Calories and spices

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Replies

  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    edited November 2019
    Spicy Garlic Flounder (for 4 servings) - 106 total (of 444 for the recipe), 26 (of 111) per serving:
    Cilantro - 13 cal
    Garlic - 53 cal
    Lemongrass - 40 cal

    This doesn’t include the chili paste, soy sauce, or mirin.

    Again-not a huge amount but 100-200 is really not a crazy amount.

    I don’t think everyone needs to go logging every dash of salt and pepper. But I will add them to my recipes because they do add up. And because now I can make this fish again without having to find the recipe.

    I consider some of the things you refer to as condiments, not spices. Chili paste, soy sauce. Garlic is a vegetable.
    Spices are extremely low in calories.

    OP asked about spices, not condiments. Condiments can have additional ingredients (sugars for one). I make my own spice mixes. I never get prepackaged ones.

    I do log condiments I use, they do add up.

    I didn’t include the condiments in my total - those were listed as additional ingredients in the recipe but not the spice part. I log everything in my recipes.

    I would consider garlic a spice rather than vegetable but I guess that’s up to you. They are all seeds/fruits/plants/leaves/etc. before they are dried and ground.

    Again-you do you.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,224 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Honestly-all of my responses were because the 100-200 calories per recipe was considered absurd. So I was giving examples of recipes where that happens. And brought up seasoning mix because they are also in that range.

    A tsp of a dried seasoning is not high in calories. A recipe using maybe 1-2 TB of some spices (or dried, ground vegetables) and lesser amounts of many others will have a less negligible (for me) amount.

    What everyone else chooses to log/do/eat/cook is up to them.

    OP asked if they have calories. Simple answer-yes. In small amounts they are negligible. In larger amounts-that’s your call.

    Nobody said absurd. I was thinking more on the lines of how I cook in most cases which is dinner for two (wife and I). If I make a big stew or something then yeah...it might be more in the neighborhood of 100-200 calories total in an entire recipe. So maybe it's 200 and serves 6...that's only like 33 calories in a serving.

    I guess maybe also calorie targets come into play...I eat 3000 calories per day...I'm not going to bat an eye at 33 calories.

    And I think that’s a lot of it. I cook in bulk-rarely less than 6-8 servings at a time (hence the higher totals).

    And I eat about half that (1600) if I’m at a normal/non-injured level of activity. I also cook nearly everything that I eat. So 20 calories per serving per item that I eat does add up to a non-negligible (to me) level.

    I really only started adding them to my recipes because it made it so much easier to re-cook the things that I make often (because I would already be in the recipe to swap out a brand or amount of something). Then I saw how much they added and decided they were no longer negligible (again-for me).




  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,846 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Honestly-all of my responses were because the 100-200 calories per recipe was considered absurd. So I was giving examples of recipes where that happens. And brought up seasoning mix because they are also in that range.

    A tsp of a dried seasoning is not high in calories. A recipe using maybe 1-2 TB of some spices (or dried, ground vegetables) and lesser amounts of many others will have a less negligible (for me) amount.

    What everyone else chooses to log/do/eat/cook is up to them.

    OP asked if they have calories. Simple answer-yes. In small amounts they are negligible. In larger amounts-that’s your call.

    Nobody said absurd. I was thinking more on the lines of how I cook in most cases which is dinner for two (wife and I). If I make a big stew or something then yeah...it might be more in the neighborhood of 100-200 calories total in an entire recipe. So maybe it's 200 and serves 6...that's only like 33 calories in a serving.

    I guess maybe also calorie targets come into play...I eat 3000 calories per day...I'm not going to bat an eye at 33 calories.

    And I think that’s a lot of it. I cook in bulk-rarely less than 6-8 servings at a time (hence the higher totals).

    And I eat about half that (1600) if I’m at a normal/non-injured level of activity. I also cook nearly everything that I eat. So 20 calories per serving per item that I eat does add up to a non-negligible (to me) level.

    I really only started adding them to my recipes because it made it so much easier to re-cook the things that I make often (because I would already be in the recipe to swap out a brand or amount of something). Then I saw how much they added and decided they were no longer negligible (again-for me).

    Yes, because I rarely follow recipes exactly, I find it useful to log the spices so next time I can see what I did.

    The old recipe builder starts to flake out and lose everything about the time I get to the spices so I now use @CyberTone's method: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10471173/how-to-use-my-foods-and-my-meals-in-a-recipe-a-workaround
  • lalabank
    lalabank Posts: 1,009 Member
    If you track your macros, specifically carbs you should be paying attention to your spices. I tend to be aware even if I don’t actually track them.
  • LyndaBSS
    LyndaBSS Posts: 6,970 Member
    edited November 2019
    I use a lot of spices and herbs and don’t add them to my food diary. Just a personal choice I made at the beginning in order to keep my sanity.

    I typically leave myself extra calories every day to cover things like this.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    You learn to watch some - blends like curry powder and chili powder can add 100 cals quite easily.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Never bothered with that kind of minutia...the calories in spices are negligent. Like what...maybe 5-10 calories per day or something? I can guarantee you that your logging in general is off way more than that due to inherent inaccuracies in logging, labels, etc. A few calories isn't going to make or break anything.

    This is my take as well.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    edited November 2019
    For the disagree-er...
    0b4lua3ctitn.png
    szgwbbmhumvf.png

    Cumin 22cals tbsp
    Turmeric 29 cals tbsp
    etc.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    For the disagree-er...
    0b4lua3ctitn.png
    szgwbbmhumvf.png

    Cumin 22cals tbsp
    Turmeric 29 cals tbsp
    etc.

    I'm not the disagreer, but I'm not putting 3 Tbsp of turmeric in a pot of food with multiple servings, much less in a single serving of food, so no, it's no adding 100 cals quite easily. I might put 5 Tbsp of cumin in a large pot of chili, and thus add 100 cals to the whole pot, but then I would be including it in the recipe. I use a lot of spices when cooking, but seldom in the amounts that it would take to add significant calories to a single serving.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Well I wouldn't use ONLY turmeric either. I might however use turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala, mustard seeds and other like things in a single dish. If someone is accustomed to not tracking the things that have calories, there are likely going to be other things they are overlooking too. I don't know about you, but 200 cals a day is the difference for me.
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
    I don't add calories from most spices to my recipes. Including hot sauces, mustard, etc. If the container says "0 Calories", I don't bother adding it. I do add calories for Garlic (each clove is an average of 5 calories, and if you use 3-4 that adds up).

    Now, some spices do have calories. If I'm making tacos for example, you use a ton of spice and when you are using that much there will be calories. I'll add them.

    For me it depends on if that 10 - 50 calories will make a difference in my day.

    Other things I don't count: Gum & Pickles.
  • xxzenabxx
    xxzenabxx Posts: 935 Member
    I don’t bother logging my garlic and onion granules, cinnamon, turmeric, paprika etc. Life’s too short to log spices! I already find tracking calories so hard because I live with my family so I don’t need another headache.
  • ploomka
    ploomka Posts: 308 Member
    I personally do not add spices to my diary because I figure the calorie count of spices is generally within the margin of error window for imprecise measuring (I don't use a food scale) and ingredient label errors, especially since MFP seems to round down on macros (at least it looks that way). Since I have a tendency toward being obsessive, I try to relax on my logging, going more for overall trends rather than the nitty gritty.

    All that said, if I hit a time where the data I am tracking and my progress don't seem to gel, I may get more precise with my logging to spot trouble areas. I can see how this would be helpful to someone trying to pinpoint an issue they are experiencing. More data FTW!