Hold the Butter: Artificial Flavoring on Popcorn Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease

Though I’m a pretty healthy eater most of the time, one of my few junk food weaknesses is movie theater popcorn -- and the more butter, the better. That oily, artificially flavored buttery topping is what makes the snack worthwhile! It’s also what makes it terrible, apparently. Long suspected as a cause of lung damage, researchers are now linking butter flavoring to Alzheimer’s disease.

The key culprit is a substance called diacetyl, which adds a buttery taste to foods without using any actual butter. It’s found in everything from microwave popcorn and the buttery topping used at movie theaters to snack foods, pet foods, margarines and baked goods. You would probably never know it from looking at ingredient lists, however: Most manufacturers will only list “artificial butter flavoring” without noting the specific compounds that make up that flavoring.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Minnesota found that diacetyl can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause a brain protein called beta-amyloid to clump. This clumping of beta-amyloid is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Diacetyl can also inhibit the brain’s ability to clear beta amyloid as well as stop a protective protein called glyoxalase I from working.

Whether toxic levels of diacetyl are achieved in various body compartments upon mere (over) consumption of diacetyl-containing food substances is an unanswered but an important question,” said lead researcher Robert Vince.

http://blog.aarp.org/2012/08/09/hold-the-butter-artificial-flavoring-on-popcorn-linked-to-alzheimers-disease/

http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20120808/popcorn-butter-flavorant-linked-to-alzheimers