The ketogenic diet (or keto diet) is a great tool to burn fat, but we will surely agree that it is a headache to choose which foods to eat and which to avoid.
If your menu consists of only ketogenic foods, you will easily enter ketosis and begin to lose fat at a rapid rate.
On the other hand, if you eat what you do not touch, you will get out of ketosis and your body will accumulate the extra fat that you are eating.
But you will be surprised to know that the key question is:
Are there ketogenic foods?
Not really.
To know the best foods for the ketogenic diet, it is necessary to know the macronutrient composition of each food.
👉 The general rule of thumb is to avoid those that have too many carbohydrates and eat those that are rich in healthy fats.
In this article you will discover the main keto foods divided by groups.
In addition, we will tell you the basic rules to create your own ketogenic diet menu, we will recommend 3 super ketogenic foods and you will discover how to get a poster with the main keto foods.
In this article you will find:
Ketogenic diet: foods to eat and avoid
The ketogenic diet is based on changing the composition of macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, protein and fat) that we consume throughout the day.
The goal is to reach a similar proportion:
- 70% fat
- 25% protein
- 5% carbohydrates
As a general rule, your goal is to consume a lot of healthy fat and less than 30 grams of carbohydrates per day.
If you want to know more about the ketogenic diet, check out this comprehensive guide : ketogenic diet guide .
If you pay attention to the ketogenic diet, it does not prohibit any food. What happens is that with some foods it is easier or more difficult to meet the macro-nutrient goals.
For example, if you consume potatoes, which have 28 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams of potato, it will be very easy to exceed the limits necessary to enter ketosis.
To make things more complicated you have to take into account three factors:
- All foods have some carbohydrates.
- Not all foods have enough healthy fat .
- The foods we eat also provide us with essential micro-nutrients.
In consecuense:
👉 Ketogenic foods will be those low in carbohydrates and rich in healthy fats and that provide you with all the essential micronutrients.
Next we are going to analyze the most important ketogenic food groups and which ones to avoid.
But, if you want to go deeper into each of these topics, you can review any of the following articles:
August 5, 2020
Carbs on the ketogenic diet
August 5, 2020
Fats on the ketogenic diet
August 5, 2020
Proteins on the ketogenic diet
Fruits: little friends of the keto diet
As a general rule, in the ketogenic diet, you have to limit the consumption of fruit .
The fruit is very rich in carbohydrates, especially short chain carbohydrates, which are absorbed very quickly.
If you eat too much fruit, you will come out of ketosis almost immediately.
Remember that to follow the ketogenic diet you cannot exceed the consumption of 30 grams of carbohydrates per day.
A single banana already contains 27 grams of carbohydrates, an apple 18 and an orange 15!
👉 Fruits, in general, are not foods for a ketogenic diet.
But, if you don't want to give up fruit completely, we recommend that you eat mostly berries (or berries) since they contain the lowest levels of carbohydrates and coconut in moderation, which is rich in fat.
If you are able to resist the temptation, you can also consume small amounts of cherries, strawberries, plums or a small piece of any other fruit, but we do not recommend it, since one bite will easily turn into two or three and without realizing it you will have eaten. too much fruit.
👉 To get the micronutrients that fruit gives you, we recommend that you eat a lot of vegetables.
Below, you will find a list of the most suitable low-carbohydrate fruits for the ketogenic diet along with the amount of carbohydrates per 100 grams of these ingredients:
https://www.completefoods.co/diy/recipes/vegetables-allowed-on-keto
Vegetables: real keto foods (even if it doesn't look like it)
The vegetables are the ketogenic foods that will become your allies and you have to eat in large quantities while in ketosis.
👉 Vegetables will not only provide you with essential micro-nutrients, they will also be the source of fiber that you will need so much in a high-fat diet .
It is important that the vegetables are seasonal and, where possible, from organic farming since they are richer in micronutrients than greenhouse vegetables.
There is an easy rule of thumb for knowing which vegetables to eat:
- The vegetables that you have to eat the most are the leaves or flowers
- Second, the fruits (watch out! Fruits, not fruits)
- The least recommended are tubers and bulbs
Leaf or flower vegetables
These leafy or flower vegetables are among the best foods for a ketogenic diet.
You can eat as many as you want since they are low in carbohydrates!
The only exception on this list is Kale, which, although very nutritious, cannot be eaten in large quantities as it is rich in carbohydrates.
These keto foods will fill your plate with color and provide you with micronutrients and fiber.
Here is a list of vegetables with the amount of carbohydrates they contain so you can choose your ketogenic diet foods:
Fruit vegetables
We would have to qualify these vegetables as fruits, but culturally they have been differentiated from the sweeter fruits.
They have slightly more carbohydrates than leafy greens but their levels are low enough to be part of our foods for a ketogenic diet.
Tubers: Almost Banned on the Ketogenic Diet
Within this category are vegetables that grow underground.
They are vegetables with higher levels of carbohydrates and therefore they are not the best foods for a ketogenic diet and we will have to limit their presence in our ketogenic menu. The only exception is radishes.
As you can see, there are some vegetables such as potatoes or sweet potatoes that it is better to avoid completely, since they will easily make you exceed the limit of 30 grams of carbohydrates per day.
👉 If you don't want to be weighing vegetables all day, we suggest you stick to eating vegetables with less than 5 grams of carbohydrates / 100 grams of vegetables.
You can eat as much as you want of these vegetables since you will hardly be able to exceed the limits (you would have to eat 3 kg of spinach a day to reach the limit!).
Avocado is in itself a special category, its high fat content makes it a great keto food. We recommend that you incorporate it into your diet 100%. A single avocado will give you 29 grams of healthy fat. But you can not abuse either since it has a lot of carbohydrate.
Nuts on the ketogenic diet
Nuts, apart from being delicious, can be good foods for a ketogenic diet.
👉 They are very high-fat keto foods and will help you diversify your ketogenic menu.
But not everything goes with nuts !
- The biggest risk they have is that being so appetizing and having such a high caloric load it is easy to end up overeating.
- The second problem is that some of them contain a lot of carbohydrates and if they are not eaten in moderation they can cause us to get out of ketosis.
- The third risk is that, like all seeds, they contain anti-nutrients that can generate an inflammatory response in our digestive system.
Avoiding these 3 risks is simple, you just have to follow these 3 rules:
- Only eat low carbohydrate nuts like pecans or macadamias and avoid especially cashews and pistachios
- Do not abuse them or eat roasted or salted nuts.
- Eat them raw and after soaking them overnight to eliminate toxins
In this comprehensive guide you will find all the information you need about nuts.
Below, you will find a list of the most important nuts with their amounts of fat and carbohydrates per 100 g of this ingredient that you can incorporate into your ketogenic diet foods.
👉 Attention, peanuts (or peanuts) are not really a nut, they are a legume. We have included them here because they are commonly confused. We recommend that you avoid them.
A final reminder: avoid salty and fried nuts.
Salt gives us a feeling of immediate pleasure and induces us to eat more than we need.
The same happens with the fat of fried nuts, with the aggravating factor that fried foods contain carcinogenic compounds that are not good for our health.
Legumes and cereals: incompatible with the keto diet
This is the easiest list to do:
👉 Completely avoid the consumption of legumes and cereals as part of your food for a ketogenic diet.
The reasons are several:
- They are foods rich in carbohydrates and very low in fat.
- They do not have any micro-nutrients that you cannot get with vegetables or with meat, fish or eggs.
- They are rich in anti-nutrients (especially cereals).
Whether you follow a ketogenic diet menu, low carbohydrates or simply a healthy diet, our recommendation is that you avoid cereals as much as possible and minimize the consumption of legumes.
👉 We want to highlight a cereal that you have to avoid especially: wheat.
Its high gluten content makes it a poor choice in your diet. You can read more information in this article .
Meat, fish, and other protein sources on the keto diet
In any healthy diet you must have a source of protein .
Meat, fish, and eggs are therefore necessary for a ketogenic diet.
But it is also important not to abuse.
👉 If you eat too much protein, your body will use the excess to generate glucose in a process called "gluconeogenesis." This is especially important early on when you want to get into ketosis.
On the other hand, if you do not eat enough protein, your body will not be able to regenerate muscle efficiently and, during the ketogenic diet, in addition to losing fat, you will also lose muscle, which is not convenient for you.
This is important if you combine the ketogenic diet with exercise.
We recommend that you do it, especially training with HIIT, as it will increase your metabolism and burn fat faster (you can learn more in that article ).
Also if you exercise you will be consuming the carbohydrate reserves of your body and the carbohydrates you consume will fill up these empty reserves.
👉 If you exercise, you can consume more than 30 g of carbohydrates a day without leaving ketosis.
To find out how much protein to eat, we suggest this rule:
- If you are not an athlete, eat 1 gram of protein / Kg of body mass
- If you are an athlete, eat 2 grams of protein / Kg of body mass
To find out how much protein is in each food, look at the following table:
👉 Our recommendation is that you use eggs as your main source of protein. They are rich in fat and more sustainable. Again, it is important that they are eggs from free-range hens and, if possible, from grass (which do not consume cereals).
You can learn more about the consumption of eggs and its effect on cholesterol here .
Fish and shellfish are also very good sources of protein, especially small fish such as sardines, which is a great source of omega 3, has a low ecological impact and little accumulation of heavy metals.
Supplementation for the ketogenic diet
The ketogenic diet, if it is followed as we tell you in our free keto course , does not require any supplementation, since you will get all the necessary micronutrients with the vegetables, meat, fish and eggs that you will consume.
But it is true that during the process of adaptation to the ketogenic diet some discomforts can arise that are easily solvable with the strategic consumption of supplementation.
We also have to bear in mind that many of the foods we consume today are poor in some minerals due to over-exploitation of the soil. The most pragmatic case is that of magnesium, of which a large part of the population is deficient.
In the keto course we give you a complete guide on the supplementation to take. But in broad strokes we could include:
- Omega 3: It is a basic component of your brain and you will only find it in sufficient quantities in blue fish or shellfish. It may be a good idea to supplement 1000 mg a day of DHA.
- Vitamin C : Stimulates the use of ketones by neurons and to increase the production of transporters in the blood-brain barrier.
- Magnesium: Consuming an adequate amount of magnesium will prevent muscle cramps and digestive problems that sometimes arise when a person enters ketosis for the first time.
If you want to find these supplements we recommend the be-life brand , in particular its Magnesium Quatro 900 is a supplement of extraordinary quality,
The 4 super keto foods for a ketogenic diet
With all this information you can now create your ketogenic diet menu.
If you want more information, we recommend that you take our free course .
But there are a few staples that will help you a lot on the keto diet. We'll call them keto superfoods (to give them a more interesting name).
The olive oil
This is, indisputably, the star food of the keto diet:
- It is made up of 100% healthy fats and therefore will help you meet the macro-nutrient goal of the keto diet.
- It's delicious!
- It has anti-oxidant properties, a protector against free radicals and appears to have a positive effect against cardiovascular diseases ( reference , reference , reference ).
Avocado
This fruit is also considered an essential food for the keto diet.
Although it has a non-negligible amount of carbohydrates, its benefits are indisputable:
- It is a magnificent source of minerals and vitamins (such as potassium, vitamin D, C, k, B5, B6 and E).
- The fats it contains are monounsaturated (and very healthy).
- They are a great source of fiber (which is generally in short supply on the ketogenic diet).
- Contains many antioxidants.
But not everything is good.
One of the problems that avocado has is that its production in non-native areas is not very sustainable, since it requires a lot of water.
Another problem is that with an avocado you consume 50% of the maximum carbohydrates allowed in a day.
The almonds
This dried fruit is another of the great joys that you can give yourself when you are in ketosis.
Among its benefits we find:
- It's an incredible source of magnesium and calcium (actually has a lot more calcium than milk, reference ).
- It will also provide you with protein and fiber.
- It is another great source of anti-oxidants ( reference ).
Again they also have some issues that are worth mentioning:
- They have a non-negligible amount of carbohydrates (and we cannot abuse them).
- They are very addictive and it is easy to overeat.
- They have antinutrients that make digestion difficult, such as phytates or oxalates.
To avoid these problems we recommend consuming only a handful a day and always raw and after soaking them for a few hours (to eliminate antinutrients).
Coconut oil
Coconut oil, like olive oil, is made up of 100% fat.
Unlike olive oil, these fats are medium chain triglycerides (MCTs).
MCTs are fats that are quickly absorbed and go directly to the liver to be transformed into ketone bodies.
They are therefore very effective in helping you get into ketosis.
Among its benefits:
- Its strong ketogenic effect gives quick energy to the brain.
- They also have neuroprotective, anti-cancer and anti-oxidant effects.
Among the problems they can cause:
- They are saturated fats and consumption in excess can have a negative effect on the cardiovascular system.
- Consumed in excess can cause stomach discomfort.
Our recommendation is that you use coconut oil as a ketosis inducer by consuming 1 tablespoon with your first meal.
This dose will not have any negative effects and will help you enter or stay in ketosis and give you mental energy.
You can find out more about super foods for a ketogenic diet in this video:
https://slides.com/sasosaso/keto-diet-top-15-foods-for-ketogenic-diet
How to Build Your Ketogenic Diet Menu
One of the main myths of the ketogenic diet is that it forces you to weigh food to make sure you don't go over carbohydrates .
This can be a huge inconvenience.
But the reality is much simpler, you can follow a keto diet very easily if you follow these rules:
1) Create menus where it is impossible to go over carbohydrates
Only use the ketogenic foods that we have recommended in this article as ketogenic diet foods.
If your food is a salad with a base of lettuce or spinach, it will be practically impossible for you to go over carbohydrates.
On the contrary, if you add fruit or tubers you will have to be very careful with the quantities.
2) Repeat meals
Create 3 or 4 menus that you know meet the proportions of macronutrients and alternate them in your meals, in this way you will avoid having to think about menus all the time.
We recommend that you do this especially for breakfast and lunch and leave creativity for dinner.
3) practice intermittent fasting
How do you know the ketogenic diet mimics fasting metabolism. Incorporating intermittent fasting into your nutrition plan will make it much easier for you to get in and stay in ketosis.
A good strategy is to skip breakfast, eat at 12:00 - 13:00 and have dinner between 19:00 and 20:00 in this way you will have a period of between 15 and 17 hours of fasting each day.
You can learn more in our intermittent fasting guide .
4) Start our free ketogenic diet course
We have created this course to help you stick to the ketogenic diet. There are 7 email lessons that will teach you the basics and secrets to be successful with the ketogenic diet.
The course is completely free and we have created a lot of material that can help you. For example, you can download a poster with the main foods for the ketogenic diet
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