by Kristen Sindelar | Midwest Messenger
Popcorn has long been a favorite snack, especially on movie night.
While popcorn is a nutritious whole-grain food, when lathered in butter and salt, it’s generally not considered the healthiest option.
A variety of popcorn being developed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is moving popcorn to superfood status.
Quality Protein Popcorn (QPP) packs a punch unlike any other popcorn. It provides balanced amino acids to make QPP a more complete source of protein.
The proteins found in grains, such as maize, do not contain all 10 essential amino acids and are therefore considered incomplete proteins, meaning that protein deficiency will occur without other sources of protein in the diet. Maize contains about 10% protein, but lacks two amino acids (lysine and tryptophan) to be a complete protein.
Corn with the genes for Quality Protein Maize (QPM) contains the necessary two amino acids to the meal complete. Referred to as opaque-2 variant, this simply means the kernels accumulate more of the nutritionally balanced protein.
“Quality Protein Maize has a higher lysine content, which is normally deficient in corn,” said Dr. David Holding, professor and associate department head in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture and member of the Center for Plant Science Innovation at UNL.
Holding began moving his QPM research into popcorn in 2012. That’s when Conagra relocated its entire popcorn breeding program to UNL in search of a superior product in taste, agronomics and nutrition, Holding said. Conagra owns popcorn-producing companies such as Act II, Angie’s BoomChickaPop, Jiffy Pop and Orville Redenbacher’s, as well as the gourmet popcorn brands Poppycock, Crunch ‘n Munch and Fiddle Faddle.
Read full article at Midwest Messenger.
More details at: https://go.unl.edu/7imz