14 Of The Unhealthiest Store-Bought, Bagged Popcorns You Can Buy

Popcorn is one of those snacks that it's easy to lose track of. You grab a handful or two, start munching... and before you know it, you've scarfed the whole bowl. Importantly, that may not be the worst thing in the world. When it's lightly seasoned, homemade popcorn is one of the healthiest snacks around, with each puffed kernel full of fiber and antioxidants. However, way too many food manufacturers create bagged popcorn products that are astonishingly unhealthy, plowing their food full of additives to amp up flavor and make each bite more moreish, and decreasing its nutritional quality in the process.

The main issues that plague bagged popcorn are the same ones with so many other processed snacks: High levels of saturated fat, salt, and sugar. Some bagged popcorn brands out there have almost half of the recommended saturated fat or sugar levels you should be having in a whole day (roughly 20 grams and 50 grams, respectively) in one serving. Others serve up popcorn that covers a significant portion of the 2,300-milligram recommended maximum for sodium in just a few mouthfuls. In this article, we looked at bagged popcorn varieties that were especially high in these three nutrients and low in fiber. We also looked at popcorn brands that had small serving sizes in relation to their nutritional info.

If you're settling down for a movie night at home, Lance's has you covered. Its Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn aims to replicate the experience, but it does so with a fairly hefty dose of sodium and fat. Each portion of this bagged popcorn contains 11 grams of fat, covering 14% of your daily value. Its 250 milligrams of sodium, meanwhile, supplies over 10% of the amount you should be getting per day.

You'd also be wise to check out the serving size on this product. Lance's Movie Theatre Butter Popcorn recommends that you have 2.5 cups per serving, which is a smidge smaller than some other bagged popcorns out there. While Lance's certainly isn't the only brand to do this — with some products recommending significantly smaller servings — it's worth remembering that this means you won't get a like-for-like comparison on nutrition. It's also incredibly easy to exceed standard serving sizes with a food item like bagged popcorn if you're not measuring or weighing it out, which can cause you to consume even more sodium or fat.

Anything that's flavored with butter is bound to have a little fat in it, but bagged buttered popcorn can really take things to the next level. That's proved with one look at Popcorn Indiana Movie Theater Butter Popcorn's nutritional information. In its 28-gram serving size, this popcorn delivers 2.5 grams of saturated fat, covering 13% of your daily recommended maximum. That amount wouldn't be too surprising if it was in a meal, but in a snack it's a fairly notable sum.

Popcorn Indiana Movie Theater Butter Popcorn doesn't impress much elsewhere, either. While its 3 grams of fiber per serving is fairly impressive, it also packs a significant amount of sodium into its buttery flavor, providing 220 milligrams in every portion. Unfortunately, nutrients like this are fairly par for the course when it comes to ultra-processed foods like bagged popcorn, with saturated fat intake in particular higher amongst folks who consume ultra-processed food regularly. One study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science found that reducing ultra-processed food consumption was pretty much a foolproof way to lower the saturated fat in your diet.

Popcorn is a movie theater staple, and for a lot of people the best part of going to an AMC Theatre is grabbing some to enjoy with your film. The company has made sure that you can enjoy that experience in the comfort of your home, too — but its AMC Theatres Extra Butter Bagged Popcorn doesn't make any concessions on the nutritional front. This popcorn is almost astonishingly fatty, managing to pack in a massive 7 grams of saturated fat into a single serving. That's enough to cover over a third of the 20-gram daily value. As well as that, it provides 15 grams of total fats, 240 milligrams of sodium, and a whole 0 grams of fiber for your trouble.

We appreciate that AMC Theatres Extra Butter Popcorn strives to be as tasty as the movie theater version, but given that other bagged popcorns have just a few grams of saturated fat per serving, it's not a great look. A diet high in saturated fats can have a few key health effects, and most notably may cause your cholesterol to rise, leading to a higher potential of cardiovascular issues. We'd recommend skipping this product and going for an option that keeps its fat content low.

The flavor combo of salty and sweet works in few things as well as it does in popcorn. Unfortunately, with some bagged popcorn products you'll have to put up with a fair bit of salt and sugar to get it. G. H. Cretors Cheese & Caramel Mix Popcorn leans hard into one of its nutrients in particular, with a serving of its caramel-coated popcorn providing 13 grams of added sugar. Its sodium content of 180 milligrams per serving isn't as high as some other popcorns out there, but it's still fairly significant.

One thing that makes this popcorn product especially worrisome, though, is its suggested serving size. At 1-¼ cups, it comes in at less than half of a lot of other bagged popcorns, meaning that if you eat more than that you may end up covering a huge amount of your added sugar recommended value in one day. Along with salt and saturated fat, added sugar is one of the most negatively impactful nutrients on our bodies when eaten in high quantities, and can have a big impact on your heart health and risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Although the daily value for added sugars currently sits at 50 grams, organizations like the American Heart Association recommend you set a way more conservative limit, advising a maximum of 36 and 25 grams daily for men and women respectively.

Look, so we're not gonna patronize you here: We're fairly sure you know that Cheetos Cheddar Popcorn, with its lava-colored seasoning dust, isn't exactly going to be the most wholesome food product in the world. We're just here to confirm it for you. This popcorn has all the usual suspects when it comes to its nutrients, and delivers a significant amount of saturated fat and sodium, hitting you with 2 grams and 260 milligrams respectively per serving. While its saturated fat content is pleasingly lower than some other brands, its sodium amount puts it at the saltier end of the spectrum.

As for that orange shade we were talking about –- you might want to keep an eye on what's causing that, too. Cheetos Cheddar Popcorn is colored with Yellow 6, an artificial food dye, as well as having its taste improved by artificial flavorings. As a study published in Neurotherapeutics discusses, artificial food dyes have been found to have a potential effect on children's ability to focus, and may produce hyperactivity. The study also noted that reducing artificial food dye consumption may reduce that same hyperactivity. All the more reason to grind your own seasoning mix for popcorn and make it at home. 

Cheese-flavored popcorn is all the rage, and food producers have started to look beyond cheddar. We'd imagine that's how Pop Daddy Smoked Gouda Flavored Popcorn came into being, with this gourmet popcorn initially looking pretty attractive. The packaging proudly announces that it's made with "pure olive oil," that it doesn't have any artificial ingredients in it, and that it's additive- and preservative-free. So far, so good — until you check out the amount of sodium in each serving.

Every portion of Pop Daddy Smoked Gouda Flavored Popcorn has 350 milligrams of sodium in it. In one sitting, you could knock out 15% of your daily value of 2,300 milligrams, which your cardiovascular health really won't thank you for. Exceeding the daily sodium limit regularly can wreak havoc on your heart health, because of sodium's effect on blood pressure. When blood pressure goes up, it's not just your heart that's affected either: It can also have an impact on your kidney health, raising the risk of kidney disease. ‌

Sometimes, you just wanna go big with your snacks. We definitely get that impulse, and it's important not to pay too much attention to the nutritional content of your food. Having said that, there are some products out there, like Popcornopolis Double Drizzle, where it really does pay to keep an eye on what you're eating. This bagged popcorn has an eyebrow-raising amount of saturated fat and added sugar, with each portion delivering 5 grams of saturated fat, a ¼ of your daily value. On the added sugar front, it provides 12 grams — and this is in a serving size of just a cup, y'all.

There's also just a gram of fiber per serving — a pretty measly amount — and it has a long ingredients list of syrups, sugars, oils, and natural flavors. All of this paints a picture of an ultra-processed food that you'd likely rather avoid. Unfortunately, Popcornopolis' other flavors don't try to keep things much healthier. While its Caramel Kettle Popcorn is slightly better nutritionally, it still has 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 12 grams of added sugar per 1¼ cup serving. ‌

The history of Cracker Jack extends all the way back to 1893, when the first combination of sweet popcorn and peanuts allegedly debuted at Chicago's first World's Fair. However, while it may have stood the test of time, there haven't been a lot of improvements to its nutrition. The Original Cracker Jack Caramel Coated Popcorn & Peanuts was one of the first junk foods and is still a very sugary affair, delivering 13 grams of added sugar per serving. It also only has a single gram of fiber, which is slightly confusing given that both popcorn and peanuts are fiber-rich foods. Perhaps most surprising, though, is its suggested serving size: All of that sugar is packed into a ½-cup portion.

While its sodium and saturated fat content is low, the vast amounts of sugar catapult Cracker Jack's original flavor into unhealthy territory. While added sugar's impact on the potential for heart disease and type 2 diabetes are well known, it's also important to remember its other effects. Added sugar can contribute to higher cholesterol levels and is especially harmful to your liver, contributing to liver disease. It can also affect your sleep, leading to diminishing returns and fatigue throughout the day.

Target's Favorite Day line is pretty popular, but its popcorn won't be your favorite snack once you see what's inside it. Favorite Day Caramel Apple Popcorn might just trick you at first: As its packaged with dried apple slices, it somewhat gives off the illusion of being perhaps healthier for you. That illusion is broken when you see its added sugar content, with an enormous 15 grams per serving. That serving size is only ⅔ of a cup, too; this amount makes it the most sugary popcorn product on our list.

The main culprit for this sugar is corn syrup. The ingredient is listed not once, but twice in the popcorn's ingredients list, acting as a coating for both the popcorn and the apple slices. It's a shame, really: While they're certainly sugary, regular dried apple slices are also fairly rich in iron and vitamin C, and deliver a pleasing amount of fiber per serving. Here, though, they just seem to act as a way for Target to try and pass its product off as healthy. As for that fiber content, it doesn't seem to make its way into this popcorn: There's under a gram of it in every portion.

Food company Sweet Chaos firmly positions itself in the gourmet popcorn space, with its Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn with Dark & White Chocolate Drizzles looking a cut above the rest. The company stays true to its name, though, with its nutritional content: There are chaotically high levels of fat and sugar in this one. Each 1½-cup serving of this popcorn has 6 grams of saturated fat, enough to cover 30% of your daily value. It also provides 12 grams of added sugar, 24% of your daily value according to the FDA's limits, but almost half of the maximum that the AHA recommends women eat in a day.

It's a shame, because elsewhere things look pretty healthy in Sweet Chaos' product. This popcorn has just 80 milligrams of sodium, and its ingredients list is refreshingly recognizable and short. That doesn't take away from its fat and sugar content, though — and the fact that it only has 2 grams of fiber and no notable vitamin or mineral levels is also a little bit of a sticking point for us.

Utz Butter Popcorn keeps things pretty simple. There are no fancy flavor combos or classy-sounding ingredients in this snack: It's just classic butter flavor, through and through. However, that flavor still has to come from somewhere, and it's from a lot of fat and sodium. With 4 grams of saturated fat per serving, Utz Butter Popcorn covers ⅕ of your daily value, and has the equivalent of 2 teaspoons of butter in each 28-gram portion. It also has 260 milligrams of sodium, making this snack slightly saltier than most and covering 11% of your recommended daily limit.

Having said this, Utz Butter Popcorn isn't one of those food items that makes loads of health promises, and so you're likely not expecting it to be super healthy. However, we do have to call the brand out on one specific thing. The bagged popcorn states that it has "13g whole grains per serving" on its front. Now, while that may technically be true, and the popcorn does have a respectable 3 grams of fiber in each portion, its saturated fat and sodium content kinda counteracts this.

Popcorn studded with M&M's might be a dream come true, but it's not gonna be a shock that it's not that healthy. So in case you needed that to be confirmed, let's break it down. Candy Pop M&M's Mini's Popcorn is as sugary and fatty as you might expect, with 13 grams of added sugar and 3.5 grams of saturated fat per serving. It may just have 15 milligrams of sodium in each portion (which are just 1¼ cups), and the total fat level of 8 grams is not as high as it could be — but it's the sugars and saturated fats that let it down.

It's also worth taking a look at its ingredients list. It's likely no surprise that a snack as colorful as this has some help from artificial colors, and Candy Pop M&M's Mini's Popcorn has pretty much all of them: A grand total of 10 artificial colors are present here. This popcorn also has artificial flavors in it, corn syrup, and some soy content, which folks with allergies may need to watch out for.

There are some surprisingly unhealthy items available at Trader Joe's, with the store's wholesome image often at odds with the nutritional content of some of its products. Its White Cheddar Popcorn is a great example of this. This bagged popcorn seems refreshingly simple, with an unfussy design and kernels that aren't covered in bright seasoning dust or sugary caramel drizzle. However, it still manages to pack 2 grams of saturated fat and 13 grams of total fat into every 2-cup serving.

The saturated fat content in the popcorn may not be the highest, but its total fat content does cover 17% of your daily value — and that's in a simple snack, folks. The 180 milligrams of sodium in the popcorn may also not break the bank, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on. We're also slightly disappointed to see how low its fiber content is. Each serving of Trader Joe's White Cheddar Popcorn has just a single gram of fiber, a ⅓ of the amount of some of the other bagged popcorn products out there.

Walmart's Great Value range may save you some pennies, but like a lot of other store-brand lines it has its fair share of unhealthy foods. Some of them, like the Great Value Butter Popcorn, can be fairly unassuming. Indeed, you may not notice how unhealthy this bagged popcorn is at first, due to the fact that it definitely has a few nutritional positives. Each 28-gram serving has just 1 gram of saturated fat and 3 grams of fiber. Additionally, its ingredients list is just four items long, if you consider vegetable oil to be its own ingredient.

However, one of those ingredients — salt — is the cause of all the trouble here. Each serving of Great Value Butter Popcorn has 300 milligrams of sodium, 13% of your daily value. This makes it one of the saltiest bagged popcorn products you can find on the market. Although its fiber content may help to offer some protective benefits and contribute to better heart health, you're far better off getting it from a less salty source.