Hot sauce: it’s NOT 0 calories

Ekaterinalle
Ekaterinalle Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Most hot sauce labels say they’re 0 calories, because food manufacturers are allowed to call their food 0 calorie as long as it’s less than 5 calories per serving. I really like hot sauce and can eat a LOT in a day, easily 1/4 cup. That’s definitely not 0 calorie but MyFitnessPal doesn’t have an option for me to use that includes those calories!

Replies

  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,964 Member
    Create your own item for the database with the nutritional information on the label.
  • pancakerunner
    pancakerunner Posts: 6,137 Member
    katrinelv wrote: »
    Most hot sauce labels say they’re 0 calories, because food manufacturers are allowed to call their food 0 calorie as long as it’s less than 5 calories per serving. I really like hot sauce and can eat a LOT in a day, easily 1/4 cup. That’s definitely not 0 calorie but MyFitnessPal doesn’t have an option for me to use that includes those calories!

    You can create your own food item in your profile, but honestly doing so would probably burn more calories than what's in the hot sauce :no_mouth:
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,023 Member
    edited August 2019
    it's miniscule amount, so I don't even bother, same with yellow mustard. I guess if I downed a whole bottle at a time, I might have a concern. You can lose the few calories simply by walking to your fridge and back ;)
  • cbstewart88
    cbstewart88 Posts: 453 Member
    I love hot sauce. Hotter the better. I don't log it. Figure I just sweat it out or burn it off dancing around the room when a really, really hot chunk goes down....
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    nighthawk584 wrote: »
    it's miniscule amount, so I don't even bother, same with yellow mustard. I guess if I downed a whole bottle at a time, I might have a concern. You can lose the few calories simply by walking to your fridge and back ;)

    Same here.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    Everything except water has calories.
  • lancejohnston523
    lancejohnston523 Posts: 60 Member
    nighthawk584 wrote: »
    it's miniscule amount, so I don't even bother, same with yellow mustard. I guess if I downed a whole bottle at a time, I might have a concern. You can lose the few calories simply by walking to your fridge and back ;)

    I agree and do love any kind of hot sauce
  • unstableunicorn
    unstableunicorn Posts: 216 Member
    katrinelv wrote: »
    Most hot sauce labels say they’re 0 calories, because food manufacturers are allowed to call their food 0 calorie as long as it’s less than 5 calories per serving. I really like hot sauce and can eat a LOT in a day, easily 1/4 cup. That’s definitely not 0 calorie but MyFitnessPal doesn’t have an option for me to use that includes those calories!

    If you’re in a position where you have a legitimate need to log it, I would just add 15cal per tablespoon under Quick Add. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it. Generally the goal is to live well without a food journal, so consider it baby steps towards estimating your food’s caloric value. :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,261 Member
    In my estimation, salsa is going to have more calories than most hot sauce, and most of the commercial salsa brands I use are labeled at 10 calories for 2 tablespoons, so 20 calories for a quarter cup.

    Hot sauce typically has less solids and more vinegar, so I'd expect it to be a fraction of the salsa calories. So, realistically, you're probably looking at fewer than 10 calories per quarter cup, just as a guess. Certainly, it's less than 20.

    Accuracy can be useful, and some people value it more than others, so go ahead and log the hot sauce . . . . but it's not going to make or break weight loss, either way. You're down in the estimating-error territory where we're talking about the difference between a sweeter apple, and a less-sweet one.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    Log 50 calories for the day if that makes you feel better
  • cobalt108
    cobalt108 Posts: 60 Member
    I love hot & spicy sauces/mustards too and just wanted to ad that they usually contain really high sodium. So even if the calorie count is low, you can easily reach or exceed your daily sodium level.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    edited August 2019
    LyndaBSS wrote: »
    Create your own item for the database with the nutritional information on the label.

    How does that help if the nutrition label says 0 calories?

    ETA: the OP was complaining that the label says 0 calories, not just that there wasn't an entry in MFP database.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    katrinelv wrote: »
    Most hot sauce labels say they’re 0 calories, because food manufacturers are allowed to call their food 0 calorie as long as it’s less than 5 calories per serving. I really like hot sauce and can eat a LOT in a day, easily 1/4 cup. That’s definitely not 0 calorie but MyFitnessPal doesn’t have an option for me to use that includes those calories!

    If you're talking about Tabasco sauce or something similar, it's mostly vinegar, and vinegar is mostly water. According to the USDA nutrient database, there's about 6 calories in a quarter cup of "sauce, ready-to-serve, pepper or hot" (in the link below, the far right column should show data for 12 tsp., which is 1/4 cup -- if it doesn't, just change the value for the number of teaspoons to 12). There's an entry in the MFP database that matches that text string.


    https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/06168?man=&lfacet=&count=&max=25&qlookup=Sauce%2C+ready-to-serve%2C+pepper+or+hot&offset=&sort=default&format=Abridged&reportfmt=other&rptfrm=&ndbno=&nutrient1=&nutrient2=&nutrient3=&subset=&totCount=&measureby=&Qv=1&Q325279=1&Q336986=12&Qv=1&Q325279=1&Q336986=0.25

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