Pickles?

I love pickles

breakfast ...lunch...dinner...snacks...etc I LOVE pickles.
I shy away from sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles because of the "sweet" in them (Im diabetic)

I love cucumbers just as much as a "pickle"

What I question is if a dill pickle has virtually NO calories to speak of...........HOW can a fresh plain cucumber have an average of 40 calories? I dont get it.

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Replies

  • I'd put my money on the "pickling" process which involves a lot of salt. I don't know that pickles and cucumbers really have all THAT big a difference in caloric content if the 2 were the exact same size, but it could be that the salt draws out a lot of the nutrients that contain the calories.
    That said, the one thing I do know for sure is that pickles will cause you to retain water like a mo-fo because of all that salt, too. When I first started dieting I remember the specific incident when I was like "Hey pickle! Super low calorie snack, yay! Om nom... HOLY CRAP, that's my whole day's worth of salt!!!" So yeah. They're yummy, but you might wanna keep that in mind. Retaining water can be a big let down because it will make it seem like you haven't lost anything or have even gained.
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
    Ha ha! I love pickles too - they are my stand-by munchie food when I am not really hungry but just craving food. I love sweet pickled onions, which have more calories due to the sugar, but it is still negligible.

    Pickled cucumbers will have the same number of calories as normal cucumber, it's just that you usually don't eat a cucumber-sized portion of pickles in the same sitting (well, most people don't!).
  • cb83580
    cb83580 Posts: 136 Member
    You mean the entire jar (and juice) isn't one serving??! What? LOL. Not that I've done that or anything....
  • I do my own pickling (it really isn't that hard once you learn the process). I did "dilly beans" this year which is basically dill pickled green beans. They are another awesome snack. The water retention is so true, but when I eat them it's usually to prevent myself from eating something else which will certainly have a much more deleterious effect (eg. like simple starch/fat/sugar combo ie. PB and J's.)
  • SRH7
    SRH7 Posts: 2,037 Member
    I do my own pickling (it really isn't that hard once you learn the process). I did "dilly beans" this year which is basically dill pickled green beans. They are another awesome snack. The water retention is so true, but when I eat them it's usually to prevent myself from eating something else which will certainly have a much more deleterious effect (eg. like simple starch/fat/sugar combo ie. PB and J's.)

    Dilly beans. Lol! Sounds delish!