Could Keto ever be a "less restrictive" dietary lifestyle?

food
(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #16

So much this. Focus on what you CAN have, and how much richer that is.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #17

Health is ALWAYS restrictive, physical, mental, social or spiritual. Lack of restriction is the root of all health problems. You have to not eat the foods that are bad for you, not laze about when you need to move, not hang out with negative people, not do things that harm your conscience. Freedom of choice doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.

The social restrictions seem to be the hardest with keto. I’m happy eating at home by myself and don’t miss Doritos when I have bacon! But scheduling fasting so I can still eat with friends gets tricky. Thankfully I’ve made enough progress that even if my friends don’t totally get it, they also don’t want to mess up what I’m doing. So if I say no thank you they respect that. (Fruit is the hardest for them to get. But we’re getting there.)

All easier said than done. But good goals nonetheless.

(Allie) #18

The social restrictions seem to be the hardest with keto.

This must make be why I don’t struggle, I’m anti-social :joy:

#19

It is all about the mindset.

There comes a point when your brain switches from can’t have that… or that… or…
To
goodness! You mean I can have that? AND that? And whoa… that too? This is FAB!!!

I mean, how many ‘healthy diets’ do you know where you can breakfast on smoked salmon, cream cheese and scrambled egg? Lunch on low carb mug cake and cream? Then dine on sirloin with buttered mushrooms and crumbled stilton on a bed of green salad with EVOO?

We are bound by our imaginations, not the ‘diet list’

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #20

It does help!

(Dan Dan) #21

:joy::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl:

You obviously haven’t read these :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#22

Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, As Richard Bach says, “Argue for your limitations and they are yours.”

Imagine your infinite possibilities, they are yours also. I said that.

(Bunny) #23

Exactly “limited“ we eat too much dam food because we are told to do so by the powers that be!

I try to imagine I’m living in prehistoric times; no packaged foods, no bread, orange soda, Doritos Cheetos, Donuts, man made sugars and no Quicky Marts, just me and what nature has to offer from the trees, plants and animals; raw uncooked or lightly seared by a flame i.e. unprocessed foods, if our ancestors can survive like that, so can I!

Over-eating healthy Whole Foods might not pose such a problem if it were not for all the processed stuff?

#24

All ways of eating for weight loss and/or health have restrictions. The ones on keto are just different than, say, low-fat high-carb diets. The advantages for me are: eating as much as I want to feel satisfied (never having to go hungry), richer more decadent food choices (butter, anyone?), and natural appetite control (helpful if you want to fast at some point for unparalleled health benefits).

Then of course there are the health benefits: keeping insulin in check and improving insulin sensitivity, optimal metabolic health (IMO), mental clarity and alertness, decreased chances of dementia (and other diseases) as I get older, etc.

So, to answer your question simply…no, keto by definition necessarily restricts carbs to whatever amount keeps any individual primarily in ketosis. But the delicious food options and health benefits way outweigh any deprivation I may occasionally feel, at least for me personally.

#25

Also, I think there has been a shift toward low-carb eating. I’m not sure we’ll ever get the majority of people to give up carb/sugar addiction and eat healthily. There are SO many more commercial low-carb food options and recipes out there now than there were when I originally tried low-carb (Atkins) at least 15 years ago.

#26

Restrictive! Here’s an alternative. Make a list of the whole products you cannot have.
Don’t list a candy bar, donut etc, but the whole food constituent of the products, and you’ll see its not a restrictive way of eating at all.

Flour
Sugar
Potatoes
Corn
?

#27

I’m on my way to your house to eat! :rofl:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #28

Here’s the deal: A grownup realizes that there are tradeoffs in life. The price for being able to drive where I want and do what I want when I get there is having to obey the traffic lights and stick to one side of the road. True, I am restricted from walking just anywhere in the road I please, but the freedom of not being dead or in the hospital is well worth the “restriction” of having to stay on the sidewalk. Taxes are an annoyance, yes, but we pay for roads, police, and fire fighting out of the public purse, because back in the days when all those things were private enterprises, we didn’t like continually having to pay tolls, getting robbed and beaten, and watching our house burn down because we couldn’t afford the fire brigade’s penalty for not having signed up for protection in advance.

It is true that when I first gave up alcohol, it did feel like a “restriction” back then, and so does giving up sugar, now. But on the other hand, when I got sober, I quickly came to value the benefits of being able to remember conversations, being able to remember how I got home, not having headaches or generally feeling like crap in the morning, not having to worry about cirrhosis of the liver, delerium tremens, or alcoholic brain damage. I value the freedom that that one “restriction” has bought me.

Likewise, I am really enjoying hearing from my physician how good my lipid numbers and my blood work are. I like not having hypothyroidism, I like not having to worry about diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, I like the freedom of being able to tie my shoes without holding my breath, of not having to have someone come into the toilet and wipe my bottom, of being able to climb stairs without joint pain. I really enjoy not being strangled by my clothing. In that context, is not being able to eat glazed doughnuts really all that much of a restriction?

(Doug) #29

Right on, Brother. It all goes to desire - no, cleaning that toilet is not the fondest dream of my life, but in the end I’d rather have it clean than do nothing. From among our available choices, we pick that which we want the most, or have the least distaste for.

(Bob M) #30

Isn’t any “diet” restrictive? When I was on ultra-low fat (Pritikin), there was tons of stuff I could not eat. Anything with fat in it. If you’re on Weight Watchers, at some level, that’s restrictive.

I think that any low-sugar/low grain diet, like Paleo, low carb, keto, will be tough, particularly at holidays. You just have to deal with it.

#31

Wow, well said!

#32

Haha! That menu has been our Christmas Day eating for the last few years.
This year I went carnivore, so will have to plan a little more carefully.
:grinning:

#33

I’m fasting, so it sounds EXTRA good!

(Running from stupidity) #34

Some do, anyway.

("Don't call it calories, call it food") #35

Amen! Boundaries are good things in so many cases. It is such a fallacy to believe that Liberty derives from complete freedom.