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

food
(Running from stupidity) #41

+1

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #42

My 2 cents: there’s nothing I can’t eat on LCHF that I could eat on the standard American diet. At restaurants, I just order proteins with creamy/lemony/buttery sauces (for instance) and veg.

When I feel like the following, I can make them:

  • Pizza: fathead pizza
  • cookies: almond/coconut flour cookies
  • bread: loads of low carb bread options to buy or make (I never get the urge)
  • crackers: my sister makes amazing flaxseed crackers. They’re delicious.
  • chocolate: 85% dark choc does the trick. Can also mix allulose or stevia with cocoa and make your own chocolatey dessert
  • cake/brownies: coconut/almond flour versions with allulose or stevia or whatever as a sweetener

And frankly for the most part I don’t crave these things. You know what I’ve eaten today? A bunch of quail eggs scrambled with some cheese. And I have been full all day. I had two half and half cappuccinos (my weakness) this afternoon which DOES raise my BG, but not much above 5.9, so it’s my big cheat on this lifestyle. But honestly I could totally live without the milk for a month or two if I wanted to get strict and get ketones up. But I’m not a ketone chaser.

I eat so much cleaner and healthier and I’m so much more satiated that this doesn’t feel at all restrictive. I eat as much as I feel like. Whenever I feel like it. I barely ever feel guilty about eating. I can’t see myself ever getting off this lifestyle. And bear in mind, I’m quite metabolically flexible and I’m quite open to the occasional sweet potato or even (gasp!) potato or sushi rice in my diet. Occasionally. But frankly I barely ever see the need.

EDIT: @mallorydm if you want more ideas for LCHF alternatives to things you still crave, you can be in touch with me. There’s so much on the market now if you want to buy it rather than make it.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #43

Lard and butter were the usual cooking fats in the U.S. until Crisco invented vegetable oil in the 1920’s. Margarine was also unknown until around that time. MacDonald’s used to use tallow to fry its potatoes, until forced to switch to trans-fats by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a couple of independent activists.

The real traditional cooking fat in most Mediterranean countries is lard, not olive oil, and to this day, the French cook primarily with butter. Olive oil was used as a cosmetic in classical antiquity, not as a food, and this remained true until the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, I believe (Nina Teicholz discusses this in The Big Fat Surprise). The “Mediterranean” diet was basically invented in the second half of the twentieth century by a couple of European nutritionists in collaboration with Walter Willet at Harvard, and with the blessing of Ancel Keys, who loved southern Italy. The big challenge was defining it, since each country had its own traditional foods and there has never been a single “Mediterranean” diet.

(Running from stupidity) #44

Still easy enough to sell to people who haven’t ever been out of their own country, though :slight_smile: #marketingFTW

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #45

I’ve been using olive oil to wash my face for years. It really cleared up my acne. Much better than “cleanser.” Perhaps this knowledge helped me not fear fat when I learned about keto. I already knew ‘oil free’ was bogus when it comes to skin care.

(less is more, more or less) #46

Fascinating, talk about counter-intuitive. I’m curious how does OO helps to reduce acne?

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #47

Olive oil is antibacterial, and it keeps your skin moisturized rather than stripping it of oil like soap or cleanser does.

Cleansers take away all your skin’s hard earned and produced oil. Then your skin panics and over-produces oil making it greasy and clogging your pores. Moisturizer helps a bit, but isn’t as good as what your skin naturally makes. What you really want is to get the dirt out of your pores and off the surface of your skin. Oil, olive or otherwise, let’s the dirt float to the surface where hot water and a wash cloth can sweep it away without disrupting your skin’s natural maintenance process. Since skin is naturally moisturized by oil, not water based chemical moisturizer, even if you use a cleanser using oil to moisturize afterward is much healthier. Oil your skin understands. Soaps and water based moisturizer, not so much.

In short, acne is a product I’ve over drying your skin. And what your skin needs is not water, but oil.

(Joanna Parszyk ) #48

I agree 100%. I do not feel deprived. Deprived of food that makes my mind and body sick. I also do not feel deprived of heroine or crack :rofl::rofl::rofl:.
What l might miss is certain tastes or textures but it either goes away or l just forget about it and focus on those silly velour now allowed foods.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #49

“Silly velour” has to be one of my favorite autocorrects ever.

I also like the comment sans autocorrect.

(Joanna Parszyk ) #50

Well spotted!!! :flushed::joy:

BTW don’t you find that concept of eating often is in fact restrictive? I feel that being fat adapted enables me to skip meals( IF) and be FREE of cooking/planing/eating/cleaning/worrying…whenever l choose to. l really love doing those things (except cleaning) but the extra time gained is so precious!

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #51

So true!

I just posted a photo of my fasting dishes in the humour section. (A bunch glasses.) You will not be seeing a photo of my dishes while not fasting. :flushed:

#52

Amen!

#53

Beautiful explanation.

Although I would add one thing - no idea if I am unique in this, but I doubt it!

My skin is only oily when my vitamin D is too low.
I discovered this after decades of suspected D deficiency, when I started megadosing with D3. It took a few weeks but then I noticed that for the first time in my adult life, my nose wasn’t shiny. Later I lapsed with the D supplements, and became shiny again.

Nowadays I take it as a perfect barometer of whether my D levels are sufficent, or not.

#54

My favourite expression is going to be “fasting dishes”. It’s surrreal but also grounding. In fact, I’m going to chose my fasting dishes soon. And maybe a fasting place mat too. I like mind things like these.

(Running from stupidity) #55

This was my Sunday fasting plate.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #56

Precisely! :+1:

As a recovering alcoholic explained to me once, when I told him I wanted a drink, "You don’t want a drink. You want something, but given what you know alcohol does to you, you don’t want a drink!" I believe it was at that point I began to really understand that real freedom lies in being able to say no, not in being able to say yes.

#57

You’re a bunch of lunatics you lot!

#59

I mean, I try to avoid processed food as well, but so many common Keto recipes call for stuff like Xanthan gum, coconut/almond flour, artificial sweeteners, etc. I’ve even made soups from scratch, but I had to use Xanthan gum in it. I’m sure it’s safe, but it’s kind of inescapable. Any recipes more complex than “steak with salt & pepper” or “steamed asparagus” seems to use some kind of processed ingredient.

#60

Well, it’s 100% my own experience, and I first started Keto 6+ years ago. If I had more time, money, and natural cooking ability, it might not be so bad, but for me, it is. My choices of meat are usually tilapia, chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, bacon, eggs (much of which I’m burnt out on), and veggies are asparagus, squash, and zucchini (also burnt out on). Fast food options are hot wings (expensive) and salads (hard to find a large salad with more than just lettuce and strips of chicken). I’ve never been able to make a salad at home without the lettuce tasting weird.

(Jane) #61

I live in the middle of nowhere where there are FEW choices except for whole foods. No fancy substitutes.

I never get bored or feel my diet is “restrictive”. I occasionally choose to have a carb meal and then fast to compensate but most of the time I am happy staying keto.

Salads don’t have to have lettuce. I make a avocado, cucumber, feta cheese, lemon juice salad that is delicious. This past summer I was using my garden cukes (Japanese variety) so doubly delicious.

Other veggies are Brussel sprouts, green beans, wilted spinach. etc.

Lots of fast food options besides wings. Bunless burgers, taco salads sans shell, etc.