Is popcorn a healthy food?

Not long ago, she proudly said to the author: this time I can rest assured to eat popcorn. Because "American scientists have confirmed that popcorn is a health food. ■ ■ popcorn has been classified as junk food ranks has been, popcorn is often warned by experts to eat less food, because it contains "lead". Popcorn makers must be sealed when heated so that high air pressure can be generated inside to make the corn pop. When heating the popcorn machine, some of the lead inside the popcorn machine will be in the form of lead vapor and lead smoke in the form of a large number of overflow, direct contamination of food, and when the rapid depressurization, the lead is very easy to be popped after the very loose corn adsorption, and along with the consumption of the human body. Lead is a toxic heavy metal, and its toxic effects mainly damage the nervous system, hematopoietic system and kidneys. Poisoning caused by food lead contamination is mainly a chronic damaging effect, mainly manifested as anemia, neurasthenia, neuritis and digestive symptoms. Children themselves belong to the sensitive and susceptible people, lead detoxification function is weak, often eat popcorn containing high lead is very easy to occur chronic lead poisoning, resulting in decreased appetite, diarrhea, irritability, especially will affect their growth and development, leading to intellectual decline. Therefore, popcorn is categorized as "junk food" in the ranks. Conducted the study of the United States University of Scranton chemist Dr. Joe Willson said that the high level of antioxidants found in popcorn is very surprising, "a cup of popcorn contains as many antioxidants as an apple." Antioxidants have attracted much attention from scholars at home and abroad in recent years, and they are important weapons in scavenging free radicals from the body. Polyphenols are plant compounds, phenolic compounds of health functions are mainly antioxidants, regulation of blood lipids, protection of blood vessels, prevention of tumors, as well as the role of estrogen-like hormones, for reducing the reaction of women's menopause has a better effect. The main processing raw material of popcorn is corn kernels, in addition to antioxidant substances, lutein in corn is very beneficial to the protection of eyesight. When the corn is popped, its skin plays a certain protective role, so the nutrients will not lose too much. As you can see, popcorn is not imagined that "garbage". Especially street stalls of popcorn using cast iron popcorn machine processing and even aluminum frying popcorn, so that the production of popcorn out of the safety hazards more. In addition, in order to have a good look and taste of popcorn, street vendors often use hydrogenated vegetable oil made of vegetable butter instead of butter, but also add a variety of flavors and colors. With them, popcorn will look good and delicious, but trans fatty acids are very harmful to human health, will increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes. And those flavors, not to mention its whether the source is unknown, even if the regular enterprise's regular products, the amount of its additions can not be arbitrary. Therefore, if you really like to eat popcorn, one can not often eat more than one, two try to let the fried popcorn masters do not put grease and flavorings, eat the original flavor. Supermarkets have a microwave popcorn, easy to eat, but microwave popcorn emits a flavor containing a substance known as diacetyl, a small amount of the substance is not harmful to the human body, but if you are often exposed to an excessive amount of such substances will bring health hazards to the human body, triggering bronchial diseases. Therefore, it is best to eat less microwave popcorn, or when you open the bag, first dissipate the smell until you can hardly smell the buttery flavor before eating. Therefore, the real healthy popcorn is made by yourself. (Wen/Dan Ruo)