Surprising benefits of Popcorn

Today we will learn about the amazing benefits of Popcorn, it may only seem like a delicious snack for movies and cozy nights at home, but there are many health benefits associated with this food that most people have never heard of. Health benefits of popcorn include its ability to regulate blood sugar, lower cholesterol levels, improve the digestive process, protect against osteoporosis, prevent cancer, inhibit cognitive decline, prevent premature aging and help you lose weight.

What is Popcorn?
Popcorn is quite simple, a type of corn that has a hard endosperm, hull, or shell that contains a starchy interior. When this popped corn is heated, the pressure inside the hull increases and eventually a POP! occurs. There are a variety of popcorn varieties, including types that must be microwaved, as well as other unpopped kernels that can be made in small appliances made specifically for popping corn.

Historically, there is evidence that popcorn has been enjoyed by cultures for over 6,000 years, as maize (maize) has been an important part of many cultural diets in ancient times. Simply heating that vegetable product over a fire would have created the first popcorn, what a nice surprise! The first archaeological discoveries of popcorn were in Peru, but New Mexico and Central America also showed remnants of the creation of popcorn approximately 5,000 years ago. Popcorn can even come in different colors if different colored kernels of corn are used.

Popcorn is enjoyed all over the world, almost everywhere regular corn is consumed. However, its limit as a healthy food ends when you start pouring salt, butter, or other seasonings or ingredients on the popcorn, and then it moves into the realm of unhealthy junk food. However, eaten alone, popcorn makes a delicious and beneficial snack for many people. The heat alone is enough to pop popcorn, so avoid cooking with olive oil or other vegetable oils, as it can affect the polyphenol content of the hull once it “pops”, which removes a lot of benefits to health.

Nutritional Benefits of Popcorn
The health benefits of popcorn stem primarily from its impressive fiber content, polyphenolic compounds, antioxidants, vitamin B complex, manganese, and magnesium content. Let's explore how these important nutrients make popcorn a healthy choice for your snacking habits!

Health benefits of popcorn
Eating popcorn provides energy along with many benefits including the following:

Improves digestion
It's important to realize that popcorn is a whole grain, which is a designation for the kernels that contain the endosperm, germ, and bran. This is similar to whole grains, rice and bread which also contain all three vital parts. Since popcorn is a natural whole grain, it contains all the fiber from the bran, not to mention the minerals, B-complex vitamins, and vitamin E that is stored there. In terms of digestion, the high fiber content keeps your body "regular," meaning your bowel movements move smoothly and quickly through the digestive tract and conditions like constipation. They are avoided Fiber stimulates the peristaltic movement of smooth intestinal muscles and induces the secretion of digestive juices, which help keep your entire digestive system healthy. Popcorn.

Lowers cholesterol levels
Fiber works in another beneficial way within the body, and whole grains contain the kind of fiber that can remove excess cholesterol from the walls of your blood vessels and arteries, lowering cholesterol levels and lowering your chances of dangerous cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes. This also reduces stress on the cardiac system, since the heart does not need to work as hard to move blood through clogged vessels and arteries.

Control blood sugar
The third vital role of fiber is its impact on blood sugar within the body. When the body has high amounts of fiber, it regulates the release and control of blood sugar and insulin levels better than people with low fiber levels. Reducing these fluctuations in blood sugar is a big plus for diabetics, which is why popcorn is always a recommendation if you suffer from that difficult disease.

Barley grass helps boost the body's immune defense mechanism. Regular consumption of barley grass provides the necessary nutrition that is necessary to balance the optimal production of immune cells in the body. A strong and effective immune defense system fights infections and prevents the development of fatal diseases.
Researchers in recent years have been surprised to find an incredibly large amount of antioxidant capacity in popcorn. It used to be considered a relatively unhealthy junk food, but now it appears that the popcorn hull contains large amounts of polyphenolic compounds, one of the most powerful types of antioxidants you can put into your body. In fact, research has even shown that eating popcorn can do more for your body's antioxidant potential than a daily dose of fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants are the powerful defense agents that scavenge and eliminate free radicals, the byproducts of cellular metabolism that are associated with a variety of diseases in the body, particularly cancer. Free radicals are known to mutate healthy cellular DNA in cancer cells, which is a big problem. Popcorn can help reduce those risks.

prevents aging
Free radicals do much more damage than cancer; have been closely linked to age-related symptoms like 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 you usually don't we look forward to with age. Popcorn can keep you healthy and happy well into your old age thanks to powerful antioxidants that combat these effects of free radicals.

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Weightloss
A regular cup of popped popcorn contains just 30 calories, which is about 5 times less than the same amount of fatty potato chips. Also, the fiber content in popcorn makes you feel full and inhibits the release of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. This can prevent overeating and keep people struggling with the bulge happy and slim, without making them feel like they're not eating enough. Popcorn is also very low in saturated fat, and its natural oils are mostly healthy and essential for the body.

culinary use Popcorn certainly seems like a healthy snack, but the vast majority of people douse it in salt, butter, or other toppings that negate much of the positive impact popcorn can have on the body. Also, avoid prepackaged popcorn, as it typically contains butter and salt. Once the popcorn begins to pop, some of the chemicals in the packaging material actually break down or destroy the phenolic compounds in the hull, severely lessening its impact on protecting your body from free radicals.

Other than these few words of warning, turn on a good movie, make yourself a big bowl of popcorn, and get healthy!