How many calories are in a cheese straw?

A 30 g serving of cheese straws — nine of them, straight off the label — carries 160 calories. Per 100 g the same baked cheddar dough runs 533 calories, which puts these thin twists near the top of the snack aisle for energy density. One single straw, at about 3.3 g, is only 18.

You'd need to walk about 32 minutes to burn the 160 calories in a 9-straw serving (30 g).

On this page

• Cheese straw quick facts
• US servings, from one straw to a 4 oz bag
• Cheddar, parmesan, gouda and jalapeno straws
• Saturated fat runs out before the calories do
• How do cheese straws compare?
• Most popular cheese straws brands
• FAQ

Cheese straw quick facts

There is no Foundation, SR Legacy or FNDDS entry for a cheese straw. The food most people are actually holding is a bag from the snack shelf or the bakery counter, so the numbers here come from a packaged label: FDC 1917232, "Cheese Straws, Classic Cheddar", a Fresh Market product with a full nutrient panel and a real household serving of nine straws.

That matters for one reason. Homemade straws — the ones piped from cheddar, butter and flour at Thanksgiving — are not standardized, and a batch rolled thicker will land heavier per piece than anything on this page. The per-100 g column is the safer number to lean on when you baked them yourself.

% Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Two rows are missing on purpose. Added sugars are not declared on this label, and with total sugars at 0 g they would be zero regardless. Potassium is not declared either, so there is nothing honest to print. Cholesterol is on the panel: 83 mg per 100 g, or 25 mg in the nine-straw serving, 8% of the Daily Value.

The shape of this food is unusual for a snack. There is no fiber and no sugar anywhere in it — every calorie comes from 36.67 g of fat, 40 g of flour carbohydrate and 20 g of protein per 100 g, the protein riding along from the cheese. Nothing on the panel is soft.

US servings, from one straw to a 4 oz bag

Only the 30 g row is a USDA household measure. The single straw, the five-straw handful, the ounce and the bag are our own arithmetic from the USDA 100 g figure of 533, not USDA servings.

The ounce is where people slip. An ounce of cheese straws is 28 g and 149 calories, which sounds close to the 30 g label serving — and it is, within 11 calories. The gap that hurts is the bag. A small 4 oz bag is 602 calories, roughly four label servings, and cheese straws are brittle, salty and small enough that finishing one in an evening takes no effort at all. Counting straws beats counting handfuls.

Cheddar, parmesan, gouda and jalapeno straws

The cheese in the name moves the number more than the flavoring does. More cheese and less flour pushes fat and protein up; a harder, drier cheese like parmesan cuts the total.

The two parmesan-based versions, at 464 and 467 calories per 100 g, are the lightest of the five, and the gap to cheddar or gouda is around 100 calories per 100 g — about a fifth. Jalapeno changes the heat, not the math: at 567 per 100 g it sits exactly where plain gouda does.

Brands spread wider than flavors do. Marilyn's Cheese Straws are the outlier at 393 calories per 100 g, 110 for their 1 oz serving, while HT Traders at 571 and Lowes Foods at 567 sit near the top. Straw count per serving shifts too — thinner straws mean ten in 30 g instead of nine, so a "serving" is not a fixed number of pieces across the shelf.

Saturated fat runs out before the calories do

The nine-straw serving is 160 calories, 8% of a 2,000-calorie day. Its saturated fat is 4.5 g, or 23% of the FDA Daily Value of 20 g. That is close to triple the pace. Two servings while cooking dinner — an easy 320 calories — takes you to 9 g and 45% of the day's saturated fat before the meal itself starts.

That gap comes straight from the recipe. Butter and cheese are the whole point of a cheese straw, and the Dietary Guidelines put the ceiling at less than 10% of calories from saturated fat. If you are watching that line, parmesan straws at 130 calories an ounce are the better pick, and portioning into a small bowl beats eating from the bag.

Sodium behaves more calmly than you would expect from something this savory: 150 mg per serving, 7% of the Daily Value, and 565 mg in a whole 4 oz bag — that bag figure is our own arithmetic from the 500 mg per 100 g on the label. Protein is the one row working in your favor, at 6 g per serving and 12% of the Daily Value.

How do cheese straws compare?

Our take: ounce for ounce, cheese straws are the heaviest of the four, about 9% above regular cheese crackers and 30% above the whole grain ones. But the swap is not one-sided. Cheese crackers carry 973 mg of sodium per 100 g against 500 mg in the straws, nearly double, and only 10.93 g of protein against 20 g. If calories are the constraint, whole grain crackers win on every serving size; if sodium is what you are managing, the straws are the calmer choice and you pay about 12 calories an ounce for it.

Most popular cheese straws brands in the United States

Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United States, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each Nutrition Facts label, checked against USDA FoodData Central.

Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels / USDA FoodData Central.

Cheese straw FAQs

Similar foods

• Yum yum sauce — 170 cal for 2 tbsp
• Oat flour — 105 cal for 1/4 cup
• Cheese — 113 cal per slice
• Thousand Island Dressing — 216 cal per dipping-size container
• Gouda cheese — 75 cal per slice
• Butter — 102 cal per tbsp

Count it without the math

Point the camera at the bowl and BodyPal counts the straws for you, cheddar or parmesan.