0 Cal cooking spray confuses me

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Jamtab
Jamtab Posts: 18
in Food and Nutrition
Why is it no calorie? How is something with the name Crsico or "Olive Oil" Cooking Spray have no calories in it? Why would you ever use olive oil again if you can use the no cal spray instead? Is there a cooking situation when you wouldn't want to use the spray for some reason? I'm newer to the cooking and cooking healthy thing in general. I feel like there has to be a catch, like yeah zero calories but cancer from the propellant or something...

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  • Kasya007
    Kasya007 Posts: 165 Member
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    The problem is that they're not 0 calories, it's a total gimmick. Those sprays are just regular old oil with corn grain alcohol, soy lecithin & a propellant in them. You'll notice most of them say that one serving is a "1/4 of a second spray," and that there are over 500 servings per can. 1. Who only sprays for a 1/4 of a second? No one. And 2. Has a can of Pam ever lasted you 529 servings? :noway:

    Pam is especially guilty for listing 0 calories on their nutrition label, while on their website they state, "And it has just 7 calories and less than 1 g of fat per serving!" 7 calories per serving, and we're all spraying way more than we should, so the calories are a lot more than we think...with the added bonus of worse flavour & carcinogens. Just think, at 7 calories and >1g of fat per 1/4 second spray, a 3 second spray is, 84 calories and approximately 12 g of fat. :huh:

    I much prefer to measure out a small spoonful of my desired oil & then remove some excess with paper towel, as I season the pan. It really helps with accurate tracking, and at least then you'd be overestimating the calories (because you still count it even if you wipe it off), than underestimating.

    I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Jam, but it's better that you know now. Rather than later when you're tracking vigilantly, not losing & wondering why, while these "0 cal gimmicks" silently sabotage you.

    Real food in moderation is better than any diet food. :flowerforyou:
  • angiechimpanzee
    angiechimpanzee Posts: 536 Member
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    I prefer cooking spray simply because its easier to coat the pan with & whatnot. I've always speculated that the amount I use isn't REALLY 0 calories, but the 10 or 15 calories it actual is is better than the 100 calories I'd be using with any oil. So I'm fine with it lol, it's one of those things I purposely don't put too much thought into (cos whats the big deal about 10 or 15 unaccounted-for calories? I'd rather not obsess over that sort of thing.)
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Yup, it's not truly 0 cals, it's a marketing loophole that let's them state "0 cals" if it is less than a certain amount per serving.
    If you want to count it you could spray some into a teaspoon to get a feel for how long a spray it takes to fill up a teaspoon then log it as 1/2 tsp (or however much you estimate you use). Or you could just accept that it is adding a few extra cals, though proabbly not many over whole recipe.

    The other reason you may not want to use it is that the propellant can damage the surface of some pots and pans - if you have good quality cookware it pays to read the info - we had some Scanpans that became really hard to clean and I think it was from using spray oil. Now I only use it to spray inside my crockpot or casserole dishes to make them easier to clean, and I use olive oil to cook with.

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