I have a habit of always looking for the yellowest popcorn
kernels in the tub and eating those first. I always thought it
was just an annoying thing I did. But could loading up on
popcorn with artificial butter flavoring also be dangerous?
According to research from the Center for Drug Design at the
University of Minnesota, that artificial butter flavoring could
be a problem. Diacetyl is the name of the flavoring used to give
popcorn (and a whole range of processed foods, from baked goods
to margarine) its buttery taste--and now researchers have found
that "prolonged or excessive exposure" to diacetyl increases the
type of protein clumping that's a signature trait of Alzheimer’s
disease. Some of this research stems from the fact that workers
in popcorn factories--people with "prolonged or excessive
exposure" to diacetyl--were experiencing a weirdly high rate of
a rare lung-damaging condition (some of them even died). The
study's authors point out that the average popcorn-eater does
not have to worry about get