Pickles what??

NoMoreBlameGame

Okay, I was craving pickles, so I bought some.

Vlasic Snack'mms kosher dill (they're mini pickles)

I don't understand something. For calories it says 0 calories per serving and each serving is 3 pickles.

But...then I look at the other info and it says "less than 1 gram of carbohydrate per serving" - I thought carbs were auto-calories?

Not only that, but cucumbers have calories and pickles are fermented cucumbers are they not? Why do pickles have no calories?

Even vinegar has calories and that's what pickles are made in.

Surely there has to be SOME calories in the whole jar (NOT eating the entire jar though, lol)

....going to eat a serving of 3 pickles and log them, but I'm still curious.


thanks

PurrlyGirl

If I recall correctly, they can do that because there's a "loophole" in the laws of the Nutrition Labels. If there's less than .5 cals for that serving, then they can say 0. So there's calories. Just small ones. If it's 3 pickles though, I wouldn't sweat it...I mean, you probably burned that much just typing your post. :laugh:

pds06

I'd worry more about the sodium then the little amount of calories

Ready2Rock206

Pickles do have calories - but a small amount of pickles has under 5 calories so they can say 0 calories. A whole jar of pickles definitely has calories and a truck load of sodium. I love pickles.

NoMoreBlameGame

Thank you very much for the explanation. Sooo....if I have 3 of these pickles a couple days a week...it's okay to go by the label and log them as 0 calories even though they do have a low amount of calories?

Yeh, the sodium is 280 per 3 pickles and I *do* have high blood pressure (not huge high, but high enough for minimum dosage lopressor).

I can have sodium...I'm just not supposed to have more than 1500 per day and so far I've been doing well in that area.

CyberTone

I usually check the USDA database to see if there is something similar.

Per the USDA database:
Basic Report: 11937, Pickles, cucumber, dill or kosher dill
1 spear (35g / 1.2 oz) is 4 kcal and 283g Na (Sodium).
Reference: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3583?fg=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=25&sort=&qlookup=11937

Per the MFP database:
Search: Pickles - Cucumber, dill
1 spear (30g / 1.1 oz) is 5 kcal and 385g Na, based on the information for 100g.

In your situation, I would recommend using the MFP entry for 1 spear of Pickles, Cucumber, dill, for each serving of the "3 Vlasic mini dills" because it would be a good maximum estimate for the actual macros you need to track.

Hope this helps.

NoMoreBlameGame

I usually check the USDA database to see if there is something similar.

Per the USDA database:
Basic Report: 11937, Pickles, cucumber, dill or kosher dill
1 spear (35g / 1.2 oz) is 4 kcal and 283g Na (Sodium).
Reference: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3583?fg=&man=&lfacet=&count=&max=25&sort=&qlookup=11937

Per the MFP database:
Search: Pickles - Cucumber, dill
1 spear (30g / 1.1 oz) is 5 kcal and 385g Na, based on the information for 100g.

In your situation, I would recommend using the MFP entry for 1 spear of Pickles, Cucumber, dill, for each serving of the "3 Vlasic mini dills" because it would be a good maximum estimate for the actual macros you need to track.

Hope this helps.

wowee...*yes* that helps, thank you very much!!

NoMoreBlameGame

I'm not (too) worried about the sodium. My sodium limit is 1500mg/day but the 280mg of sodium in three decent-sized pickles is a lot better than the almost 1,000mg of sodium in 1 cup of cottage cheese (just realized today)...time to find some low sodium cottage cheese.

Thanks again for the posts, everyone.