Popcorn may seem like a delicious snack for movie theaters and comfortable nights at home. But even if it's hard to believe, there are also many health benefits associated with this food that most people have never heard of.
The health benefits of popcorn include its ability to regulate blood sugar, reduce cholesterol, improve digestive processes, protect against osteoporosis, prevent cancer, inhibit cognitive decline, prevent premature aging and help you lose weight.
Why popcorn?
Popcorn is simply a type of corn that has a hard endosperm, shell or shell containing an inner starch.
When the popcorn is heated, the pressure inside the shell increases and finally the popcorn is produced. There are a number of varieties of popcorn, including types that are intended to be cooked in a microwave, as well as other unmodified grains that can be made in small appliances specially designed to blow up the corn.
Popcorn is appreciated worldwide, in almost every place where normal corn is eaten. However, its limit as healthy food ends when you start pouring salt, butter, or other flavors or toppings on the popcorn, hence, it pours into the realm of unhealthy junk food!
If popcorn is eaten plain, it is both a delightful and beneficial snack for many people.
Heat alone is enough to create popcorn, so avoid cooking with olive oil or other vegetable oils, as it can impact the polyphenolic content of the hull once it "bursts" Which eliminates a lot of benefits.
The health benefits of popcorn come mainly from its impressive content of fiber, polyphenolic compounds, antioxidants, B vitamins, manganese and magnesium.
Here are 6 unlikely benefits that popcorn brings to your health:
1- Digestion:
It is important to realize that popcorn is a whole grain, which is a designation for grains that contain endosperm, germ and bran. It looks like whole grain cereals, rice and breads that also contain these three vital parts. Since popcorn is a natural whole grain, it contains all the fiber of the sound, not to mention the minerals, vitamins B and E that are stored there.
In terms of digestion, the high fiber content keeps your body "steady", which means that your bowel movements move smoothly and quickly through your digestive tract and conditions like constipation are avoided. Fiber stimulates the peristaltic movement of smooth intestinal muscles and induces the secretion of digestive juices, which helps keep your entire digestive system healthy.
2- Cholesterol levels:
The fibrous functions are manifested otherwise to be beneficial to the body, whole grains contain the type of fiber that can remove excess cholesterol from the walls of blood vessels and arteries.
Fiber in popcorn reduces your overall cholesterol levels and lowers your chances of getting cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes. It also reduces the pressure on the heart system because the heart does not have to work so hard to move blood through clogged vessels and arteries.
3- Blood sugar:
The third vital role of fiber is its impact on blood sugar levels in the body. When the body has large amounts of fiber, it regulates the release and management of blood glucose and insulin levels better than people with low levels of fiber.
Reducing these fluctuations in blood sugar is a major bonus for diabetic patients, so popcorn is always a recommendation if you suffer from this difficult disease.
4- Cancer prevention:
In recent years researchers have been shocked to find a large amount of antioxidant capacity in popcorn.
It has already been considered relatively unhealthy junk food, but it now
seems that the hull of popcorn contains large amounts of polyphenolic
compounds, one of the most potent types of antioxidants that you can put in your body.
In fact, research has even shown that eating popcorn can do more for the
antioxidant potential in your body than a daily dose of fruits and vegetables !.
5- Anti-aging:
Free radicals do a lot more damage than cancer; They have been closely
linked to age-related symptoms such as wrinkles, age spots, macular
degeneration and blindness, muscle weakness, cognitive decline,
osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, hair loss and a wide variety of
other things that we do not look forward to.
6-Weight loss:
A cup of popcorn contains only 30 calories, which is about 5 times less than the same amount of greasy potato chips. In addition, the fiber content in the popcorn makes you feel full, and inhibits the release of the hunger hormone, ghrelin.
This can prevent overeating and keep people fighting weight happy and thin, without making them feel they are not eating enough. Popcorn is also very low in saturated fats, and its natural oils are mostly healthy and essential in the body.
A few words of warning:
The popcorn certainly seems like a healthy snack, but the vast majority of people put salt, butter or other fillings that negate much of the positive impact that its consumption can have on the body.
Also avoid pre-packaged microwave popcorn because it usually contains butter and salt already included, and once it starts blowing, some of the chemicals in the packaging materials will actually break up or destroy the phenolic compounds in the hull, severely reducing its impact on protecting your body against free radicals.