Posts tagged PSA

Make yourself a bowl of air-popped popcorn (see below!) and enjoy a screening of this year’s International Public Service Announcement Contest video entries.  Rate the entries at www.ccacpsa.com (and submit your own!) but HURRY- the contest closes at midnight.

We hope there’s still lots of entries to come- there’s prize money $1,500 per category hanging in the balance!

This submission comes from Colon Cancer Alliance in the United States:

And this submission comes from the Jay family in Regina, Saskatchewan:

And a few creative high school students from Ohio gave us this great idea:

CCAC volunteer Nadia Afara brought us this punchy submission:

And this submission by Shawn Ritchie asks us, what’s in your pipes?

This submission by Hari Kapoor hit us hard:

And this submission from Alex Ostroff and friends pushed our buttons:

We were beside ourselves with this submission from Jeff Stevens:

And this submission by Pamela Podzorski and friends had us grooving!

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The Health Benefits of Popcorn

What movie screening couldn’t be improved by the crunchy satisfaction of popcorn? Well if you’re trying to maintain a healthy weight to reduce your colon cancer risk, order cialis online in usa, you may wish to re-think your movie theatre snacks.

Don’t be tempted by the yellow glow of commercially prepared movie-theatre popcorn:

At Cineplex Entertainment — the largest chain in Canada with 1,328 screens — popcorn is now popped in non-hydrogenated canola oil, second best after air popped at home.

But the popcorn purchased by CSPI researchers weighed more than the company claims. After adjusting the serving size, a small popcorn with no topping had 480 calories.

A large untopped popcorn has 1,120 calories — half a day’s worth for most people, as well as 530 milligrams of sodium.

Health Canada recommends that adults consume less than 20 grams of saturated fat, and about 1,500 mg of sodium in an entire day based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Patrons who opt for five pumps of Becel topping on a large, 20 cup portion at Cineplex add 270 calories and four grams of saturated fat. They get 320 calories and 22 grams of saturated fat with five squirts of Lactantia butter topping.

“Movie theatre popcorn salt, fat get the thumbs down” CBC News, November 2009

But we said we would talk about the health benefits, didn’t we?

Popcorn can be a pretty decent low-calorie, low-fat snack when popped with air instead of oil. It’s naturally high in fibre and it’s sodium-free. Too bad we load the butter and salt on after the fact! Here’s a quick recipe from wholeliving.com that uses less fat and sodium but doesn’t scrimp on the flavour:

1. Pop 1/2 cup of kernels in your air-popping machine.
2. Stir together 1 1/4 teaspoons chilli powder, 1 1/4 teaspoons cumin, 1 tablespoon of finely-grated lime zest and 1/2 teaspoon of coarse salt.
3. While still hot, toss popcorn in spice mixture and sprinkle with lime juice. Voilà!

Don’t start any all-popcorn crash diets any time soon, though- popcorn should still be considered an occasional treat, and fresh fruits & veggies should still be your first-choice snacks.

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Sources:

The Health Benefits of Yellow Popcorn by livestrong.com’s Nathalie Stein, nutrition consultant

Popcorn, retrieved from Wikipedia on March 9, 2011