Seasonings e.g garlic, chilli and herbs

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FionaAndGeorge
FionaAndGeorge Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone,

Do you try and log seasonings? So for example if you use a sprinkling of herbs or some chilli flakes. Would you log the calories? I'm sometimes 100 cals plus on meals because of herbs and garlic etc. So not much room left for actual food! But I can't stand bland food.

What do you all do?

Thanks

Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    100 calories of seasonings? Something sounds off in your calculations.
  • FionaAndGeorge
    FionaAndGeorge Posts: 5 Member
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    Well for example Ginger, is like 15 calories a teaspoon, and sometimes I add two to things. If I'm making a stir fry, it's easy to add lots of calories! But I just feel like I'm not really eating anything substantial for those calories it's just flavour.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited September 2016
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    Yep. A little less than 2 calories for a teaspoon of fresh ginger and about 5 for ground. You may be using inaccurate entries. The only things I add are garlic and onion powder, nutmeg and things that have "seeds" in their name like poppy and mustard seeds. In this case I just use quick add with 10 calories per teaspoon. Herbs are negligible.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,117 Member
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    Same with garlic...there is about 3-4 calories per clove. If you're making a recipe with ginger or garlic, you yourself are only eating a small amount of that. I love ginger and garlic and spicy food - but I don't sweat the calories from garlic or spices.
  • jondspen
    jondspen Posts: 253 Member
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    I agree with Chef....seasoning typically doesn't add that much calories content. I think olive oil is one of the biggest @ 40 calories for 1 tsp.

    To answer your question...no...I don't track them. What is an extra 10-50 calories a day when you are looking at a daily of 1500-2500. I mean, an extra 50 calories a day, it would take 70 days (over 2 months), to put on one pound. I'm usually fighting putting on 10+ lbs in that time if I don't monitor food/exercise.

    I typically stay with pepper, chili powder, garlic, and vinegars (rice wine and balsamic). I stay away from salt b/c everything has sodium already, unless fresh.

    Below are a couple of links with seasoning calorie content for you.

    https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/ginger-(ground)?portionid=29597&portionamount=0.500

    https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/food/seasoning
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    I don't count garlic or ginger or green onion. When onion is part of the main attraction (like fajitas or chicken and peppers), then I weigh and log it. If I ate a garlic clove pizza, I would log the garlic then. Almost everything I cook starts with a teaspoon of garlic so I just consider it a cost of doing business.
  • Purplebunnysarah
    Purplebunnysarah Posts: 3,252 Member
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    I only log seasoning blends because some of them have fillers. Otherwise I don't bother
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
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    The only things I don't log are black coffee, spices, herbs, and aromatics (unless I go really crazy with them). I've been losing just fine without making myself nuts with that stuff.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    FionaAndGeorge wrote: »
    Hi everyone,

    Do you try and log seasonings? So for example if you use a sprinkling of herbs or some chilli flakes. Would you log the calories? I'm sometimes 100 cals plus on meals because of herbs and garlic etc. So not much room left for actual food! But I can't stand bland food.

    What do you all do?

    Thanks

    100 calories of herbs and garlic in one serving of a dish seems pretty off. Not all entries in the database are correct.
    I include seasonings in the recipe builder when I enter a recipe.
  • briana_aka_bunny
    briana_aka_bunny Posts: 21 Member
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    If u are tracking nutrition then yes count it. Scan the package rather then typing or type the plu code. If ur doing it for cals then u shouldn't be using that much in caps
  • Karb_Kween
    Karb_Kween Posts: 2,681 Member
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    I add seasoning sometimes. Like I was surprised for example that pepper apparently has two calories per however many.... I don't take it as much usually
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
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    i use an insane amount and variety of fresh and dried herbs and spices. i have never logged them its never been an issue.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
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    I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

    2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    xvolution wrote: »
    I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

    2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.

    True, but I learned my lesson the hard say when I used to sprinkle a tablespoon of poppy seeds in my yogurt and not count it, assuming it would be 5 calories, and apparently I've been not counting almost 50 calories. Don't want to think about the poppy seed phase I went through where I sprinkled it on almost everything. Ever since then, anything that is called "[something] seeds" gets counted.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    xvolution wrote: »
    I only add seasonings on two occasions. If it's part of a recipe [and thus is added to the custom recipe I make for it] or if it has a significant amount of tracked macros [carbs/fat/protein/sodium/potassium mainly]. Otherwise I don't bother.

    2-3 unlogged calories isn't going to cause a huge differential in the food log.

    True, but I learned my lesson the hard say when I used to sprinkle a tablespoon of poppy seeds in my yogurt and not count it, assuming it would be 5 calories, and apparently I've been not counting almost 50 calories. Don't want to think about the poppy seed phase I went through where I sprinkled it on almost everything. Ever since then, anything that is called "[something] seeds" gets counted.

    That would fall under "significant amount of calories", since a tablespoon of poppy seeds is 46 calories [I'm assuming the packaging counted half a teaspoon as a serving]. Usually, if the total amount used doesn't provide significant calories/macros, then I don't count it.
  • quiltlovinlisa
    quiltlovinlisa Posts: 1,710 Member
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    I count seeds, fresh herbs, anything measured in significant amounts. A sprinkling of dried herbs, I don't bother.
  • Chilli7777
    Chilli7777 Posts: 112 Member
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    I track everything even if it comes up as 0 calories. As other posters have suggested i think your calculations are a bit high
  • caseylizbeth
    caseylizbeth Posts: 112 Member
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    Don't bother tracking spices or herbs. For the most part, the calories are negligible (less than 5 calories per tablespoon) and you'll spend so much time trying to track them you wont enjoy your meal.

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