Keto Food
Eating according to a low carb diet like the keto diet can sometimes be hard. You need to know what is good keto food and what is not good keto food. The simple answer is that you need to minimize the amount of food you eat that contains carbs. You should at the same time increase your intake of fat in your food. The reason for increasing the amount of fat in your food is that the energy from the carbohydrates you take away should be replaced with energy from natural saturated fat. Your protein intake should be more or less like normally. This would make that your body mainly uses energy from fat and protein instead of carbs.
An easy way to start eating more healthy keto food is by reducing all the types of food that actually are bad for you and your keto diet. Start by avoiding all types of bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. You should also not eat cereals and grains. Add more vegetables into your meals, especially those vegetables that grow above the ground. In order to succeed with your low carb diet it is important not be hungry.
The reason that people fail with many other diets is that they walk around hungry all day. When you are hungry it is hard to avoid eating something that actually is bad for you. In order to avoid being hungry you need to make sure you add additional fat, such as a fatty sauce or accessory with high fat content. Eating low carb keto food will in addition also greatly increse your health.
Keto food alternatives
Start by choosing only full fat products. You should never choose any diet products or products that are sweetened. Always read the ingredients on all the food you buy. Make sure you choose products with as low amount of carbs as you can. Also select products with as little additives as possible, they are not good for you in general.
Eating seafood is a good source of protein when looking for good keto food. Seafood does however not contain so much fat so you have to make sure to add additional fat. A good way to do this is to add a good oily sauce or mayonnaise so that the fat you get from your meal is sufficient. Another benifit with seafood is that it contains many vitamins and minerals, including selenium which is important to your body.
Fish of all different kinds you can also eat and it is a good keto food. Choose fatty fish such as salmon, herring or mackerel over other fishes. Fish is high in protein, and oily fish is also a source of omega3. Just remember that breaded fish contains a high amount of carbohydrates.
Meat from poultry such as chicken, turkey and duck is a good choice when looking for good and healty keto food. Meat is a good source of protein. You should be aware that 100 grams of chicken is not the same as 100 grams of protein. Chicken contains about 20% protein so you need to keep track of how much you eat to get the right amount of protein. Keep in mind that meat from poultry is very lean so you need to supplement with accessories with high fat content. Add a good sauce or something else with a high fat percentage to get a complete meal. For grilled chicken you can eat the skin to get additional fat.
Other kind of meat except poultry meat is also a natural part of your ideal keto food. You can basically choose any kind of meat, like beef, pork, lamb or game and make sure you do not cut off the fat. Meat is also an important source of protein and contains many vitamins and minerals. If you have the option try to choose meat from grazing animals.
A good source of minerals are mushrooms. Often mushrooms contains very little carbs, usually something between 0.3 and 3 percentage. Mushrooms also often contains a lot of water, sometimes up to 90 percentage. Mushrooms usually contains about 2% protein, vitamins (B and C), and minerals such as sodium, potassium, zinc, selenium and iron. Some mushrooms liks yellow chanterelle mushrooms contain beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. This vitamin is also avaliable in carrots. Yellow chanterelle mushrooms are also a source of vitamin D. A drawback with mushrooms is that they are very low on fat so here you also need to add additional fat to get a complete meal.
Eggs are very good to eat. Some people say they are the perfect keto food. One egg contains a lot of nutrients and no carbs. Eggs also contain all the vitamins except Vitamin C so you should try to have eggs as a major part of your keto food. Eggs are also one of the foods that most people eat a lot of when starting to eat according to keto diet. The variations on how to eat eggs are many. You can just simply boil some eggs and eat just like they are. Boiled eggs are also perfect for storing in the fridge and keep as a snack. You can have fried eggs or scrambled eggs and eggs can also be part of other dishes as an ingredient. It is better if you have the chance to choose organic eggs since they have a better balance of omega3 and omega6.
Nuts are also a good source of fat and other nutrients. However when it comes to nuts it is important to remember that not all nuts are not good as keto food. Some examples of good nuts to eat are Brazil nuts which have a low amount of carbs and Brazil nuts also contains a high amount of selenium. Macadamia nuts have a very high amount of fat and contain iron and B vitamins. Hazelnuts contains a lot of vitamin E and they also only contain 3.4% carbohydrates. Almonds contains a lot of vitamin E, iron, zinc and calcium. They however contain about 6% carbohydrates which is a little high percentage.
Remember that Peanuts are not a nut but a legume. It has a high carbohydrate percentage at 10% so you should try to avoid peanuts. Cashew nuts are also very high in carbohydrates with a 18.7 percentage so also try to avoid the Cashew nuts.
Another dish that we have received some questions on if it is good or not when on a keto diet is Tofu. Tofu in general is okay to eat on a keto diet but one need to be careful since tofu can contain different things depending where it is from and how it is cooked. As a general rule though you can eat tofu as a keto food since it is actually a low calories dish with around 8g fat, 4g protein and 0-1g carbs per 100g.