Keto Diet: The Ins and Outs

Last week was all about, “What is Ketosis?”

To recap, ketosis is when your body is mostly using fat as fuel, rather than carbs. Checking in again with Dr. Axe, he lists 5 things to know about Ketosis:

1. Consumption of glucose from carbohydrate foods — grains, starchy vegetables, fruit, etc. — is cut way down.
2. This forces your body to find an alternative fuel source: fat (think avocados, coconut oil, salmon).
3. Meanwhile, in the absence of glucose, the body also starts to burn fat and produces ketones instead.
4. Once ketone levels in the blood rise to a certain point, you enter into a state of ketosis.
5. This state results in quick and consistent weight loss until you reach a healthy, stable body weight.

Beautifully said.

I want to dive a little deeper in to what an actual Keto diet might look like.

Following a Keto diet usually looks like 60–80 percent of your daily calories from sources of fat. Between 15–25 percent of calories should be from protein sources, and only about 5–10 percent from carbohydrates, Dr. Axe.

Fats: You are consuming a lot of healthy fats. These will include saturated fats and monounsaturated fats, mostly, with some polyunsaturated fats too. Examples of these would be MCT oil, cold-pressed coconut, palm fruit, olive oil, flaxseed, macadamia and avocado oil, lard, ghee, duck fat. 

Protein: The Keto diet focuses on meat and fish for protein sources. Think, grass-fed beef, free range chicken, eggs, salmon, tuna, sardines, veal, venison, turkey, and organ meats.

Non-Starchy Veggies: These will mostly be green or cruciferous veggies. Kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, celery cucumbers, arugala, romine, leeks, and herbs. These other veggies are a little higher in carbs, about 3-7 gram per 1 cup raw. These include, asparagus, mushrooms, bean sprouts, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, radishes, and tomatoes.

Medium-Starchy Vegetables: These veggies will include: sweet peas, artichokes, okra, carrots, beets and parsnips.

Fruit: For your fatty fruit, that will include avocados. You can also have berries and olives.

Miscellaneous: For snacks you can enjoy nuts and seeds. Diary is also Keto, so you can have cheese. Legumes and beans too.

Drinks: Very little carbs, lets do water with lemon or lime, bone broth, unsweetened coconut or almond milk and black coffee. Dr. Axe suggests if you drink any kind of juice, to make it yourself and add little fruit to maintain a low sugar content.

The options are way more than I thought before learning more, but I think the tricky part is portions of each group, the % of where you get your calories.

This diet isn’t for every  one. Nor should every one even try it. But, I do think a lot of people have seen wonderful benefits from it. Have you ever tried the Keto diet? I’d love to hear your take on it.