Center for Science in the Public Interest. BS called.

       On the way to work today I heard a comment from a representative from the "Center for Science in the Public Interest", say that a medium movie theater popcorn was as bad for you as "three quarter pounders with twelve pats of butter".  You know what that means kids; time to call BS on someone.

(http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-mcdonalds-quarter-pounder-cheese-i53977)
(http://citygirlbites.com/blog/archives/399)
(http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20091119/movie-theater-popcorn-a-calorie-bomb)
(http://fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/butter?portionid=29480&portionamount=1.000)
(http://www.storyofwellness.com/2011/11/03/like-eating-3-quarter-pounders-with-12-pats-of-butter/)

       So first we tally the claim.  Three Quarter Pounders = 1530 calories, 78g fat, (36g saturated), and 3570mg sodium.  Plus 12 pats of butter at: 432 calories, 48.72g fat (30.816 saturated), and 12 mg sodium.  This totals to: 1962 calories, 126.72 g fat (66.816 saturated), and 3762 mg sodium.

       Now they were comparing to the worst case they could find, but let's use their example.

Regal Cinemas medium popcorn: 1200 calories, 60 grams of saturated fat.  They don't list the sodium for that particular one but the other worst case was 1500mg.  (that was a large BTW)  Also I should point out that their numbers, as tested, were significantly higher than what was reported by Regal Cinemas.

So the popcorn is all saturated fat, so that is easily enough compared.   Let's do some math.

1962 - 1200 = 762 calories less for the popcorn.
126.72 - 60 = 66.72 less g of fat
66.816 - 60 = 6.816 less g of saturated fat and
3762 - 1500 = 2262 mg less sodium. (one metric crap-ton)

The short story is the popcorn isn't doing you any favors if you eat the whole damned tub yourself.  But it is hardly as bad as eating three quarter pounders with twelve pats of butter.  In fact, it seems they overstated their case by a whole hamburger, (510 calories), plus several shakers full of salt.

Also apparently they expected you to swallow the big shovel of fertilizer they were passing around.