My cmnt: So I click a link to hear a song on Youtube and this annoying ad pops up by Dr. Joe Dick (that’s not his name but who he is) saying that you shouldn’t eat microwave popcorn because the evil, corporate meanies (the only real evil corporate meanies are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Bloomberg – wow, they’re all democrats!) want it to taste good (to entrap you) and then give you Alzheimers.

My cmnt: So this got my spidey sense tingling and I did a quick internet search and found this out. The moral: Don’t trust catchy ads on the internet, in emails or anywhere else. Be very skeptical about little “news bits” that pop up on your phone or computer.

BY  EEDGERLY · PUBLISHED AUGUST 15, 2012 · UPDATED MARCH 31, 2014 – Alzheimer blog

I’m a big fan of microwave popcorn so I was disheartened to see dozens of headlines in the past couple weeks that imply the butter flavoring in popcorn could be related to Alzheimer’s. I took a closer look at the information and here’s the rundown:

The claim

Diacetyl, a substance used in butter flavoring, increases beta-amyloid clumping in test tube experiments. It also enhances beta-amyloid’s toxic effects on nerve cells grown in the laboratory. Beta-amyloid is an abnormal protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

The methodology

The research was conducted in cell culture, basically in a test tube.

Beyond the headline

Despite the news headlines about this study, diacetyl is no longer used in the popcorn industry! This is because substance was previously shown to have negative respiratory health effects on popcorn factory workers. In addition, while these results were achieved in a test tube, the same findings may not be true inside a person’s brain.

The bottom line

While popcorn lovers probably won’t be exposed to this substance as it’s no longer used in the industry, research on diacetyl could be an interesting new area of research.

For more information on the latest news and developments in Alzheimer’s research, visit www.alz.org/research.