Healthier Swaps: Popcorn for Pirate's Booty

For years now, people have been telling me that they love Pirate’s Booty as a healthy snack. I’m not sure why it took me so many years to try it, but I finally did. I get it, it’s cheesy and airy and delicious. It’s basically a healthy-ish version of a cheese puff. It doesn’t have a lot of calories, but it also doesn’t really have much nutrition either. As much as I find it to be a relatively fine snack, I think we can do better.

Enter one of my favorite foods: popcorn! Just like Pirate’s Booty, popcorn is a low-calorie snack. The best part of popcorn though- its fiber content! If you’ve ever met me in my office before, I’ve probably already told you about the benefits of fiber. It’s good for everyone! Fiber makes you feel full, it helps lowers cholesterol levels as well as blood sugars, and of course, it can keep you regular! I don’t like giving generic nutrition advise, but if I could only give one piece of nutrition information to the world, it would be EAT MORE FIBER!

You can pop your own popcorn over the stove (or even a camp fire) or get the microwaved kind. Bagged popped popcorn seems to be pretty trendy lately as well these days. Just like Pirate’s Booty, it’s grab and go! The more convenient your healthy foods are, the more likely you will be to actually eat them.

As you can see in the comparison below, Pirate’s Booty is similar in calories and most other nutrients as some popular popped popcorn. Sodium content will vary based on the flavoring of the popcorn, so if you don’t mind simpler flavors you can decrease your sodium intake by switching to an “original” or “plain” popcorn. Look at the fiber difference though! All popcorn has 3g per 1 ounce serving. This two gram difference compared to Pirate’s Booty doesn’t sound like a lot, but everything adds up. Let’s be honest too, most people eat more than one serving at a time.