My parents eat tons of air popped popcorn because it is so low in calories. They drench it in “No Stick Butter Flavored Cooking Spray” . The can claims it has no fat or calories per serving. It also claims there are 550 servings per can. My parents get no more than 10 servings per can. At what point does this product go from no-cal to cal? How many calories per can?
As I recall, any amount less than half a Calorie can be legally described as “no Calories”, so that can could have as many as 225 Calories total, or 22.5 for each of your parents’ servings.
A couple of notes, by the way: Popcorn, prepared in any manner, will have a good many Calories from carbohydrates. Air-popping just removes the Calories from fat.
Also, be careful of capitalization: When referring to food, you’re talking about Calories, not calories. There are 1000 calories per Calorie. Why and how the term “Calorie” came to mean “kilocalorie”, I have no idea.
If Chronos is correct correct in his assertions, his math is still wrong.
That would be 275 calories per can, or up to 27.5 per serving.
Well, here’s the gimmick: look at the serving size. I’ve got a can of Wal-Mart’s “Great Value” No-Stick Canola Oil Cooking Spray right here, and for “Serving Size” it says, “1/4 second spray (0.25 g)”, and under “Calories per serving”, it says the magic goose egg, “0”. So if you can figure out exactly how to give that popcorn a 1/4 of a second squirt, then yeah, it’s zero calories. :rolleyes:
And yeah, this can says, “Servings per container–about 743”.
how long is 1/4 of a second, anyway?
Are your parents getting skinny eating this stuff? Probabky not. What the others say about serving size is right on.
And welcome to the SDMB. Pretty good for a 1st post. 
Peace,
mangeorge
I read about this somewhere, its basically what everybody else has said, how they call a serving size a third or a fourth of a second so there are hundreds of servings per can and because each serving has less than 5 calories they are, by law, allowed to say 0 calories per serving. The serving sizes are actually determined by surveys of consumers, people just often under-exaggerate the amount they use so they don’t look like pigs.
Cooking spray is a convenient way to apply a very small amount of vegetable oil to a pan, evenly, without waste. That’s why the serving size is a quick burst; any more than that, and you may as well pour it out of a bottle.
But it’s still vegetable oil, and it’s got just as many Calories as any other vegetable oil. If you can see it on the food, and taste it on the popcorn, you’re getting getting a hell of a lot of Calories. The only advantage over butter is that it has no cholesterol.
Question: what’s the butter flavor? And is it worse for you than just eating butter?
Thanks to all who have “weighed in”. I am encouraged because I know they were putting at least two tablespoons of butter on their popcorn before. Less than thirty calories per serving (from the spray) is a great improvement. And yes, they have been losing weight, but to be truthful losing was never the problem. Keeping it off is where the problem lies. They maintain that this time they are not on diets, but have made lifestyle changes that will prevent the weight from coming back. We shall see!
Thanks to all who have “weighed in”. I am encouraged because I know they were putting at least two tablespoons of butter on their popcorn before. Less than thirty calories per serving (from the spray) is a great improvement. And yes, they have been losing weight, but to be truthful losing was never the problem. Keeping it off is where the problem lies. They maintain that this time they are not on diets, but have made lifestyle changes that will prevent the weight from coming back. We shall see!
Thanks to all who have “weighed in”. I am encouraged because I know they were putting at least two tablespoons of butter on their popcorn before. Less than thirty calories per serving (from the spray) is a great improvement. And yes, they have been losing weight, but to be truthful losing was never the problem. Keeping it off is where the problem lies. They maintain that this time they are not on diets, but have made lifestyle changes that will prevent the weight from coming back. We shall see!