Do herbs/ spices have calories?

Emuhlay14

I'm a big fan of seasoning up my foods with spices and herbs, but should I stop doing this? Does it affect my calorie or sodium intake? I love doing this because I'm not into many vegetables, but if they have seasonings on them I'll eat them. Thanks!

JohnBarth

Most seasonings unless specifically marked low or sodium free will have salt, and often a lot of it. That being said, unless you have issues with blood pressure or have been directed to a low sodium diet, a bit of extra salt is typically not harmful.

Spices are usually low in calories, and for a meal, I don't log them. If I'm making a large batch and using multiple teaspoons or tablespoons, I'll often look them up to see if the amount I'm adding is significant enough to warrant including in the recipe.

Emuhlay14

JohnBarth wrote: »

Most seasonings unless specifically marked low or sodium free will have salt, and often a lot of it. That being said, unless you have issues with blood pressure or have been directed to a low sodium diet, a bit of extra salt is typically not harmful.

Spices are usually low in calories, and for a meal, I don't log them. If I'm making a large batch and using multiple teaspoons or tablespoons, I'll often look them up to see if the amount I'm adding is significant enough to warrant including in the recipe.

Thank you so much! That's good to know that I don't need to be logging them significantly.

Lizzles4Shizzles

I actually just thought about this recently and was surprised. A tablespoon of ground cinnamon is nearly 20 calories. Seems like it could add up quickly if all spices are like that - I hadn't been tracking them and have still be losing fine, but if my weight loss stalls, that's probably the first thing I'll change is to start tracking spices. I use a lot of them with my cooking as well.

Kalikel

Herbs and spices are extremely low in calories and will rarely have much of an effect. They will not contain sodium in any appreciable amount. Jars of seasoning salt and such will, but the herbs and spices have effectively no sodium.

There are so few calories in them that you'd have to eat multiple jars a day to come up with any real difference.

A pinch of cayenne or some spice...I don't even bother logging it. It's not going to weigh a gram, anyway, so I can't weigh it.

You can try it out. See if you can weigh them and what the calories are! They'll be pretty dang low, though.

ungeneric

Lizzles1986 wrote: »

A tablespoon of ground cinnamon is nearly 20 calories.

A tablespoon of cinnamon is also a lot of cinnamon, though. Most people would find that overpowering in a single serving. And if we're talking about a fraction of 20 calories, then that's such a minor difference that it might as well be a rounding error.

mccindy72

Emuhlay14 wrote: »

I'm a big fan of seasoning up my foods with spices and herbs, but should I stop doing this? Does it affect my calorie or sodium intake? I love doing this because I'm not into many vegetables, but if they have seasonings on them I'll eat them. Thanks!

If you are using individual dried spices and herbs, then no. If you are using a premixed seasoning, there is usually a nutritional panel that will tell you about calories and sodium, and you'll see that sodium is usually pretty high in those.

CyberTone

I only log individual servings of spice mixes if the mix contains sodium and it is listed in the database, because I track my sodium.

I do log all individual spices when I create recipes using the Recipe Importer/Old Recipe Calculator, because many spices do contribute micronutrients in addition to Calories.

I have posted this list before, but I will post it again. I listed them by tablespoon for comparison purposes.

Spices, Calories per tablespoon
Spices – Mustard seed, yellow, 53
Spices – Poppy seed, 47
Spices – Nutmeg, ground, 37
Spices – Fenugreek seed, 36
Spices – Garlic powder, 28
Spices – Celery seed, 25
Spices – Mace, ground, 25
Spices – Chili powder, 24
Spices – Cumin, 24
Spices – Onion, powder, 24
Spices – Turmeric, ground, 24
Spices – Anise seed, 23
Spices – Cumin seed, 23
Spices – Caraway seed, 22
Spices – Cloves, ground, 21
Spices – Curry powder, 20
Spices – Dill seed, 20
Spices – Fennel seed, 20
Spices – Paprika, 20
Spices – Ginger, ground, 19
Spices – Pumpkin pie spice, 19
Spices – Cardamom, 18
Spices – Cinnamon, ground, 18
Spices – Oregano, dried, 17
Spices – Pepper, red or cayenne, 17
Spices – Allspice, ground, 16
Spices – Pepper, black, 16
Spices – Coriander seed, 15
Spices – Poultry seasoning, 11
Spices – Rosemary, dried, 11
Spices – Dill weed, dried, 8
Spices – Saffron, 7
Spices – Thyme, dried, 7
Spices – Sage, ground, 6
Spices – Bay leaf, 6
Spices – Basil, dried, 5
Spices – Marjoram, dried, 5
Spices – Spearmint, dried (mint), 5
Spices – Tarragon, dried, 5
Spices – Parsley, dried, 4
Spices – Spearmint, fresh (mint), 3
Spices – Rosemary, fresh, 2
Spices – Thyme, fresh, 2
Spices – Basil, fresh, 1
Spices – Peppermint, fresh (mint), 1
Spices – Pepper, white, < 1

Kalikel

^^ I love that list.

MsJulesRenee

Thank you! @CyberTone

sixxpoint

Calories are minor in spices. However, they can contain a decent amount of minerals like sodium and potassium... more than you would think in some cases.

zyxst

I don't bother unless it's in a recipe. When I'm using pepper on my veggies, it looks like I paint it with pepper yet the scale never moves off zero. I tried weighing out a serving (6 grams) of ground black pepper and that's a lot of freaking pepper.