I thought I had found the perfect no-carb, no-cal drink: diet tonic water with a couple drops of orange extract. It tastes really good, can take the place of having, say, vodka & club soda (which I also drink on occasion) and it's easy.

I just found out that 1 tsp - yes, TEASPOON of vanilla extract has .5 carbs and 12 calories. Ok, no biggie on the calories, but I think there's even more alcohol in the vanilla than in orange or coconut (which I use sometimes with Atkins choc syrup and club soda for a REALLY great drink!). Wouldn't that mean that both coconut & orange extracts have a lot of carbs & calories, especially if, for example, I finished a bottle (1 or 1.5 oz, I forget) in 2 days?

I can't find ANY nutritional info anywhere online for coconut or vanilla extract.

Any help appreciated.

You have to remember one thing.

Alcohol is treated differently by the body than normal carbs. As in all fat burning halts until the alcohol is used up.

Just because they are flavorings doesn't exempt them from effecting the body the way wine or other alcoholic beverage does.

Thanks for the response Agonycat, but I don't think I made myself clear.

I understand that there are carbs as well as alcohol calories.

I'm not concerned about 20 calories a day (it's certainly less than having a couple shots of vodka!). That is not going to take me too long to burn before my body goes back to burning fat. What I am concerned about, however, is whether there are more carbs in these other "flavorings" than vanilla.

I would think the carbs would be about the same. The extracts are made from soaking the vanilla beans or the orange or lemon zest in vodka. That is where the alcohol comes in. But by using only a tsp at a time, I doubt that you would notice it.

You could try either DaVinci or Atkins syrups instead. They are very good and have neither alcohol or carbs.

Carol

Thanks Carol. That makes sense!

Anotther good flavouring is oils. Boyajian makes some fantastically flavoured oils and really good extracts as well. They are so potent that all you would need is a drop. Most "gourmet" stores carry them and I've heard that they're available at Winners too.

Karen