Perplexing produce: Cucumbers vs Pickles - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

kittie · 08-10-2005, 02:54 PM

Why do cucumbers have calories and pickles do not? This has never made sense to me. Aren't pickles made from cucumbers? And if the pickles are what things get added too, wouldn't they be the higher calorie one? I'm so confused

Meg · 08-10-2005, 03:02 PM

Who says pickles don't have calories?

They actually do, you know!

kittie · 08-10-2005, 03:10 PM

The jars always say 0 calories
I knew it was too good to be true

funniegrrl · 08-10-2005, 03:23 PM

What type of pickle are you looking at?

The rules for food labeling in the US say that if a serving size of a food contains less than 5 calories, it may be labeled as "0 calories." So, if you are looking at a jar of dill pickle slices, and the label says a serving size is 3 slices, and those 3 slices have 4 calories ... then the label will say 0 calories.

If you go to www.calorieking.com, you can see the actual calorie content for many common brands of pickles. For example, take a look at http://www.calorieking.com/foods/foo...on=37&partner= . It doesn't say how may pickles make up a serving, but 1 serving of this pickle has 4 calories. The label for this probably says 0 calories.

Meg · 08-10-2005, 03:28 PM

They're probably rounding the calories down, which they're allowed to do.

I think a food manufacturer can list a food as '0' calories so long as it's five calories or less per serving. That's why Splenda packets are listed as 0 calories, though a cup of Splenda is actually 93 calories.

Fitday lists dill pickles at 26 calories per cup, (so they're hardly anything) but sweet pickles are almost 200 calories per cup. So the calories depend on the type of pickle you're eating.

Back to your original question, a cup of cucumbers is listed in Fitday as 15 calories so you're right -- cucumbers are actually slightly lower in calories than pickles.

To my knowledge, there isn't ANY food with 0 calories -- everything has some calories, regardless of how negligible. Certainly dill pickles and cucumbers have to be among the absolute lowest calorie foods, so I say enjoy them!!!

kittie · 08-10-2005, 03:28 PM

OH okay, yea I thought it'd be something like that. Thanks very much!

Meg · 08-10-2005, 03:28 PM

Hi there Funniegrrl! Good advice, as always!

JuliaTN · 08-10-2005, 04:28 PM

Pickles are my saving grace. I hate cukes but luurrrve pickles. I eat Mt Olive baby dills and usually keep a jar and a spare just in case I run out.

Be careful if you have sodium/blood pressure issues. One of my baby dills has something like 19% of the RDA for sodium.