Why Popcorn Is An Ancient Superfood That Gives You A Kick

MessageToEagle.com – Popcorn is sometimes referred to as a healthy snack you don’t eat often enough. But did you know the ancients were familiar and enjoyed popcorn too? Did you also know that popcorn is an ancient superfood?

Corn was famous and popular among the ancient people

Corn was first domesticated in Mexico from a wild grass nearly 9,000 years ago. On the northern coast of Peru archeologists discovered corncobs that could date to 6,700 years ago, and scientists believe that this dried corn was eaten as popcorn and ground into corn flour.  Scientists were able to determine that people in Peru were actually eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Characteristics of the cobs—the earliest ever discovered in South America—indicate that the sites\’ ancient inhabitants ate corn several ways, including popcorn and flour corn. However, corn was still not an important part of their diet.

“Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began. This evidence further indicates that in many areas corn arrived before pots did and that early experimentation with corn as a food was not dependent on the presence of pottery,” said Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Popcorn is simply preserved corn – a way of saving the harvest. Fresh corn can, of course, be boiled, roasted, steamed or baked. But corn became a staple in the Western Hemisphere because it could be dried and stored all winter.

The magical properties of corn that would “pop”

Benjamin Franklin marveled at the mysterious recipe of “parching corn,” which he wrote about in 1790. It was almost as if corn had magical properties that would pop.

He described how the Native Americans “fill a large pot or kettle nearly full of hot ashes, and pouring in a quantity of corn, stir it up with the ashes, which presently parches and burst the grain.” This “bursting” was shocking to Franklin, since it “threw out a substance twice its bigness.” Franklin boasted that popcorn, when ground to a fine powder and mixed with water created a veritable superfood, claiming that “six ounces should sustain a man a day.”

Can popcorn really be labeled as a superfood?

Well, most of us associate popcorn with something we enjoy eating while watching movie. It is snack and it we like it of course, but is it really healthy?

See also:

• Cacao Tree Was Born 10 Million Years Ago – It’s Much Older Than Previously Thought
• How Solar Flares Affect Human Health – Our Mind And Body
• Scientists Attempt To Unlock The Mysteries Of Ancient Ayurvedic Wisdom

In 2012, researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania reported that popcorn has more antioxidant polyphenols than any other fruit or vegetable. One serving provides more than 70% of a person’s daily serving of whole grain, and a single 4-cup portion provides 5 grams of fiber. Popcorn is no longer a guilty pleasure, it’s a virtuous reward.

So, popcorn is by no means bad for you and you can continue eating it with good conscious.

MessageToEagle.com

Reference:

NDTV Food

Peru This Week