Is Boom Chicka Pop Healthy? 9 Things You Should Know

Is Boom Chicka Pop a healthy snack option?

Popcorn is literally my favorite food. So when I find myself in airports or gas stations, I often buy ready-to-eat popcorn like Boom Chicka Pop. After eating probably 25+ bags of this stuff myself, I finally decided to do a deep dive into the nutrition… The results? Not so pretty.

Boom Chicka Pop is not very healthy. Even the healthiest flavors, Sea Salt Popcorn and Avocado Oil Popcorn, get about half their calories from processed oil. The flavors with sugar, cheese, and chocolate are more calorically dense yet. Boom Chicka Pop also has about twice the salt of Skinny Pop.

Below, I’ll answer 9 more specific health questions about Boom Chicka Pop. Does it count as “processed”? Is it good for weight loss? And more! Then I’ll end with a tip on how to make the healthiest popcorn possible at home (it saves money, too).

Table of Contents

1. Is Boom Chicka Pop “Processed”?
2. Does Boom Chicka Pop Have Sugar?
3. Is Boom Chicka Pop Good for Weight Loss?
4. Is Boom Chicka Pop Healthier Than Skinny Pop?
5. Does Boom Chicka Pop Count as a Whole Grain?
6. Is Boom Chicka Pop High in Sodium?
7. What’s the Healthiest Flavor of Boom Chicka Pop?
8. Is Boom Chicka Pop Vegan?
9. Is Boom Chicka Pop Microwave Popcorn Healthy?
10. How to Make Healthy Popcorn at Home

1. Is Boom Chicka Pop “Processed”?

Boom Chicka Pop contains processed sunflower oil. In fact, more than half of the calories in Boom Chicka Pop come from oil. This makes it a processed food despite containing a whole grain (popcorn) and only 3 total ingredients.

First, let’s clarify what “processed” really means in practical terms. Because cutting a piece of fruit in half could be called “processing,” but that has no real impact on nutritional value. So that’s not what we really mean by “processed food.”

Also, the number of ingredients should not determine how “processed” a food is. Think about it this way: Cotton candy is often just sugar, artificial flavor, and artificial color—just 3 ingredients! But is cotton candy processed food? Of course it is.

I prefer using a description from Dr. Michael Greger in his book How Not to Die. Dr. Greger describes his ideal “Green Light” foods as “foods of plant origin to which nothing bad has been added and from which nothing good has been taken away.”

So, to me, when you ask whether Boom Chicka Pop is “processed,” you’re really asking whether anything bad has been added to the original plant ingredients, or whether anything good has been taken away from them.

And sunflower oil is an ingredient that is definitely processed by this definition. It comes from sunflower seeds. The seeds are pressed to extract their oil, and then the fiber (a good, healthy part) is removed.

In some cases, hexane is also used to extract more oil from the seeds. The hexane is removed in a later step, but there are small amounts of hexane that often remain in the final product. Some people worry about these residues.

So, I would count Boom Chicka Pop as processed food. And for the same reason, I would also say Boom Chicka Pop doesn’t really count as “clean eating” in the strictest sense.

For a related topic, see below on whether Boom Chicka Pop is a whole grain.

2. Does Boom Chicka Pop Have Sugar?

Three flavors of Boom Chicka Pop do not contain sugar: Sea Salt Popcorn, Avocado Oil Popcorn, and Real Butter Popcorn. All the other flavors contain at least 2 grams of sugar per serving (up to 12 grams), usually from added cane sugar.

For me personally, avoiding sugar is a big goal because I realized that sugar makes my acne worse. But of course, there are many reasons to reduce or avoid sugar completely.

Here is a table showing the sugar per serving in each flavor. I’ve marked the sugar-free flavors in green and the highest-sugar flavors in red:

Boom Chicka Pop Flavor	Sugar (per serving)	Total Carbs (per serving)
Sea Salt Popcorn	0g	16g
Sweet Salty Kettle Corn	8g	18g
Salted Maple Flavored Kettle Corn	8g	19g
White Cheddar Popcorn	2g	15g
Cheddar Cheese Popcorn	3g	14g
Strawberry Greek Yogurt Drizzled Kettle Corn	12g	20g
Dark Chocolate Flavored Drizzled Sea Salt Kettle Corn	11g	19g
Avocado Oil Popcorn	0g	19g
Caramel & Cheddar Popcorn Mix	12g	22g
Light Kettle Corn	5g	21g
Real Butter Popcorn	0g	15g

I want to share just a couple more points about sugar in Boom Chicka Pop:

• The White Cheddar Popcorn flavor has 2g of sugar per serving, but the sugar in that flavor comes solely from milk, not from refined cane sugar.

• Keep in mind: All carbs in Boom Chicka Pop are fairly quick-digesting carbs, as popcorn is a puffed grain. This means the carbs may spike blood-sugar levels to some degree, despite not containing sugar. (More info on glycemic index for whole grains in “Whole Grain Hierarchy.”)

3. Is Boom Chicka Pop Good for Weight Loss?

The simplest flavors of Boom Chicka Pop contain only 150 calories for about 4 cups of popcorn. This makes it a good snack for weight loss when eaten in moderation. However, the flavors with added sugar, chocolate, cheese, or milk ingredients are not as good for weight loss.

When you just eat popcorn with oil and salt, it’s usually not that bad in terms of calories. In fact, I always eat popcorn when I’m cutting. (I wrote more about that in my post on popcorn and bodybuilding.)

But when you start reaching for the more sugary flavors of Boom Chicka Pop, that’s when it can be fattening. It really makes a difference what flavors you choose. Let’s take a look.

With these simple, low-calorie flavors, you can eat around four whole cups for only 150 calories:

• Avocado Oil Popcorn: 150 calories in 4 1/3 cups (30g)
• Sea Salt Popcorn: 150 calories in 3 3/4 cups (28g)

But with the highest-calorie flavors, you can only eat a little over 1 cup, and you’ve already eaten around the same amount of calories:

• Strawberry Greek Yogurt Drizzled Kettle Corn: 170 calories in 1 1/4 cups (31g)
• Dark Chocolate Flavored Drizzled Sea Salt Kettle Corn: 170 calories in 1 1/4 cups (31g)
• Caramel & Cheddar Popcorn Mix: 130 calories in 1 1/3 cups (29 g)

If you choose the other kettle corn flavors, cheese flavors, or the Real Butter Popcorn flavor, it will be somewhere in between these two extremes.

If your goal is weight loss, I recommend choosing the more simple flavors without added sugar or milk ingredients: Sea Salt Popcorn or Avocado Oil Popcorn.

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4. Is Boom Chicka Pop Healthier Than Skinny Pop?

Boom Chicka Pop is not healthier than Skinny Pop. If anything, Skinny Pop is healthier, as it contains much less sodium per serving. (And when it comes to other factors, the two products appear equal.)

In fact, the Original flavor of Skinny Pop has the same exact 3 ingredients as Boom Chicka Pop: Popcorn, Sunflower Oil, and Salt. So they’re equal in terms of the ingredients used.

But what about the amounts of each ingredient? Let’s take a look at the nutrition facts for Skinny Pop vs Boom Chicka Pop. I’ve marked the biggest difference in bold red and green:

Nutrition Facts	Boom Chicka Pop (Sea Salt Popcorn)	Skinny Pop (Original Popcorn)
Serving Size	3 3/4 cups (28g)	3 3/4 cups (28g)
Calories	150	150
Total Fat	9g	10g
Saturated Fat	1g	1g
Trans Fat	0g	0g
Cholesterol	0mg	0mg
Sodium	150mg	75mg
Total Carbs	16g	15g
Fiber	2g	3g
Sugar	0g	0g
Protein	2g	2g

As you can see, the only area where Boom Chicka Pop and Skinny Pop significantly differ nutritionally is salt. Boom Chicka Pop contains twice as much (at least in the Sea Salt Popcorn flavor).

Reducing your salt intake is particularly important if you have high blood pressure—but everyone should be mindful of their sodium intake. Americans especially tend to eat far too much.

5. Does Boom Chicka Pop Count as a Whole Grain?

Popcorn is a whole grain, so Boom Chicka Pop does contain whole grains. However, Boom Chicka Pop itself is not a “whole food,” as it also contains processed sunflower oil along with the popcorn.

I hope that explanation isn’t too confusing. Basically, popcorn itself is a whole grain…. But because the popcorn is covered in oil, Boom Chicka Pop is not compliant with a strictly whole-food diet.

In fact, more than half of the calories in Boom Chicka Pop (Sea Salt Popcorn flavor) come from the processed oil. So in that sense, it’s quite processed—despite containing a whole grain and only having 3 ingredients!

Also, keep in mind: Popcorn is a puffed grain. This is one of the less-healthy kinds of whole grains, relatively speaking. That’s because puffed grains are digested much more quickly than in-tact grains. They spike our blood-sugar levels more.

Many people will do just fine with puffed whole grains, but they shouldn’t be considered equally as healthy as in-tact whole grains. (Learn more in this video: “Whole Grain Hierarchy.”)

6. Is Boom Chicka Pop High in Sodium?

Boom Chicka Pop has between 90mg and 310mg of sodium per serving depending on the flavor. I would consider this moderate in sodium. The two flavors with the most sodium are White Cheddar Popcorn and Cheddar Cheese Popcorn.

Here is a table showing the amount of sodium per serving. Keep in mind that the serving size varies by flavor, but it’s always around 30g of popcorn:

Boom Chicka Pop Flavor	Sodium (per serving)
Sea Salt Popcorn	150mg
Sweet Salty Kettle Corn	110mg
Salted Maple Flavored Kettle Corn	110mg
White C