Do you know the skinny on movie popcorn?
Part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires restaurants with 20 or more stores to provide calorie content on their menus. The government agency now aims to regulate food sold at concession stands at large movie theater chains, requiring them to also post calorie content.
Theater owners are not necessarily concerned with movie patron’s healthy snack choices such as nachos and popcorn, because the new regulation will cut into a theater’s profit. It’s estimated that one-third of a theater’s revenue is generated from concession stand snacks.
A 2009 survey by the Washington’s Center for Science in the Public Interest concluded that a large tub of buttered popcorn has around 1,460 calories and up to 76 grams of saturated fat, which is equivalent to almost three McDonald’s Big Macs.
If the formidable calorie and fat content is posted at your favorite neighborhood movie theater concession stand, will you still buy that giant tub of popcorn?