Popcorns are a great option for snacks. However, here comes two important questions you may need to know their answers relating to popcorn and oxalate concentration.

First: is popcorn high in oxalates? Second, should you opt for homemade popcorns or packaged ones? Well, popcorns are not a major food for an everyday living (at least to most of us).

However, when they are your favorites and you have issues with kidney stones, knowing popcorn’s oxalate content is a great step towards managing a person’s oxalate sensitivity.

Whether popcorn is high in oxalate, the answer is No. Popcorn is said to contain less than 5mg of the oxalate compound – per a cup, according to a research article by the University of Chicago.

That sounds good, right? Sure … I was also super grateful to note this.

In fact, Nephure (a recently discovered oxalate neutralizing agent) on their website, recommends using popcorn as one of those low-oxalate snack substitutes. Even in the place of low oxalate nuts, popcorns play a pretty great replacement.

Going Deeper…

We have the air-popped popcorn, which is said to provide much lower levels of oxalate.

Air-popped popcorns are delicious and besides that, the good thing about them is that they are not just good with kidney stones, they are also a low-calorie supplement which makes them kind of a superfood for people who both want to lose weight and keep a low oxalate diet at the same time.

Now should you go for packed popcorn, or homemade popcorn, which ones are sweeter and safer?

Well, personally I like the air-popped popcorns by a company called Smartfood, they have branded their popcorn Smartfood® Popcorn.

The thing I like about them is they claim to have control over all the stages used to manufacture their raw popcorn right from planting to harvesting.

How is Smartfood Popcorn made?

Smartfood popcorn manufacturers say they don’t use chemicals that might be potentially harmful both to man and well as animals. When it comes to their packaged corns, they claim to only deliver air popped, full fresh flavor popcorns. Another claim is that they don’t add artificial flavors to the product, plus no preservatives – which ideally and basically makes it organic friendly.

Other reviews on the Smartfood popcorn is that it is 100 percent whole grain, unlike other optional companies which remove the outer cover of the popcorn. In other words, peeling away that cover on the cereals reduces certain essential nutrients in a foods.

Other FAQ questions besides Smartfood popcorn oxalate levels include:

Does it contain wheat or gluten? – the answer is, this depends on the particular product. Like they have Which Cheddar Cheese flavored Smartfood Popcorn, Sea Salt Delight Smartfood Popcorn, Theater Butter Flavored Smartfood popcorn and the rest. However, in general, the company says their analytical testing have regularly reported lesser amounts, 20 ppm of gluten level in all their products.

New Release: the Smartfood Popcorn Caramel

The company has also added another flavor they call smartfood popcorn caramel. This is a superfood to me, reason, it has absolutely 0mg of cholesterol and 0mg of trans-fat.

Its other nutritional facts include: 0.5g saturated fat, 4g dietary fiber, 170mg sodium, and only 2g of added sugars. Additional facts are that it has 15mg calcium, 1mg Iron and 3g protein – everything is per cup-size volume. And you know what, the taste for smartfood popcorn caramel is great.

What of storage? Well, there is that concern whether you can store such snacks in the freezer, answering this, smartfood popcorn says it is okay to store. The idea is snacks can be kept in the freezer to help extend their freshness state but off cause not for a long time.

What about homemade popcorns?

Well, this where those of us who love being self-sufficient all round when it comes to kitchen matters can give their opinion. Yes, I like kitchen adventures and as such, I found a really great home use popcorn machine.

Well, there are cheaper ($15, $20 and $22) home-designed air popcorn machines; but I’d rather go with something a bit moderately priced (not too cheap or too expensive) because of durability and cost. So I choose this one called the 6074 great northern popcorn popper.

Off cause, people looking for commercial popcorn machine with cart, to begin a small business, for example, the best bet would be 6 oz Great Northern popcorn – you can check it’s other specifications and here.

Back to our oxalate subject, in summarizing our topic, people with oxalate sensitivity have no reason to worry about popcorn’s oxalate. However, it is always good and wise to ask your nutritionist the drinks you are free to take the snack with.

For instance, coffee has been found safe for kidney stones, green tea is also off the hook and several other beverages – which doctors say their oxalate version or type is safe because it is easily broken down and expelled from the body.