Seasonings e.g garlic, chilli and herbs

FionaAndGeorge

Hi everyone,

Do you try and log seasonings? So for example if you use a sprinkling of herbs or some chilli flakes. Would you log the calories? I'm sometimes 100 cals plus on meals because of herbs and garlic etc. So not much room left for actual food! But I can't stand bland food.

What do you all do?

Thanks

Chef_Barbell

100 calories of seasonings? Something sounds off in your calculations.

FionaAndGeorge

Well for example Ginger, is like 15 calories a teaspoon, and sometimes I add two to things. If I'm making a stir fry, it's easy to add lots of calories! But I just feel like I'm not really eating anything substantial for those calories it's just flavour.

Chef_Barbell

Ginger is not 15 calories a tsp, it's about 2 calories. Are you using USDA verified entries or just picking things off the database?

amusedmonkey

Yep. A little less than 2 calories for a teaspoon of fresh ginger and about 5 for ground. You may be using inaccurate entries. The only things I add are garlic and onion powder, nutmeg and things that have "seeds" in their name like poppy and mustard seeds. In this case I just use quick add with 10 calories per teaspoon. Herbs are negligible.

cmriverside

Same with garlic...there is about 3-4 calories per clove. If you're making a recipe with ginger or garlic, you yourself are only eating a small amount of that. I love ginger and garlic and spicy food - but I don't sweat the calories from garlic or spices.

jondspen

I agree with Chef....seasoning typically doesn't add that much calories content. I think olive oil is one of the biggest @ 40 calories for 1 tsp.

To answer your question...no...I don't track them. What is an extra 10-50 calories a day when you are looking at a daily of 1500-2500. I mean, an extra 50 calories a day, it would take 70 days (over 2 months), to put on one pound. I'm usually fighting putting on 10+ lbs in that time if I don't monitor food/exercise.

I typically stay with pepper, chili powder, garlic, and vinegars (rice wine and balsamic). I stay away from salt b/c everything has sodium already, unless fresh.

Below are a couple of links with seasoning calorie content for you.

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/ginger-(ground)?portionid=29597&portionamount=0.500

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/food/seasoning

fitoverfortymom

I don't count garlic or ginger or green onion. When onion is part of the main attraction (like fajitas or chicken and peppers), then I weigh and log it. If I ate a garlic clove pizza, I would log the garlic then. Almost everything I cook starts with a teaspoon of garlic so I just consider it a cost of doing business.

Purplebunnysarah

I only log seasoning blends because some of them have fillers. Otherwise I don't bother

Sara1791

The only things I don't log are black coffee, spices, herbs, and aromatics (unless I go really crazy with them). I've been losing just fine without making myself nuts with that stuff.

Lounmoun

FionaAndGeorge wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Do you try and log seasonings? So for example if you use a sprinkling of herbs or some chilli flakes. Would you log the calories? I'm sometimes 100 cals plus on meals because of herbs and garlic etc. So not much room left for actual food! But I can't stand bland food.

What do you all do?

Thanks

100 calories of herbs and garlic in one serving of a dish seems pretty off. Not all entries in the database are correct.
I include seasonings in the recipe builder when I enter a recipe.

briana_aka_bunny

If u are tracking nutrition then yes count it. Scan the package rather then typing or type the plu code. If ur doing it for cals then u shouldn't be using that much in caps

Karb_Kween

I add seasoning sometimes. Like I was surprised for example that pepper apparently has two calories per however many.... I don't take it as much usually

fishshark

i use an insane amount and variety of fresh and dried herbs and spices. i have never logged them its never been an issue.

xvolution

I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.

amusedmonkey

xvolution wrote: »

I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.

True, but I learned my lesson the hard say when I used to sprinkle a tablespoon of poppy seeds in my yogurt and not count it, assuming it would be 5 calories, and apparently I've been not counting almost 50 calories. Don't want to think about the poppy seed phase I went through where I sprinkled it on almost everything. Ever since then, anything that is called "[something] seeds" gets counted.

xvolution

amusedmonkey wrote: »

xvolution wrote: »

I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.

True, but I learned my lesson the hard say when I used to sprinkle a tablespoon of poppy seeds in my yogurt and not count it, assuming it would be 5 calories, and apparently I've been not counting almost 50 calories. Don't want to think about the poppy seed phase I went through where I sprinkled it on almost everything. Ever since then, anything that is called "[something] seeds" gets counted.

That would fall under "significant amount of calories", since a tablespoon of poppy seeds is 46 calories [I'm assuming the packaging counted half a teaspoon as a serving]. Usually, if the total amount used doesn't provide significant calories/macros, then I don't count it.

quiltlovinlisa

I count seeds, fresh herbs, anything measured in significant amounts. A sprinkling of dried herbs, I don't bother.

Chilli7777

I track everything even if it comes up as 0 calories. As other posters have suggested i think your calculations are a bit high

caseylizbeth

Don't bother tracking spices or herbs. For the most part, the calories are negligible (less than 5 calories per tablespoon) and you'll spend so much time trying to track them you wont enjoy your meal.