Culture

What Popcorn and Vaping Have in Common


00:14

[Narrator] For almost a century, popcorn has been

00:16

the predominant movie theater snack.

00:19

But how did our love affair with these

00:20

buttery popped kernels even start?

00:22

There’s more to understand about

00:24

popcorn than just nostalgia.

00:26

The food has an unusual history.

00:40

I remember going to the theaters with my mother

00:43

and she had her method and it would always embarrass me.

00:46

But now I’m, like, I’m that guy.

00:48

We would always ask them to fill the bucket halfway,

00:52

go butter it, come back, fill the rest,

00:55

butter the top of that for even butter distribution.

00:58

And I feel like I do that, I do that now,

01:01

as an adult, if there’s time.

01:02

Well, I used to have braces as a kid,

01:05

so it’s like the forbidden food,

01:07

so it’s always had that special place for me.

01:10

Like the unattainable. [laughs]

01:12

So there’s a particular smell that comes from popcorn.

01:15

It’s just like, it takes you back to the good times.

01:19

It’s just, any positive is the smell of it.

01:22

They get you as soon as you walk in the door.

01:24

It’s the smell, gets me every time.

01:27

It’s just coming out of the popper

01:30

and I’m like, I gotta, I gotta have it.

01:32

I always keep it in my plastic so that

01:34

it doesn’t fly out in case it’s windy.

01:38

And it stays warm when I get home, as you can see.

01:42

There we go. I’m a purist.

01:44

I’m just butter guy, 100%.

01:49

[Narrator] Movie theater popcorn’s popularity

01:50

has a lot to do with Flavacol, a seasoning used

01:53

to give popcorn its signature buttery taste.

01:56

The fine salt flakes stick to the kernels

01:58

before they are popped, resulting in

02:00

a perfect, evenly buttered flavor.

02:08

So, I have, my tongue is unique,

02:12

but there are other people with tongues like mine.

02:14

I have a series of large taste buds

02:17

on my tongue, all over my tongue, actually.

02:20

You could be of the 25% of people

02:23

who actually do have large taste buds

02:25

and you could be a super taster and not even know it.

02:32

Usually gonna put 10 grams.

02:35

Whoa, you can really smell it.

02:42

I was wondering about that,

02:43

once it hydrated, what I would smell.

02:47

I’m just gonna pour some in my hand so I can taste it.

02:49

[playfully suspenseful music]

02:51

It’s gonna probably burn my tongue

02:53

but I’m gonna do this for you.

02:59

‘Kay, the first thing that I taste is salt

03:02

and the second thing that I taste

03:04

is actually a buttery flavor

03:07

and the third thing that I taste

03:08

is a little bit of bitterness

03:11

and maybe a little bit of a nutty flavor.

03:13

The flavor sits on my tongue and it travels

03:16

up the roof of my mouth and down my throat,

03:19

it’s kind of weird that way.

03:22

The recommended daily allowance of sodium for us,

03:25

based on the USDA, is 2,400 milligrams

03:29

and in one teaspoon of Flavacol,

03:31

there’s actually 2,740 milligrams of sodium,

03:36

which is 114% of the recommended daily allowance.

03:43

What people know is that it’s mostly salt,

03:46

but what they don’t know is

03:48

what are the artificial ingredients

03:50

and what are Yellow #5 and #6 made from.

03:56

[playfully suspenseful music]

03:58

[upbeat jazzy music]

04:04

[Narrator] The oldest known ears

04:05

of popcorn are about 5,600 years old

04:08

[upbeat jazzy music]

04:09

and they were discovered in the back cave

04:11

of West Central Mexico in the late 1940s.

04:15

Pre-Colombian civilizations in Central and South America

04:18

ate popcorn and the Aztec language even has

04:20

a word that describes the sound

04:22

of many kernels popping at once: totopoca.

04:26

After the Spanish invaded the Aztec empire

04:28

in the 16th century, popcorn spread around the world.

04:32

[upbeat jazzy music]

04:34

Popcorn became popular in the Eastern

04:36

United States by the early 19th century,

04:38

sold under the names pearl or nonpareil.

04:42

With the invention of the steam-powered popcorn stand

04:44

in 1885, the snack quickly became favored

04:47

as American street food, sold at circuses and fairs.

04:52

♪ Let’s all go to the lobby ♪

04:55

♪ Let’s all go to the lobby ♪

04:57

[Sarah] Popcorn hasn’t always been

04:59

popular in the movie theater

05:01

because they didn’t think it was fancy enough

05:03

and it was a snack of the peasant,

05:05

so I think vendors were probably

05:07

out on the street selling it and people were

05:10

carrying it into the theater with them

05:12

to snack on while they watched the movies.

05:14

♪ So let’s all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat ♪

05:19

[film reel clicking]

05:19

[Narrator] As the movie business started to

05:20

suffer during the Great Depression,

05:22

theater owners realized that

05:23

selling popcorn could keep them afloat.

05:27

This financial model still exists today,

05:29

with theaters prioritizing concessions as a way

05:31

to make up for the lack of profit from ticket sales.

05:35

[electric humming] [popping]

05:35

And with the widespread adoption of microwave popcorn,

05:38

the snack grew to a scale to meet a mass consumer market.

05:43

It might be difficult to see

05:44

anything in common between popcorn and vaping,

05:47

but the connection has to do with

05:48

the flavor-creating chemical called diacetyl,

05:51

which can be safely consumed but not inhaled.

05:54

So people will use something like diacetyl

05:57

to provide a buttery aroma to popcorn

06:00

so that they can take the butter out of there.

06:02

So, they’re gonna that aromatic without getting

06:05

the calories that come alongside it with butter.

06:08

Diacetyl, when used in making popcorn,

06:11

becomes airborne and connects with the oxygen

06:14

and then we breathe it into our lungs.

06:16

Popcorn lung was discovered when some folks

06:19

working in a popcorn factory making microwave popcorn

06:23

became ill from the over-exposure of diacetyl.

06:27

[Narrator] In 2000, eight former microwave popcorn

06:30

factory workers developed a rare lung disease

06:33

called bronchiolitis obliterans or popcorn lung.

06:37

Popcorn lung is a condition in which

06:40

otherwise young, healthy individuals come in

06:43

with multiple discrete punctate areas of the lung

06:45

that had been destroyed or developed infections in them.

06:48

And we believe its an infectious process related to

06:50

or an inflammatorious process related to inhaling the vapor.

06:56

[Narrator] Almost all microwave popcorn manufacturers

06:58

promise to remove diacetyl from their products

07:01

but popcorn lung has made news

07:02

more recently in vaping-related illnesses.

07:06

Diacetyl is often added to e-use liquid

07:09

by e-cigarette companies to compliment flavors

07:11

such as vanilla, maple, and coconut.

07:15

Diacetyl can be used in anything

07:17

that you want to enhance flavor,

07:19

and e-cigarettes, the way that they’re created,

07:22

is to have fanciful flavors that may be fruity or nutty

07:26

or sweet or even a popcorn-flavored one, of all things.

07:30

And that created an instance where people

07:33

are actually inhaling unknown food-based ingredients

07:37

that were never developed to be inhaled.

07:40

[Narrator] Whether we’re interacting

07:41

with natural or artificial flavors,

07:44

what’s happening in our brains when we’re eating popcorn?

07:46

When we put foods into our mouths, we’re chewing the food

07:49

and the air is being pumped backwards out of our nostrils,

07:53

so those inputs are brought together in the brain

07:57

and we don’t really know how to separate them.

07:59

We’re also getting information from textures,

08:01

even the temperature of the food.

08:03

Those things are coming together and forming

08:05

a more complex picture that we think of as flavor.

08:09

Flavors and aromas have this quality

08:11

where they’re able to trigger memories very powerfully.

08:14

When we’re eatin’ popcorn,

08:16

despite us not really thinking about it,

08:19

we’re getting these positive associations with it.

08:22

We’re remembering some of those times that we felt so good.

08:24

We’re feeling good without even

08:25

knowing why we’re feeling good.

08:29

[Sarah] Popcorn has been paired with

08:31

some of these unusual chemicals

08:33

because people didn’t wanna use real butter.

08:36

Real butter is more expensive

08:38

and so, they were trying to maximize

08:41

the amount of money they could make on popcorn.

08:43

So, they’ve changed the color

08:44

with artificial color to make it look buttery

08:47

and they’ve added artificial flavors

08:50

to make it taste buttery.

08:52

[upbeat jazzy music]

08:54

[Narrator] But today’s food trends lean towards

08:56

natural flavorings like using non-dairy butter

08:59

or seaweed to mimic the taste of popcorn.

09:02

Does popcorn’s strange chemical-infused past

09:05

fit our health conscious future?

09:07

I think the future of food design

09:09

is multi-sensory in nature, so foods,

09:13

I think, will soon be designed taking

09:16

our other senses into account as well.

09:18

So, you can imagine, for instance,

09:20

popcorn that has a certain coloration to it

09:23

and all of a sudden, it tastes sweet

09:25

without us needing to put sugar in there.

09:27

[Sarah] As often as people wanna try something new,

09:29

they also like to have their old favorites

09:32

and I believe popcorn with butter on it

09:34

may be one of those old favorites that we can all

09:37

eat and remember from our childhood.



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.