The honest numbers
"Zero-calorie" seasoning mostly isn't. Here's what is close.
If you count what you eat, you've learned to distrust the front of the jar. Fair. So here are the real numbers on the four ways to season a lean plate - including ours, which is about 0.2 kcal and not zero, because you deserve the honest figure.
Where seasoning calories actually hide
Salt is zero. Dried spice is a few calories per gram - a rounding error at plate doses. The numbers that matter come from everything seasoning usually rides in on: oil in the marinade, sugar in the blend, thickener in the bottle. Strip those out and the flavour goes with them, which is exactly why lean plates taste flat.
The fix isn't finding a magic zero - it's moving the flavour work to carriers that are nearly free. Acid, pungency and dry spice do taste without doing energy. The comparison below is those options, honestly.
Four options, honest numbers
Dried herbs
Oregano, thyme, rosemary from the rack.
Genuinely near-zero at the doses you'd use, and cheap. The limit is range: herbs cover the aromatic register but leave sour, pungent and deep-savoury untouched - which is why a herbed plate can still taste flat.
Spice blends
Cajun, peri-peri, all-purpose shakers.
Read the label before trusting the front of the jar: many supermarket blends run on sugar, starch or flavour powders as the first ingredients. The spice-forward ones are great; you just have to check which kind you bought.
Zero-calorie sauces
Sprays, syrups and "zero" bottles.
Legally "zero" usually means under a threshold per serving, delivered by sweeteners and thickeners. Fine as a tool - but the sweet register dominates, and a week of it makes everything taste like the same bottle.
One sachet
Or Pranasalt: salt plus six spices, about 0.2 kcal per gram.
Not zero - we'd rather be honest than round down. One gram: 95% Himalayan pink salt, 5% spices, covering sour, pungent, bitter and deep-savoury in one move. No sugar, no fillers, nothing artificial.
One number is not enough - you need rotation
Even a perfect low-calorie seasoning goes stale if it's the only one you use - repetition dulls anything. The move that lasts is a rotation of near-free finishes: citrus one day, chilli the next, a sachet after that. The free flavour rotation planner lays it out for your week.
For the bigger picture: how to make cutting food taste good is the full method, high-protein meals covers the protein problem, and food boredom explains why week three is where plates start losing you.
What seasoning has no calories?
Strictly, almost nothing edible is zero - but dry seasonings get close enough not to matter. Salt is genuinely zero; dried herbs and spices carry a fraction of a calorie at plate doses. A one-gram Pranasalt sachet is about 0.2 kcal - we say "about 0.2" rather than "zero" because the honest number is the one worth trusting.
Do spices have calories?
Yes, technically - spices are plant matter, so they carry a few calories per gram. At seasoning doses (a gram or less per plate) the total is a rounding error: a Pranasalt sachet's 5% spice content contributes most of its ~0.2 kcal. It's the sauces, oils and sugary blends that move real numbers, not the spice rack.
Are 'zero-calorie' sauces really zero?
Usually they're 'under the labelling threshold per serving' rather than literally zero, and the serving printed on the bottle is often smaller than what people pour. They do their job - but if you use them at every meal, check whether the label's serving matches your reality, and expect the sweet register to wear out its welcome.
What's the best way to add flavour when you're counting?
Work the finish, not the pan: acid, pungency and dry spice on the finished plate carry taste with almost no energy. Rotate them so no single flavour goes stale - the flavour rotation planner on this site builds that week for you, free.
Will a low-calorie seasoning change my results?
No. Seasoning at these doses doesn't meaningfully change what a plate adds up to, and Pranasalt makes no claims about weight or body composition - be suspicious of any seasoning that does. What it changes is whether the plate tastes like something, which is the difference between a routine you keep and one you dread.
What does Pranasalt cost per plate?
One sachet seasons one cooked dish. The one-time 150-sachet box works out at about €0.57 (roughly 49p) a meal; the monthly subscription at about €0.46 (roughly 39p).
Turn bland into extraordinary
Try a month