When you go to the movie theatre, the smell of popcorn consumes you when you walk in the door and can be very alluring. However, would you still buy it if you knew that a large buttered popcorn often has over 1,600 calories, 126 grams of fat and 70 gm of artery-clogging saturated fat? That is an entire days worth of calories for many and about 3 days worth of saturated fat. Even if you skip the butter and downsize to a medium popcorn, you’re still taking in a shocking 650 calories, 43 grams of fat and 31 grams of saturated fat because it’s popped in coconut oil. If you wash that down with a soda, you could be adding up to 500 more calories.
Apparently the movie theaters fear that you wouldn’t be as likely to purchase their snacks if you saw the nutrition facts because they have been fighting to keep calories off of menus boards in theatres across America. The FDA has proposed regulations to put calories on menus and menu boards in chain restaurants and on some vending machines. Originally, movie theatres were going to be included in the regulations, but theater chains objected and now they are excluded from the proposal.
Even though theaters are currently excluded from the proposal, there is still time to change that. The FDA is taking suggestions/comments on these regulations from the general public until June, 2011. So, if you feel that knowing the nutrition facts would help you or others to make a more educated decision when picking a snack at the movies let the FDA know. Click here, to submit a comment to the FDA.