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Healthwise, a large segement of my diet for twenty years was popcorn fried in coconut oil, with a chaser of coca-cola. I have no plaque build-up and the scans to prove it. I've become more and more convinced that a lot of the problems ascribed to oils are in fact problems caused by diets low in magnesium and other minerals. Most people are inundated with information claiming that a lot of calcium is needed, without being told the "rest of the story" that it must be taken in balance with magnesium. Too much calcium and too little magnesium can encourage plaque and a host of other health problems.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has stirred up publicity with bad science on more than one occassion. At our theatre during the coconut oil controversy, people began asking and we proudly told them that we popped in a blend of coconut & corn oil (Snack Chief brand, I believe). Of course, many were horrified, but we kept our reputation as having "the best popcorn in Louisville."

Finally Boxoffice magazine published a refutation of the whole canola-oil-is-healthier press release from the CFSIPI. Didn't convince some of our patrons until we pointed to our manager, who had lost forty pounds and not diminished his popcorn intake at all.

We finally just told people that if occassional movie popcorn did their arteries any damage, they were getting way too much fat from other sources.

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Adam Fraser www.pinestheatre.com

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(Actually I like popcorn popped in canola oil. We had a commercial popcorn popper at Dynamix, and we tried both coconut "oil" and canola oil, and most people preferred canola. It seemed like the popcorn popped more uniformly in canola too).

Brewer's yeast is great! More theaters need to offer it.

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Yes the yellow coloring comes from the oil (if you still want yellow corn with coconut oil, get the red colored coconut oil)

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Brad - it tastes fishy because it's canola oil. Probably smells like a big ol' fish fry is going on too. The popper you use should tell you how much oil to use, but on our 48 oz. kettle, we use 16 oz. of oil.

Incidentally, the mall right next to our theatre just had a new popcorn machine put in it, and I couldn't be happier. It's fully automated. You put in a dollar and watch as it air pops the corn which then flies through some clear tubes into a tub for you. You can add butter topping and salt if you want. The presentation is pretty cool, but it tastes like absolute dog shit, which just makes our product more desirable.

The correct oil/seed ratio has to do with seed type, popout, burning, and speed. The idea is to maximize the expansion of the corn and keep the cooking time short enough so that the corn doesn't burn. In a 20oz charge of corn, start with 6oz of oil as a beginning point. Once the kettle has been in use for a while, you can fine tune to get a more exact ratio.

After doing a lot of research, I firmly believe all theatres should dump canola. It was foisted upon our industry and the characteristics and smoke point are unsuitable for use in popping corn. Coconut and peanut oils are much more suitable. I've spoken out on this before in other threads.