By Sally Tamarkin, Huffington Post

Popcorn might be the world’s most versatile snack. It can be dressed up with cheese, caramel, butter, salt or more exotic flavors. It can be sweet, savory or both, and it’s easy to grab by the handful for quick transport to the mouth.

But popcorn is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of snacks — one minute it’s the healthiest choice around (Low in calories! Whole grains!), the next it’s getting banned for containing trans fats. What the heck is going on?

Here’s the deal: Kernels that are simply air-popped (in a brown paper bag in the microwave, for instance) contain no saturated fat and barely any sodium.

But the pre-packaged microwave, store-bought, and movie theater varieties are often heavily processed and packed with additives and lots of salt. Plus, because of the way these varieties are packaged, it’s easy to polish off several servings of the stuff in one sitting. (For example, a typical bag of microwave popcorn is 10 cups, and a small movie theater popcorn is about 11 cups.)

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