PEOPLE who snack on popcorn may consume more whole grains and less meat than their peers who don't, a vnew research shows.

Fewer than 10 per cent of Americans meet current dietary guidelines recommending they eat at least three servings of whole grain foods each day, Dr Ann C Grandjean of The Center for Human Nutrition in Omaha, Nebraska and her colleagues note the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Popcorn is a whole-grain product and whole grains have been tied to a number of health benefits, including reduced heart disease and diabetes risk, they add.

To investigate the role of popcorn in the US diet, Grandjean and her team looked at data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 1999-2002, in which a nationally representative sample of 15,506 Americans reported what they had eaten in the past 24 hours.

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