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Herbs, Seasonings and Spices in Medifast – What is allowed?

I recently heard from someone who asked me, “How terrible would it be for me to add pepper to my Medifast lean and green meals?” I couldn’t clarify if he meant pepper as a spice or pepper as a vegetable. So, in the following article, I am going to address both scenarios.

Adding spices to your Medifast meals: Honestly, adding a few spices to any meal can make a world of difference to the taste of that meal and the intensity of the flavors. Medifast allows you to add spices to your meals, but as you might suspect, they ask you to do so within reason. Seasonings are considered a condiment, at least for the purposes of this diet. The guidelines state that no condiment should have more than one gram of carbohydrate per serving (this mainly refers to syrups and sauces). Pepper is carbohydrate-free, so you don’t need to worry about that. However, you are asked to limit any food that falls under the condiments category to three servings per day. The serving size given for pepper used as a spice in the guidelines is 1/2 teaspoon.

You may want to keep in mind that the serving sizes of dried spices and herbs are smaller than fresh. For example, the serving size for fresh cilantro is one whole cup. You can also have a whole cup of basil and dill. You can have a quarter cup of fresh parsley. But if the spice dries out, the serving size goes down. For example, if the dill weed is dry, you can take a teaspoon instead of a cup. You can have more dried cilantro (in a tablespoon), but it’s still substantially less than if you had the cup of fresh. Some of my favorite spices to use are garlic powder and onion powder. (Yes, these are dry, but a little goes a long way.) I sometimes add this to soups, chili, or sloppy joe in addition to lean and green food.

And if you like your food spicy (as I assume you do, since this article is all about pepper), then you should know that you can also get a bit of spice and heat with sauces. You are allowed to have two tablespoons of hot sauce, one tablespoon of horseradish and 1/2 tablespoon of wasabi.

As for the pepper which is a vegetable, you can take half a cup with the lean and green food. The serving size is somewhat limited because bell peppers contain slightly more carbohydrates than lower glycemic index vegetables.

But to answer the question posed, it doesn’t matter what kind of pepper you mean, yes, you can have both the hot pepper and the vegetable pepper in Medifast.