You browse the grocery store for the best variety of snacks to satisfy your late-night urges. However, there are always so many options to choose from, and how can you know if you’re making the best choice for your body?
Smartfood popcorn is a good snacking choice when compared to other snack foods. It clocks in at a lower calorie count than chips, cheese noodles, and other carbohydrate and high-fat snacks. However, it is not a healthy food, and should still be eaten in moderation.
If you’re wondering what exactly is in your Smartfood popcorn, then you’ve come to the right place. We will help you discover what flavors and varieties are best for your health and what exactly you’re putting in your body when you eat this snack.
Is Smartfood Popcorn Good For Weight Loss?
Smartfood popcorn is good for weight loss, but only when eaten in moderation. Smartfood popcorn has fewer calories than most other snack foods, but it has about the same as other microwave popcorn.
Therefore, you must be careful how much you eat, but you can be more liberal with it than with chips or cheesy snacks.
Popcorn alone is typically a smarter choice than other more calorie-dense foods available. As a form of comparison, Smartfood white cheddar popcorn has approximately 80 calories per cup. Meanwhile, Cheetos cheese doodles have double this per cup, clocking in at 160 calories.
Anyone who’s been in a snacking mood while watching TV or studying for college knows how easy it is to over-snack. For this reason, Smartfood popcorn is a better snack choice than something like chips. It’s very easy to eat hundreds of calories in chips in one sitting.
Each serving is 15 chips or less for almost every traditional chip brand, which is rarely the amount people eat while snacking.
However, you should take nutrition, fat, and carbs into account when choosing your snack as well. Not all calories are created equal.
Most snacks contain high amounts of sugar, carbs, oil, and artificial colors and flavorings. While Smartfood popcorn has a relatively low amount of carbs, they can be high in sugar, oil, and sodium.
Is Smartfood Popcorn Real Popcorn?
Smartfood popcorn is made with 100% real popcorn, but this doesn’t mean all of the ingredients are natural. Some varieties are more authentic than others and contain fewer artificial colors, sweeteners, and other ingredients.
The sweet kettle corn and original white cheddar are pretty natural while the donut flavors have more artificial flavors.
Smartfood was not originally intended to be a more real or healthy alternative to other snack foods. The name threw many people off and made them believe the product was intended to be more authentic or healthy. This is understandable since many saw the name as saying it was the “smart choice.”
Rather, the “smart” portion of the name refers to how the flavors were created. Generally, each flavor was tested over and over until it was perfect and ready for marketing.
Due to all the research that went into generating it, the name “Smartfood” harkened to the amount of research. It did not refer to it being a healthier or a better option.
In response to public opinion Fritolay, the parent company of the Smartfood brand, released “Delights.” These products are gluten-free and have no artificial colors or flavors.
There are currently only two flavors available in Delights: Smartfood Delight Sea Salt Popcorn and Smartfood Delight White Cheddar Popcorn.
Can Smartfood Popcorn Make You Gain Weight?
Smartfood popcorn can make you gain weight, but it is lighter than most snacks. Even though not designed as a low-calorie snack, popcorn is lower in calories than other foods. Additionally, popcorn is more filling than other snacks and gives you a more satisfying experience.
Smartfood can make you gain weight if you eat large amounts of it. This is especially true for the sweet varieties, such as the donut varieties.
However, the movie theater butter variety also has high amounts of oil and sodium, which could make it a calorie-dense snack.
A good way to avoid gaining weight with Smartfood popcorn is to either avoid the calorie-dense varieties or pre-portion your popcorn.
Generally speaking, most single servings of popcorn from Smartfood contain less than 200 calories and are substantial enough to satisfy your desire.
What Does Smartfood Popcorn Contain?
Smartfood popcorn has corn, oil, salt, and some preservatives. The ingredients vary based on the variety of popcorn you are purchasing. However, almost every variety has the above ingredients among other things.
According to EWG.Org, Smartfood popcorn has a 4.5-star rating. The best score is a 1, and the worst score is a 10. The website researches the ingredients of various brands of food and rates them based on several criteria.
This rating of 4.5 indicates that most of the ingredients in their popcorn are safe and reliable. However, their processing concerns are given a yellow rating rather than a green level. This simply means they use some unnatural and processed ingredients in their products.
Below we have a chart of the ingredients for some of the most popular Smartfood popcorn varieties.
| Variety | White Cheddar | Caramel Popcorn | Movie Theater Butter Popcorn | Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn | Sea Salt Popcorn |
| Ingredients | Popcorn, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil), Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Buttermilk, Natural Flavor, and Salt. | Butter (Cream, Salt), Corn Syrup, Popcorn, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil), Salt, and Sunflower Lecithin. | Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil), Salt, Maltodextrin (Made From Corn), Gum Acacia, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Butter (Cream, Salt), Natural Flavor, Skim Milk, and Tocopherols (Antioxidant). | Sugar, Popcorn, Canola Oil, Corn Syrup, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Caramel Color, Natural Flavors, Rosemary Extract (Antioxidant), and Ascorbic Acid (Antioxidant). | Popcorn, Vegetable Oil, (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil), and Sea Salt. |
Of the original, traditional recipe Smartfood popcorn, the kettle corn and sea salt varieties have the fewest exotic ingredients. However, they do still contain sugar, oil, and salt which can be counterproductive when trying to lose weight.
What Popcorn Has the Lowest Calories?
Homemade, air-popped popcorn has the lowest amount of calories per cup. When making air-popped popcorn you have control over what you put in it and how much you add. The lowest calorie count for microwave popcorn is Orville Redenbacher Smartpop and Skinny Pop popcorn for prepackaged varieties.
Skinny pop is typically made with a small amount of oil or no oil. It’s gently salted and doesn’t contain any artificial flavors or colors. Additionally, they boast a mere 150 calories per 3 ¾ cups serving.
Skinny Pop is also a great alternative to Smartfood popcorn because of their variety selection. Skinny Pop has original, white cheddar, sea salt and pepper, sweet vanilla kettle, and other flavors.
This variety makes a great substitution for Smartfood since they come with the right varieties to satisfy.
However, homemade popcorn is the best way to control the calorie count of your snack. We recommend using olive oil rather than butter, since this oil contains healthy fats rather than the saturated fat in butter.
If you’re trying to control your salt intake, we recommend using variable spices to substitute salt. This includes garlic, onion powder, pepper, and other seasonings to give it a more intense flavor.