those enormous mixing bowls and ate all of the popcorn in it alone you'd be looking at packing in about 10 litres of popcorn (and potentially about 3 days of constipation if you're like a certain bowel-impaired friend of mine) then you can count on about 2/3 to 1/2 your RDI (recommended daily intake) of protein for a fairly average Australian. And that maths is straight up ball-parking, maybe the giant mixing bowl you have is smaller, maybe the popped corns just come out bigger or smaller, maybe you add oil and other "bad stuff". Those chip-bag popcorn alternatives only have about 40-100g of popcorn in them so you can imagine we're talking tiny contributions to your gains, or whatever you're trying to achieve with that high-protein snack. I love popcorn as much as the next nerd but if anyone tells you to use popcorn as a "high protein snack", send them this link and walk away from that conversation.",