zero calories?

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jerseygirl777
jerseygirl777 Posts: 148
in Food and Nutrition
So I have really been wondering lately about these items. Are these items really 0 calories? And how many servings do you have before it actually accumulates calories? Items I am referring to are: splenda, sparkling flavored water, pickles, diet drinks. And I am not assuming they are 0 calories, just that the label says 0 calories. I just find it weird something can actually be labeled as 0 calories! Any insight?
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Replies

  • craek
    craek Posts: 201 Member
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    Even though they say 0 calories, some of these things still have sodium that needs to be counted
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    0 cals (per serving), but things like cooking spray etc if you use enough you do accumulate some calories, but diet drinks and waters really are just water and chemicals, nothing I would imagine would have any calories in it, it depends on what you are talking about
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    Pickles do not have 0 calories. Depending on the type of pickle they generally have between 5 and 20 calories per serving.
  • Aeriel
    Aeriel Posts: 864 Member
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    Love pickles but have really cut back because of the huge amount of sodium in most of them. :grumble:
  • kiki2009
    kiki2009 Posts: 36 Member
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    some foods have negative amount of calories too because it takes more energy to eat the food than the foods itself. so eat as much (welll not as much) but enough to make you full of any of these foods :] hope this helps.
    Fruits

    apple
    cranberries
    grapefruit
    lemon
    mango
    orange
    pineapple
    raspberries
    strawberries
    tangerine

    Vegetables

    asparagus
    beet
    broccoli
    cabbage (green)
    carrot
    cauliflower
    celery
    Chile peppers (hot)
    cucumber
    dandelion
    endive
    garden cress
    garlic
    green beans
    lettuce
    onion
    papaya
    radishes
    spinach
    turnip
  • ErinMarie25
    ErinMarie25 Posts: 733 Member
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    Some pickles have zero calories indeed. Watch the sodium though!
  • terri0027
    terri0027 Posts: 51 Member
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    I've wondered how it can be. My jar of pickles says zero calories for 3 baby dills. A cucumber has calories so I wondered where these calories went in the pickling process. I guess the calories would be very low considering that a whole cucumber (8 inches) is only 34 calories, but it doesn't seem to add up that it would be zero. I also wonder about those zero calorie salad dressings and other Walden Farms items.
  • beethedreamer
    beethedreamer Posts: 465 Member
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    if something has less than 5 calories, they are allowed to say it has zero calories. splenda for example is marketed as a zero calorie sweetener, but it has 4 calories per packet. I don't think anything is truly zero calories besides water, just some things are so low it doesn't really matter unless you have mass amounts of it. everything adds up eventually.
  • jerseygirl777
    jerseygirl777 Posts: 148
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    I've wondered how it can be. My jar of pickles says zero calories for 3 baby dills. A cucumber has calories so I wondered where these calories went in the pickling process. I guess the calories would be very low considering that a whole cucumber (8 inches) is only 34 calories, but it doesn't seem to add up that it would be zero. I also wonder about those zero calorie salad dressings and other Walden Farms items.

    Exactly what I don't understand! Only some brands of pickles I get say 0 cal. And I also saw a spray butter that said 0 cal. I just can't imagine a whole container of something equaling 0 calories!
  • hilyg
    hilyg Posts: 3 Member
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    Be careful of the negative calories thing. That's a nice, tasty myth. It also assumes that what you're eating is fresh, raw and unseasoned.
  • Sparklewolfie
    Sparklewolfie Posts: 271
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    Also, "negative" calories is a mis-name because they STILL HAVE (a positive number of) CALORIES. They are just used up in your "daily existence" calorie burning. I don't know the proper term for it, but it is the 1200 that MFP uses as a base. Basically, what you burn just by existing

    If you were to eat nothing but celery, you would lose weight, but it is not healthy. And fruits still have sugars and other things you have to watch ;)

    About the "zero" calories - unless you are having a lot of it, I think you should be fine :)
  • Stewie316
    Stewie316 Posts: 266 Member
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    Splenda has 3.3 calories a packet. Doesn't seem like a lot, but when you use 16 packets a day, like I do, it add's up. Usually anything that's under 5 calories a serving is allowed to say zero calories.


    ETA: brittneyr8, I just saw you said the same thing.
  • aproc
    aproc Posts: 1,033 Member
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    Companys can label it as zero if it has less than 4 calories. But obviously, your not going to accumulate that many calories with these products unless your consuming it all day. XP
  • brityn
    brityn Posts: 443 Member
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    some foods have negative amount of calories too because it takes more energy to eat the food than the foods itself. so eat as much (welll not as much) but enough to make you full of any of these foods :] hope this helps.


    This is 'a load' nothing has negative calories except water. If you eat too many calories of anything you're going to gain weight, whether it be butter or apples. You'll just be able to eat a lot more apples than the butter. Everything has calories and they all add up.
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
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    some foods have negative amount of calories too because it takes more energy to eat the food than the foods itself. so eat as much (welll not as much) but enough to make you full of any of these foods :] hope this helps.
    Fruits

    apple
    cranberries
    grapefruit
    lemon
    mango
    orange
    pineapple
    raspberries
    strawberries
    tangerine

    Vegetables

    asparagus
    beet
    broccoli
    cabbage (green)
    carrot
    cauliflower
    celery
    Chile peppers (hot)
    cucumber
    dandelion
    endive
    garden cress
    garlic
    green beans
    lettuce
    onion
    papaya
    radishes
    spinach
    turnip

    Unfortunately it is a myth, there are no foods that take up more calories to digest than they contain.

    Oranges contain on average 80 calories, it does NOT take 81 calories to digest an orange, it takes approximately 30% of those calories to digest it, leaving 70% of the calories still in the body. The same goes for the other foods.

    People think they can eat certain foods and it will enable them to lose weight, the long and the short of it is calories in -v- calories out. No short cuts, no easy way.

    It needs to be recognised that to lose weight, it will take focus and a mental approach that is not lazy.
  • belatedly
    belatedly Posts: 11
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    Would it be safe to call a jar of pickles 75 cals if there are 15 servings at "0" cals each? I'm just substituting the 0 for 5.
    Jw because I just ate a jar of pickles (I know that much salt is bad but I can't help it)
  • SaundersDE
    SaundersDE Posts: 4
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    Personally I would stay away from any 'diet drink' as it is full of chemicals and bad for you body. Water is best and has zero calories if that is what you are concerned about. Eat lots of vegetables, fruit ( Berries are good) and lean protein.
    I like putting in 2 cups of frozen raspberries in a big jug of water and let the fruit soak over night. Great tasting water and no calories! (Try lemons, oranges, blueberries)
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    some foods have negative amount of calories too because it takes more energy to eat the food than the foods itself. so eat as much (welll not as much) but enough to make you full of any of these foods :] hope this helps.
    Fruits

    apple
    cranberries
    grapefruit
    lemon
    mango
    orange
    pineapple
    raspberries
    strawberries
    tangerine

    Vegetables

    asparagus
    beet
    broccoli
    cabbage (green)
    carrot
    cauliflower
    celery
    Chile peppers (hot)
    cucumber
    dandelion
    endive
    garden cress
    garlic
    green beans
    lettuce
    onion
    papaya
    radishes
    spinach
    turnip

    Nooooooooo!!! All these foods have calories. Quit spreading nonsense.
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    Options
    some foods have negative amount of calories too because it takes more energy to eat the food than the foods itself. so eat as much (welll not as much) but enough to make you full of any of these foods :] hope this helps.
    Fruits

    apple
    cranberries
    grapefruit
    lemon
    mango
    orange
    pineapple
    raspberries
    strawberries
    tangerine

    Vegetables

    asparagus
    beet
    broccoli
    cabbage (green)
    carrot
    cauliflower
    celery
    Chile peppers (hot)
    cucumber
    dandelion
    endive
    garden cress
    garlic
    green beans
    lettuce
    onion
    papaya
    radishes
    spinach
    turnip

    could you tell uis where you got this list?
  • mahanaibu
    mahanaibu Posts: 505 Member
    Options
    Companys can label it as zero if it has less than 4 calories. But obviously, your not going to accumulate that many calories with these products unless your consuming it all day. XP

    This is the answer. there are a lot of little tricks that are allowed with labeling; they don't do harm as long as you don't pig out on the product.

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