I am sill confused about the fiber content and ecc. I don;t think that I am getting enough veggies then if I haven't taken into account the deduction for the fiber. I am on ppp and am allowed 10g carb per meal. Could someone please explain to me about the fiber and the ecc. Thank you

Hi Toni

I am on PPP too and I really enjoy it. You can eat quite a lot of low-starch vegetables when you only count the ecc. This stands for Effective Carbohydrate Count. The idea is that fibre is indigestible and will not affect your insulin output, so therefore you don't have to count it as carbs.

For example, one cup of frozen cauliflower has 6.2 g. of carbohydrates, but 3 of those grams are fibre. Therefore, your cup of cauliflower only cost you 3.2 grams of Effective Carbohydrates and you and still have 6.8 more grams in that meal. Add a few cups of romaine lettuce, and since the 3 grams of carbohydrates are almost all fibre, you still have almost your whole remaining carb allowance to use, so you can afford some ranch dressing, chopped eggs, real bacon bits, and a couple of roasted pecans on top.

This is a very healthy way to do low-carb because fibre is really important to your digestive system. When you see what a bargain the high-fibre vegetables are, you want to eat lots of them.

Thank you Kay for explaining that to me. I can see that I was not eating enough veggies now. I guess I am going to have to do some recalculations. Good to know that I can eat more veggies now. Thanks again for making that clear. Toni

You're welcome and good luck! You're smart to get at those extra pounds while the numbers are low.