Do you count spices?

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Jakiepaper
Jakiepaper Posts: 57 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I make my own taco seasoning and also use cinnamon a lot. Should I be counting those?
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Replies

  • KickboxDiva
    KickboxDiva Posts: 142 Member
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    I'd say no unless you are watching sodium.
  • fat2strongbeth
    fat2strongbeth Posts: 735 Member
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    I've started to count them. All the little calories add up.
  • JPW1990
    JPW1990 Posts: 2,424 Member
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    I count things that I know include salt or carbs - I have to monitor salt for health reasons, but that generally doesn't apply to individual dried spices. If you're mixing your own taco season and not including something like corn starch as a filler, it's probably negligible. If you are using garlic powder, onion powder, store bought blends like taco season, chili kits, or the spice blends like Emeril's, read the labels more closely.
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    I don't, but I also have a large deficit. I don't count them because I don't measure them and I don't think it would be accurate to put a steaming pan on my scale as I sprinkle spices in.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Nope. A tablespoon of cinnamon has 17 calories. Seeing as how I use a dash, 1/50th of that, on my oatmeal, I'm not going to start logging that. The moment I start eating them a tablespoon at a time, I'll start logging it.

    The exception being the recipe builder, then it's automatically added.
  • kkimpel
    kkimpel Posts: 303 Member
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    I don't.. never did..
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
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    Nope. What would be the calorie content of, mmm say, 5-10 dashes/pinches of varying spices daily? 5-10 calories? Plus one clove of garlic? Maybe 10-15 calories daily. Not worth the trouble for me. I also don't count Splenda or sugar free gum or other zero calorie sweeteners (*maybe* another 10-20 cal/day).

    So, for the most part, I'm not counting at most 25-50 calories a day. I also don't log cleaning or typing or standing as an exercise (and neither should I), so it balances out in the end.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    I do if I am creating a Recipe where I use tablespoons. There are plenty non-asterisked entries for spices; search for "spices" and also "spices - seed" to get most commonly used ones.
  • zeal26
    zeal26 Posts: 602 Member
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    I don't and have had no issues losing weight so I don't see the point.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    No
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
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    I do; I discovered a while back that some spices do have calories in them, and in the volume I use them, those extra calories add up over time.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    Yep. I count them. If I'm going to go throughout the trouble of weighing out my ingredients, I may as well weigh out and log the spices. They do have calories.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Never have...I seriously doubt the handful of calories that are in your seasonings are going to make or break you. There are bigger fish to fry. Bit over the top if you ask me.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    If it's a sprinkle I don't. If it's in a recipe I usually do, because when I make the recipe again I'll want to know how much I used.
  • emiraabbas
    emiraabbas Posts: 1 Member
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    Spices for me have one rule, the more the better. http://www.m.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/spices-and-herbs-health-benefits
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,052 Member
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    No I don't.

    I think the calorie amounts on normal usage are so minimal as to be irrelevant.

    They won't add up to more than a few per day unless you are eating very unusually high amounts.

    A certain level of accurate logging is neccesary - I think measuring spices is way beyond the level required
  • areallycoolstory
    areallycoolstory Posts: 1,680 Member
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    I haven't been counting them. It's good to see some others agree. I wish I wasn't counting condiments. I miss putting ketchup on everything.
  • jessbell32
    jessbell32 Posts: 1
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    I count them. They count just as much as anything else you eat so you might as well be aware of your actual calorie intake. I also log bites of other people's food that I take, if I'm eating it I need to know how many calories it is. Just because you don't log it doesn't mean you aren't getting the calories (Be it 5 or 55)
  • chatterbox3110
    chatterbox3110 Posts: 630 Member
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    I tend not to as I use such minimal amounts , but I do if I'm using a made up spice mix, daft as it seems - I'm 114lbs down so it hasn't affected me as yet
  • jackielou867
    jackielou867 Posts: 422 Member
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    I don't log spices or herbs, they are negligible considering I use less than a teaspoon a day. I do log sugar free mints and gum if I have more than 1 or two in a day.
    I admit though if I am using something for the first time I do check that there is not a significant calorie content.

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