How many calories in fennel?

Answer 1

Fennel has two parts that people use. The first is the seeds, which are used as a spice. Generally, there isn't enough of any spice in a meal to contain a significant amount of calories. If you've taken to eating fennel seeds by the handful, I don't know what to tell you. The other edible part is the bulb, which is the base of the leaf stalks. I would imagine that it's similar to other leaf stalk bases, such as celery and rhubarb, and has very few calories, about 27 calories per cup.

Fennel frequently shows up on lists of so-called "calorie negative foods" which are foods that contain calories, as all foods do, but your body uses at least as much energy digesting than it gets out of them. Note that this doesn't include anything else, just the fennel, so if you (for example) saute it, you are also including the sauteing oil.