What is ketogenic diet?

Keto diet is a very healthy way of eating in general and a lifestyle. A lifestyle everyone did seasonally throughout history before grocery stores were invented. It is the most ancestry and DNA appropriate way you can eat. Human beings have been eating this way since the beginning of time, eating mainly meats and vegetables.

It is a high fat, high vegetable, moderate protein diet that eliminates your body’s cells from running off glucose (sugar). When there is no sugar to produce energy for your body, your energy comes from ketones, which is what makes this diet very metabolically powerful, because it makes it easy for your body to break down food and use it as fuel, while burning stored fat for energy.

The combination of high fat, high vegetable, and moderate protein supplies your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive, while shaving pounds, lowering inflammation, loosing skin from excessive weight loss, it can even reverse diabetes and a lot of neurological conditions.

There’s no such a thing as essential starches or essential sugar- that just doesn’t exist, your body doesn’t them, and the excess of them in the US diet is the cause of most health conditions. They always have a negative effect in your body if you eat them in high amounts.

Keto diet is a high healthy-fat diet, includes lots of healthy high fat foods, like butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil. The body needs fatty acids to survive, otherwise, the lack of them causes the body to feel sick, suffer, and eventually die.

Keto diet is about eating real whole real foods, lots of vegetables-mainly greens- and meat, instead of packaged products. If you can’t afford to buy organic vegetables and grass-fed meat, you can still do keto diet on a budget, but ideally buy the best quality you can find, with less pesticides and less added hormones.

What’s ketosis?

To understand Ketosis, you must first understand what metabolism is.

Metabolism is the total or sum of all chemical reactions carried out by an organism, in this case we are referring to the way the human body processes what we put in it to convert it into energy.

Metabolism the sum of all the breakdown of chemicals and reactions in the body.

Anabolism + Catabolism = Metabolism

Anabolism is the “build up” process (synthesis), taking small molecules and turning them into large molecules. For example: glucose molecule + glucose molecules form a larger glucose molecule, it typically requires energy. Another example: Converting amino acids into proteins.

Catabolism is the reverse of anabolism, because it is the “break down” process, the decomposition reaction of molecules. For example: we have sucrose, which is a large composed molecule, it would require water to break down to its components, glucose and fructose, and it releases energy. Another example: cellular respiration.

The metabolic rate measures the amount of energy used to maintain life. Also includes the breakdown of ATP, which releases the energy needed for metabolic processes in all cells throughout the body.

With that said, Ketosis is a natural metabolic process. When the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats instead. This results in a buildup of acids called ketones within the body, so in summary, you use ketones for energy, instead of using carbs.

Keto diet encourages the ketosis process in the body. By avoiding carbs, starches, and sugars, your body can use the nutrients found in vegetables, meat, and healthy fats to create energy and burn stored fat.

Get Started!

•  It is easier to eat healthy at home when you only have what you can eat, so it’s best to start by getting rid of foods like:
• Any kind of sugar, natural or raw or as an ingredient in processed food, such as juices, soft drinks, desserts, honey (refer to the high glycemic index food chart), agave nectar, organic cane sugar, and even healthy foods, like fruits.
• Grains- wheat, corn, rice, oats, they’re all starches.
• Vegetable oil- there are no vegetables in it (surprise!), it’s just a nice marketing label, such as canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, Crisco shortening, sunflower oil, margarine, “I can’t believe it’s not butter”.

Have these vegetables available and make them part of your meals, they are the main 8 keto diet veggies:

• – Asparagus
• – Cabbage
• – Broccoli
• – Kale
• – Celery
• – Cucumber
• – Brussels Sprouts
• – Olives

These vegetables have prebiotic fiber, which is good for your gut. Vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, sulfur, very little calories, and even have omega 3 fatty acids.

If you are not used to eating some of them, don’t panic, the adult human pallet can be retrained, try them again, cook them with natural spices, like basil, oregano, dill, parsley, salt/pepper, and some bacon pieces. You’ll learn to enjoy them!

3.  Examples of healthy fats:

     – Avocado

     – Coconut oil and avocado oil (ideal for high heat cooking)

     – Olive oil (not good for high heat cooking)

     – Bacon

     – Real butter or ghee

     – Nuts (other than peanuts), they are a protein source also.

Avoid the following mistakes:

• Not consuming enough healthy fats (avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts)
• Not enough salt, electrolytes, minerals (I prefer to use pink Himalayan salt or Real Salt brand, and also take a mineral supplement we sell here at our office called Humic and Fulvic)
• Continuing to snack (try to stick to your mealtimes: breakfast, lunch, dinner)
• Comparing your personal results to other people’s. Focus on yourself, because age, gender, medications, sleep, stress, and health conditions matter, and they are different from person to person.
• Counting calories or restricting portions, eat until you are not hungry anymore.
• Trusting manufacturing labels. Avoid eating processed foods, cook fresh foods at home.
• Doing it alone. Healthy eating should be for everyone at home.

Benefits you will notice:

• Appetite control.
• No junk food cravings.
• Mental clarity- mentally sharper, no fogginess, can remember things better.
• Hemoglobin A1C and blood sugar levels down, people who are insulin resistance, blood sugar levels over 140 cause permanent damage to the small blood arteries.
• Decrease in inflammation of skin, joints, and gut, improves conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, arthritis.
• Increase energy levels.
• Improved skin, glow skin, and no or less puffiness.
• Remember, it is ok to do Keto Diet in cycles of 4 -5 days on and 2-3 days off.
• Keto Diet goes really well with intermittent fasting (feeding window in 6-8 hours in a day).

Feel free to call our office, at 972-424-2225 with any questions or comments, we also offer nutritional consultation appointments.

Additional Resources:

Mercola.com (type ketogenic diet in search engine)

Thomas Delauer (youtube)

Ken Berry, MD (youtube)

Ketoquest.com