Determined To Succeed

Hooray for Hollywood. Yesterday the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced their nominees for this year’s Academy Awards. As a huge movie fan this is my time of year. Some people love the Grammys. Some people love the Tonys. Some love the Golden Globes. And while I watch all of those I love the Oscars. And as such I try to at least see all the best picture nominees in any given year.

This year, the Academy went back to what it used to do and nominated ten films for Best Picture. Yikes! Don’t they know how much buttered popcorn, Raisinettes and Twizzler packs that amounts to? For a food-a-holic like me it can be a dangerous time especially when I have so many movies to see before this year’s award ceremony.

For example, last night I saw Kathryn Bigelow’s brilliant “The Hurt Locker.” And just like smoking can be a situational thing for some people when they go out with friends I always get the munchies when I watch movies. Usually I go for Twizzlers or Raisinettes. But on rare occasions I go for the most delicious movie food around – popcorn.

But hold onto your Avatars before you order another popcorn. Just one popcorn-and-soda combo can match the calorie-and-saturated-fat count of three McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and 12 pats of butter, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) review of popcorn sold at three national movie chains.

According to Jayne Hurley, nutritionist for the Washington-based group, the high saturated fat count can be blamed on the coconut oil used to pop the corn at theaters run by Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc., which have a combined 852 theaters nationwide.

CSPI found that the 20-cup tub of popcorn at Regal theaters packs 1,200 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat, which Hurley said accounts for three days worth of saturated fat. An 11-cup (small) bucket has 670 calories and 34 grams of saturated fat. And those numbers don’t account for the “buttery” topping, every tablespoon of which adds another 130 calories. A 16-cup bucket sold at AMC theaters (including the one right next door to yours truly in Cherry Hill) contains 1,030 calories and 57 grams of fat, according to CSPI.

A third theater chain, Texas-based Cinemark, had far lower saturated fat counts because they pop in heart-healthy canola oil. Seventeen-cup buckets at Cinemark have 910 calories and 4 grams of saturated fat.

OK, so let’s do some math. So far I have seen eight of the ten nominees for Best Picture (only need to see “An Education” and “A Serious Man”). If I had a medium-sized popcorn each time I saw one of those eight I packed on – get ready – 10,000 calories! 8,240 of which from the popcorn alone and 1,760 from all the buttery topping I get.

Let me put it to you another way – given my size and weight I should be eating roughly 2,000 calories a day. So those eight trips to the concession counter equals FIVE DAYS OF FOOD! Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Look, I know I’m human and I will, from time to seriously occasional time, get the popcorn because it is good. But think seriously about these stats the next time you go. Also, think seriously about sneaking in your own healthier snacks which could be lower in calories and lower in fat.

I just want to make sure we are all around to see many more movies in years to come.