After seeing posts about adding extracts to our smoothies...I went out and purchased all kinds of flavors. I never seen a nutritional list on the box/bottle. I didn't think they had calories. I found out most of them do have calories, and carbs. I was adding extracts to everything...oh my. I'm done with that!!! LOL

Here's the Vanilla Extract:
1 tbsp
37 calories
2g carbs
2g sugar

Well, that's a bummer! You may not want extra sweetness, but there are liquid Stevia drops that have flavor extracts. Sweetleaf is the best brand I've found and I get them at my local health market, like Whole Foods, Sprouts or Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocer. They make all kinds - root beer, english toffee, lemon drop and chocolate are a few of my favorites. These may not be 100% MRC approved, but I used them back in my HCG days and found them to be a good option since I don't tolerate many artificial sweeteners very well.

I'm not on MRC but happened to see this post. Wow, I never would have thought about it!

But i searched a bit more and like meazie said, you can find natural/organic extracts with no added sugar or corn syrup. So much for my big bottle of Vanilla Extract from Costco (I'll double check the ingredients when I get home, but that is apparently one of the known culprits) but I'll be hitting my local spice store to stock up on some non-sugar added extracts!!

You know, I've always wondered why no nutritional information was shown on extract products. Thanks for posting this, but I'm not going to stop using them in small amounts (1/2 tsp or less). One tablespoon = three teaspoons so adding 1/4 tsp of vanilla to a smoothie (a common amount in the cookbook) would therefore only have 1/6th of all the nutrients you listed: 6 calories, and the sugar and carbs wouldn't even be measurable. Spices like cinnamon and nutmeg also have calories and carbs once you begin measuring by the tablespoonful. In fact the nutmeg is nearly identical to the vanilla extract; the only difference is 1 additional gram of carbs.

That being said, I do think extracts are really strong and hard to get right, so I have been looking into trying the sugar-free syrups instead. They are expensive, but you can order the Torani brand on-line at Cost Plus World Market in the smaller 5 oz bottle size for just $2.99. Don't know what shipping will be, or if you can pick them up in store in that size.

Keylani, have you noticed your weight loss slowing since you began adding the extracts?

Thank you for all the great ideas!! I'm just going to do without since artifical sweetners give me headaches. Oh well, it tasted good while I ate it LOL


Yes..totally slowed my weight loss...even gained a pound...BUT I was adding it to almost everything. LOL it just tasted soooo good! I even put it in my diet rite LOL. I can't blame all of the one pound on the extract because I did a lot of exercise and rode my bike on the bike trail for 10 miles. Every time I over do it on exercise I retain some water for a couple days..have a gain (a pound or under) then have a big loss on the second weigh in LOL.

Keylani, I'm sorry to hear about your stall. I experienced the same thing with exercise (don't know about retaining water, but definitely slow loss when I'm exercising a lot, and a big loss the week after I take it down to just mild cardio). I hope you've recovered by now and had that anticipated big loss at your second weigh-in?