Hello there,
Been trying to figure out my Omega 3/6 ratio since a couple of days. Now I am a bit confused about things like Almond Flour/Butter and things like peanut butter. Is this allright to eat on the keto diet? Some say its full of omega 3, others strongly advice not to use these products because they are highly inflammitory (Especially the Almond Flour).
What are you’re thoughts about this?
My recommendation is get your ω3/ω6 from oily fish and whatever is contained in other fats, not from nut flours and ‘butters’. We require only a very small amount of PUFAs. Our ancestors ate ‘fat on the hoof’ and they got all the PUFAs they needed so should we. That said, coconut oil, cacao ‘butter’, red palm oil and palm kernel oil are OK since they all contain high amounts of sat fats and low amounts of PUFAs.
It’s the ω-6 fatty acids that cause inflammation if we ingest them in quantity. The reason to worry about your ratio of ω-3 to ω-6 is simply that they both compete for the same receptors, and overdoing one prevents absorption of the other. Both are essential to the human diet, but we need only very small quantities, certainly not the amounts we get when we eat processed food and cook with industrial seed oils (the so-called “vegetable” oils). Avoiding the seed oils is probably the best and easiest way to equalize your ω-3/ω-6 ratio. Use animal fats (solid at room temperature) instead.
Almond flour contains a fair amount of net carbohydrate, though less than wheat flour does. It should be used with care on a ketogenic diet. This is basically true of all nuts and nut flours. Commercial peanut butter is loaded with sugar, which is another reason to avoid it. I am fortunate to have a health food store nearby that allows customers to grind their own almonds and peanuts, so you can get almond or peanut butter with no additives. Eaten in very small quantities, they make for a tasty snack.
I’ve found powdered peanut butter fills the void nicely when I want PB. I assume it being powdered it would have less omegas?
Look it up. Yes, less PUFAs overall than liquid PB. It’s claim to fame is still that it contains ‘heart healthy PUFAs’ instead of those deadly sat fats. Plus added sugar, less but not gone. So it’s still a loser in my view. If you can’t live without the taste of peanut butter, grind some dry roasted peanuts and mix them with real butter.
I’ve used this before:
2 grams of fat per 2 tablespoons/16 g. It’s not bad, though I often wonder why I bought it (didn’t eat peanut butter for decades – it had FAT in it!). I do use it sometimes to flavor yogurt, though.
If you’re going for the medicinal benefits from Omega’s while it’s better obviously you’re unlikly to ever get enough from real foods. You can eat Almond Flour and butter but nuts screw with a lot of people. Almond butter is fine for me, things made with almond flour bloat me like a champ!
If you want Omega 3s, the best way to get them is to eat fish. Canned sardines, for instance.
Consider the comparison between grass-fed and “grain-fed/finished” (USDA) beef:
Blue = O6; Green = O3. Note this compares 3.5 ounces of beef with one-half of a walnut. Yes, one-half of a walnut. Not a handful or several.
I think you could make a similar diagram with almonds, though almonds aren’t quite as high in PUFAs.
Yeah same. I just love the taste but found the sugar free version. I do wonder if it’s still overall bad…just not as bad as liquid Pb?
Pb is the chemical symbol for lead, so my initial thought was that there aren’t very many things worse than liquid lead, lol! 
You know, I don’t know. I think we’d be using not much. But I haven’t tested it much. I tried it on some “fat free” yogurt to see if I could test a low-fat, low carb, high P:E diet. I used nonfat yogurt, PB replacement, some chocolate powder, and a bit of liquid (fake) sweetener. I was starving after that. Haven’t figured out why.
I’m about to try this again, as there’s a huge Twitter debate about low carb and fat (again). Some believe low fat is better (theory: you can’t burn fat on your body if you’re eating fat); some believe high(er) fat is better (theory: some/a lot of fat is better, as it helps to burn the fat on your body).
In the past, I’ve eaten many lunches that have been high P:E and low carb. But I’ve never also controlled my dinner. I’m planning on controlling all my meals (unless we go to dinner/order out).
When I try this, I plan on eating nonfat yogurt again, sometimes with fake Pb. I’ll report back.
My guess would be that it didn’t supply enough energy to satiate, quite apart from the quantity of protein.
I see no reason to doubt the Protein Leverage Hypothesis, but that doesn’t mean that fat has no influence in the satisfaction of hunger. A low-fat, low-carb diet can easily fail to contain enough energy.
In addition to the omega 6 issue, which as Michael suggests, you can off-set with a good source of Omega 3, you may also wish to consider the potential impact of oxylates, which can be present in high concentrations in nuts.
When I first went keto I consumed a lot of almond flour to make substitute pizza dough etc. I also eat a lot of almonds and peanuts as snack foods. Approximately 1.5 years after going keto I started to experience intense inflammation and swelling in one thumb joint. So much so it interfered with grip strength and my sleep and I had to see my doc. The diagnosis was that I was getting old and take some anti-inflammatory analgesics. I did this dutifully but as in many cases this was just a band aid and did not cure the underlying problem.
I did not connect the two until I watched a video by Sally Norton on the potential side effects of oxylates. Apparently almonds can contain relatively high oxylate concentrations. So I went cold turkey on all the nuts and nut flowers and my joint pain completely cleared up approximately 3-4 weeks later.
Obviously this is n=1 anecdote, but there were no other significant changes in my diet or lifestyle to explain the change. I acknowledge that it may have just been a coincidence. However, I now limit my consumption of nuts and to those with lower oxylate levels. Apparently individual susceptibility to oxylates can be highly variable and this may or may not become an issue for you.
The other thing to be aware off is the high energy content of nuts, and they can be easily over-indulged as a snack. As a consequence they may help to inhibition weight lose, if that is a concern for you.
HTH
Thank you so much for the in-dept answer! I’m thinking the same since I’ve been testing and experimenting more with it last couple of day’s. Also interesting to see that after every meal rich in omega 3’s I get a burst of energy en veel amazing. Maybe a little bit of chia cheeds, but no nuts or anything and its going much better.
