Experiments without Conclusions

While I was home over the holidays, I attempted to continue my diet for the two weeks I would be in other people's kitchens. Some days it was easy, other days it was too awkward to be so restrictive.

Batman Rises and Movie Popcorn

One evening my family planned a movie night. It sounds innocent enough, food for snacking is optional, sort of. My family happens to love their popcorn with movies. My uncle eats popcorn for a meal often. I, on the other hand, don't really care about popcorn. When I eat popcorn, it's the bites with extra butter and salt that I get excited about.

Initially, I told them I wanted to skip the popcorn. It's not part of my diet, and I really don't have much desire to eat it. Then, they started asking questions, and I gave in. If I want to explain everything that has brought me to this position, I simply cannot do it adequately in person. I don't feel like my diet is ultra-restrictive, but that's coming from somebody who has become accustomed to doing without. Anyways, point of the matter is, I ate the damn popcorn, and I ate whole lot.

The popcorn was simple - not the microwaved in a bag give you cancer type. It was plain popcorn kernels popped in coconut oil over the stove. Melted butter and salt were added afterwards. Four simple ingredients, and I know for certain two of them (coconut oil and salt) do no have any adverse reactions with me.

I blamed the popcorn for my upset stomach with very loose, demanding attention stools. My cousin, however, thought maybe it was the butter....

So, Nearly Half a Stick of Butter Later

When I returned to my apartment after the holidays, one of the first things I did was go for the butter. I wanted to pinpoint it down to that popcorn. Unfortunately for me, eating three tablespoons of butter also has some unpleasant side-effects. Namely, my face exploding with red acne spots. I would also like to note, that I would never eat three tablespoons of butter with nothing else. It wasn't all that thrilling. I had to force the last bites down with some orange juice.

Clearly, it's hard to come up and the point the finger at one or the other. I never noticed any issues with more acne when I have used lots of butter on my food. Perhaps it's also because I don't force it down. With the popcorn, I didn't force it down. It's mildly addicting, each bite barely finished before you are reaching for the next one --- reminiscent of the addictive nature of cereal and pasta on a smaller scale.

I may never come to an absolute conclusion on popcorn. I really have no desire to eat plain popcorn. As I noted above, popcorn is only good to me because of the butter and salt on it. I do not have any popcorn in my pantry, and I have no intention to ever buy some. This has made me more vigilant to the possible effects of butter, and I will pay attention to my face more after heavily buttered meals.

Now, to relate some of this back to random things I've read or heard from others.

In the predominantly pro-primal/paleo groups of bloggers, there is this belief that anything that spikes your insulin response should be avoided. This includes all kinds of sugar, grains, and yes, even butter. Apparently the only dairy product that doesn't spike your insulin response is cheese. I am curious if they tested both pasteurized and raw milk out when they were doing their research. I am skeptical that it was a point of consideration. [Note: reason cheese doesn't spike insulin is probably because the lactose gets consumed during the fermentation process]. My diet isn't based on insulin response, and I do not believe in limiting fruit consumption. To play devil's advocate, I've found a meta-analysis study that found that dairy eaters resulted in more weight-loss in overweight people than their non-dairy counterparts. I imagine the increased fat intake helped curb hunger.