I have stumbled upon this subject a few times lately and, for some reason, there seems to be a great deal
of misinformation on the Internet about "popcorn lung." Some folks seem
to think that you get it by simply eating butter-flavored popcorn a few
times a week or that you are always at risk when consuming microwave
popcorn.
Popcorn Lung is a lung disease that is cause by repeatedly breathing in
lots of hot vapor and steam that has diacetyl in it, which is the
chemical used to flavor butter popcorn. This started as a major issue
with the factory workers at the popcorn plants, several years ago, as
they breathed this crap in all the time. There is only one known
consumer that was ever diagnosed with Popcorn Lung by merely eating
microwave popcorn, and he said he ate 2 bags every night for 10 years
and would always stick his head in the bag when he got it out of the
microwave, and deeply inhaled the fumes. Yes, that is rather extreme,
but it happened, nonetheless. However, there were several factory workers
that developed this lung disease.
About 8 years ago, the major brand-name microwave popcorn companies
removed the chemical that was responsible for this. You can read more
about that, here: www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/12/18/popcorn_firms_removing_flavoring_chemical/
Even if they replaced the chemical with an equally harmful one,
consuming a few bags of microwave popcorn here and there shouldn't even
come close to the one reported case from that popcorn-crazy consumer,
nor would it closely resemble the factory workers that once worked
around diacetyl on a regular basis. Stuff like this and so much more, is
what the Internet often turns into a widespread Urban Myth. It wasn't
too long ago when a few bloggers got some bad rumors started about baby
carrots. It was so ridiculous, they had to air it on the News and the
carrot companies showed that it was all a bunch of lies and propaganda
that propagated on the Internet.
Anyway, there is a chemical involved with microwave popcorn that could
possibly be harmful to our health, and it is used to coat the inside of
the popcorn bags. I still eat microwave popcorn, but like most things,
moderation is the key. Cheers!
Related Link: www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/009/20/you-need-worry-about-popcorn-lung-from-microwave-snacks/dDkwyN1sf2YoVsyszIIz3O/story.html (link is no longer active)
Image Credit: It is in the Public Domain and is not under copyright protection.
---End of Post "For the ones worried about Popcorn Lung..."
Random Blog Post: Grow your own edibles
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