Types

• The calorie content of hard, plain pretzels is about the same for both unsalted and salted varieties. On average, a serving of 10 pretzel twists is a little over 200 calories. You can get about 6 grams of protein from a serving of hard, plain pretzels as well as 10mg of calcium. The largest difference between the unsalted and salted types of hard, plain pretzels is, obviously, the sodium. The unsalted varieties have under 200mg of sodium, while the salted kinds have more than 800mg.

Soft, Plain Pretzels

• Believe it or not, a plain soft pretzel has fewer calories than a serving of hard pretzels. Again, this can vary depending on brand, but on average a plain, soft pretzel has around 200 calories. The sodium is fairly high in salted, soft pretzels as well, weighing in at nearly 900mg of sodium per soft pretzel.

Fat-free Hard Pretzels

• Even fat-free hard pretzels contain around 100 calories per one ounce. Sodium, again, is a major player in the nutritional content of fat-free hard pretzels. In a serving of approximately 40 fat free pretzel sticks, there are around 400mg of sodium per serving. The carbohydrate count of a serving of fat free pretzels is around 25 grams, while regular hard, plain pretzels have around 47 grams of carbohydrates.

Soft Pretzel with Cheese Sauce

• A popular condiment for soft pretzels is cheese sauce. The addition of cheese sauce to a soft pretzel dramatically increasing the caloric content of a snack pretzel. A soft pretzel dipped in cheese sauce is approximately 500 calories. Although there are 16 grams of protein in a serving, there is also nearly 850mg of sodium as well as 84 grams of carbohydrates.

Overall Nutritional Value

• Pretzels contain no vitamins or minerals and are essentially empty calories because they do not offer your body any nutritional value. Although pretzels are a relatively healthy snack item in comparison to other snack item choices, they still remain virtually nutritionally useless.