Two Chemicals In Microwave Popcorn Are Dangerous To Your Health!

Microwave popcorn could be slowly killing you or your family! This assessment is from researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other research results conducted by respected experts and medical authorities specializing in lung and cancer diseases. The good news is there’s an easy fix for this problem, and a good tasting one at that!

First, there’s “popcorn lung”, a dangerous disease that often requires lung transplants to fix. The culprit is Diacetyl, an aromatic hydrocarbon compound in the butter flavoring that causes the well documented “popcorn worker’s lung” disease.  A $20 million dollar settlement was awarded in 2004 by a jury in Joplin, Missouri to a person suffering from this disease from the breathing of the very same fumes you breath whenever you pop up some microwave popcorn.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC), claims no risk to humans from breathing Diacetyl, and yet they readily admit to having done no human studies, and they do report definite risks to animals.  Microwave popcorn is big bucks, so there’s a lot of pressure by the makers of microwave popcorn to gloss over the potential dangers of Diacetyl. These companies tend to say things like “no proven risk to humans” when they simply haven’t done the necessary research, and they avoid making statements such as “proven safe for human consumption”.

If the chemical Diacetyl is not enough to cause you to immediately stop feeding your family microwave popcorn, there’s yet another reason to be very concerned. PFOA (perflourooctanic acid) is a dangerous chemical released by the special microwave absorbing lining inside the bags, designed to heat the kernels. This chemical is absorbed by the popcorn and then by your intestines, and it accumulates in your body over time. PFOA is a known carcinogen, reported as such from the testing of laboratory animals. Also, according to Olga Naidenko, Phd, a senior research scientist for the Environmental Working Group, PFOA’s are part of a class of compounds linked to infertility in humans.

So, how do you protect your family?  It’s easy, it can even save you money, and it’s a lot of fun. Go ahead and plan movie nights at home with your family. Save money by watching that economical movie on your flat screen TV, and enjoy the aromas and enjoyment of sharing popcorn all you want. Simply be sure to use one of the popcorn makers that make popcorn the old fashioned way, just like they’ve done practically forever in movie theaters. If you want to reduce the grams of fat in your diet, use a hot-air popper. The hand-cranked stove-top cookers make great popcorn, and almost as quickly as in a microwave. For the ultimate in home movie experience, get one of the counter top poppers that work just like the larger models the best theaters use. Add a little real butter for flavor, and feel free to experiment with the many types of red, white, blue or even purple popping corn. To spice up your life a little, try seasoned salts of various flavors. You and your family will never want to ever go back to the dangerous and slightly fake smelling microwave popcorn too many of us have gotten used to. Enjoy!