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Popcorn pops due to superheated, pressurized steam that forms inside the kernel

Monday, February 06, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: popcorn, kernel, snack

Popcorn

(NaturalNews) Corn (maize) is nearly unique among grass species in that its seed has a strong, moisture-resistant hull, surrounding an interior composed almost entirely of hard, dense starch. It is this combination of traits that allows popcorn to pop.

Popcorn is simply a specialized breed of corn known as flint corn, which has an especially hard outer kernel. When popcorn kernels are heated in a pot, the water inside the kernel naturally heats up as well, turning into steam. Because the steam cannot escape through the moisture-proof kernel, it soon becomes pressurized and then superheated. This superheated steam cooks the hard starches in the kernel into a soft, gelatinous mass.

A constant influx of heat from the pot keeps increasing the heat and pressure inside the kernel up to roughly 135 pounds per square inch, at which point the kernel finally ruptures. The released steam then expands rapidly, filling the gelatinized starch with air. With the steam gone, the starch cools rapidly and solidifies into the familiar popped corn shape.

Popcorn is a whole grain snack, but watch out for microwaveable popcorn, as its butter ingredient includes a dangerous chemical that can cause lung cancer (https://www.naturalnews.com/034386_microwave_...).

Source: 25 Amazing (and Weird) Facts about How Food is Made and Where it Comes From, authored by Mike Adams and David Guiterrez. This report reveals shocking but true things that will blow your mind about how food is actually made. Click here to download the full report (FREE) (PDF Adobe Acrobat, non-DRM), and you'll learn about weird food ingredients, food manufacturing processes and bizarre food sources. FREE report from NaturalNews.com.

Additional sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_corn

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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed "strange fibers" found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health "gurus," dangerous "detox" products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over a dozen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.

Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com.

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