Vanilla Extract Nutrition

Vanilla extract is a popular flavoring that can enhance your favorite dessert or sweet treat, be it chocolate chip cookies, rice pudding or coffee cake. But does vanilla extract impart any nutritional value to food? Only a scant amount, given the quantity (1 tsp.) that is typically required in the average dessert recipe.

Calories

One teaspoon of vanilla extract contains roughly 11.5 calories. Two of these come from carbohydrates, and 9.5 come from vanilla extract's alcohol content.

Vitamins and Nutrients

One teaspoon of vanilla contains no vitamins, however, it does have trace amounts of these nutrients: calcium (0.4 mg), magnesium (0.5 mg), phosphorus (0.2 mg), potassium (5.9 mg) and sodium (0.4 mg). Extremely small amounts of vitamins can be found in larger quantities of vanilla, such as riboflavin, niacin and vitamin B6--however, you'd have to drink a cup of it.

Other Ingredients

There is 1.4 g of alcohol and 2.1 g of water in a teaspoon of vanilla, neither of which contributes to its nutritional value. The standard in most vanilla extracts is that it contains 35 percent alcohol, although higher-quality vanilla extracts may have a higher alcohol percentage. While vanilla extract is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, most of its calories come from its sugar content and alcohol.

The Bigger Picture

Vanilla extract is a modest calorie booster compared with the luscious desserts its flavor enhances. Your average chocolate chip cookie--which typically contains vanilla extract--has 78 calories, 33.5 of which come from carbohydrates, 40.9 from fat and 3.6 from protein. Additionally, the cookie has more vitamins to offer, including vitamin A, folate and niacin, as well as numerous nutrients (including 5 percent of the daily recommended amount of manganese).

Overall Nutritional Value

Vanilla extract has little nutritional value to offer and a nominal number of calories. When you consider the purpose of vanilla extract in the grand scheme of flavor-enhancing, the 78-calorie chocolate chip cookie gets just 11.5 calories from the vanilla. That should pose no worries.

History

Vanilla extract has been around for more than a century. It had its origins in apothecaries, where it was sold in the form of a sweet syrup as an aid to quell upset stomachs. While there are more than 150 types of vanilla, only bourbon and Tahitian vanillas are used commercially. "Cookie vanilla" is the name given to a blend of bourbon and Tahitian vanillas that is commonly used in baking.

References

• Vanilla Extract: Nutritional Value
• Chocolate Chip Cookie

Resources

• Vanilla FAQ