Hello All! - UK Keto


(Max Scotthorne) #1

Hi to everyone,

This is my first post on the forum as I have only just discovered 2 Keto Dudes podcast and I am currently listening to Conventional Wisdom (Dec 19th 2016). Keto just gaining mainstream traction in the UK.

I am fairly new to keto i did start last year in July/August and loss a lot of weight quickly over Christmas I went off keto and ruined all the hard work. I have started back this month and am currently 7lb down. My starting weight is 165kg (363.7lb).

My wife has since joined me on keto (having previously being on Slimming World) and is impressed with the results. She has since converted a few of her friends onto Keto and it is now snowballing.

Excuse me for my scattered thoughts in this post I am writing this in parts while at work. I am looking to get some helpful support and talk in the community. I am also looking for some advice on getting my children into eating Keto as we do have a fussy eater that just enjoys chicken nuggets and chips (any advice would be helpful).

Thanks All
Max


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Welcome to the Ketogenic Forums!

The key to a ketogenic diet is the low carbohydrate intake. This keeps insulin low and promotes metabolic healing. The fat loss is actually a side effect of that healing, since elevated insulin is what traps fat in our fat cells.

A ketogenic diet can be quite tasty, so you may find it easier than you think to move your kids onto such a diet. Focus on the meat and on salads with tasty, fatty dressings. Perhaps there’s a way to prepare chicken that is nugget-like, but without the breading? Or perhaps your fussy eater will accept ground-up pork scratchings/pork rinds/cicciaroni/chicharrones (not sure which term you use) as the “breading”? My sister makes chicken parm with pork rinds instead of flour, and they taste great to me.

Replacing the chips is of course the big challenge. My sister does most of the cooking in our house, and she makes pasta or rice for the non-keto eaters, and everything else is food that she and I can eat.
Riced cauliflower (“cauli mash”) is a tasty alternative to potatoes. When I cook, I make gravy for the meat and cheese sauce for the vegetable. A salad with blue cheese dressing is a good way to round off the meal.

I do miss bread, chips, and crisps quite a bit, the sweets not so much, surprisingly. You might start by seeing if your fussy eater can manage without sugar first, then later seeing about cutting back or eliminating the starches and grains. I got into keto that way, eliminating all sweets and not worrying about the rest of the carbs. But I soon felt so good that I eventually went low-carb/keto without any problem.


(Max Scotthorne) #3

Hi Paul, I heard about the pork scratching “breading” on the podcast I’ll have a go at that when I do my batch cooking on payday weekend at the end of the month. I think the sweets maybe the hardest thing to get her to let go of. I think I maybe able to substitute with keto friendly alternatives but may take some time.


#4

But why? I never understand this, keto has the best sweets…
Or is it just me? :slight_smile: Yeah, I need to make mine but it’s easy and the best, I put into it whatever I want (eggs, mostly. and more eggs. it’s easy for egg lovers I suppose).

(It’s actually mostly in the past for me as I try to do carnivore now and it goes well enough, not 100% but very close. Now I have lovely carnivore desserts but it’s a bit farther from high-carb sweets :smiley: Keto sweets are still sweet and nuts, fruits and chocolate is fine in them. Carnivore is another world but keto didn’t give me benefits after fat adaptation.)

Of course, if one has some non-keto favs, that’s harder. I had my favs but it’s not hard to live without them. But without sweets on keto and without desserts on carnivore, I couldn’t do that. I eat dessert every day, often for every meal.

The one thing I couldn’t replace yet is crunchy biscuits. But I have crunchy dishes, they just aren’t dessert. I can’t have everything at the same time…


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

While artificial sweeteners have their problems, most experts agree that over the short-term, they can be useful for eliminating sugar from the diet. Artificial sweeteners are definitely the lesser evil.


(Max Scotthorne) #6

I think she’s ok with eggs but she can be funny if she’s in the mood to be (usual 7 year old). She does enjoy her treats after a meal but I cringe when I see her reaching for a sugary snack.


(Max Scotthorne) #7

I have bought a bag of erythritol but haven’t used must of it as I’m more of a savory person anyway


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #8

You might enjoy the documentary, The Magic Pill, which I believe is still available on Netflix. It covers the stories of a couple of families, one with an autistic daughter with strong food preferences. She had a hard time switching to a ketogenic diet, but once she experienced the benefits, she was fine. Your daughter will probably not have the same trauma with the change, but she, too, is likely to experience benefits. (Not to mention that she will probably appreciate eating low-carb even more when she reaches her teen years without all the acne that her friends will have to cope with!)


(Max Scotthorne) #9

Hi Paul ive found it on Amazon prime as it must have been shifted off the UK Netflix. I’ll give that a watch and analyse for tips. Thank you for the recommendation.


(Allie) #10

This site is a wealth of info :slight_smile:

Where in the UK are you?


(Max Scotthorne) #11

HI @Shortstuff thank you for that ill have a read through.

I am in Doncaster in South Yorkshire.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

Be aware that a very high-fat, low protein version of the ketogenic diet was originally developed as a treatment for epileptic seizures, and it was so low in protein that the growth of some children was stunted as a result. If you see comments that “keto is bad for kids.” this is where the idea comes from.

Fortunately, it has been shown in a number of studies that a version of this therapeutic diet with close to normal protein intake is still effective against epileptic seizures, and there is no reason that a diet containing a reasonable amount of protein should be harmful to children. In fact, babies are born in ketosis and can safely remain in ketosis throughout childhood, assuming they are breast-fed (commercial formulas are mostly carbohydrate) and weaned onto low-carbohydrate foods (such as meat).


(Max Scotthorne) #13

Just found a bit of a bonus from a friend at work. The farm shop round the corner from work has started doing meat from there own cows (fully grass fed local beef). little ones love burgers so might be able to get them that way on Keto bread buns.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #14

Grass-fed is not essential to a ketogenic diet but is great for them as can afford it.

The taste profile of grass-fed beef varies according to the grasses the animal is fed on, and so if you don’t like the taste of one farm’s grass-fed beef, another farm’s might have a flavour more to your liking.


(B Creighton) #15

While artificial sweeteners may be a lesser evil than sugar, they seem to all have their problems. Sucralose will kill off gut probiotics because each molecule throws off 3 chlorines. Aspartame degrades into formaldehyde. Saccharin has an unpleasant aftertaste. Often just the sweeteness will still trigger an insulin response which will still cause an insulin swing and unstable energy levels, which leads to more eating.
Unfortunately, erythritol is probably made from GMO corn, but most xylitol probably is as well. Nevertheless, I use them both, and find them far superior to other choices. If you get erythritol with monk fruit, you don’t have as much GMO exposure. I use stevia drops to make lemonade, and find it quite good. Stevia products made with rebaudioside generally will not have any aftertaste.

Unfortunately, once kids get on junk food, it can be a hard sell to switch, but that is why they make the stuff. Rather than trying to talk them out of it, and have to deal with the resistance, it may be beneficial to show them videos of people changing.
Dr Lustig may have some videos that could impact them. He specialized in pediatric endocrinology, and often talks about how he helped kids lose weight. Most kids drink plenty of soda. They don’t think sugar will make you fat. Fructose is one of the two sugar molecules in table sugar and is converted into retinyl palmitate. Palmitic acid is saturated fat. This is why kids are getting fat - not because of dietary fat.
https://youtu.be/LQZ9BPSS1_I Here’s a good one for the general problem that may have an impact on kids
https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM I’m not saying this is his best video for kids, but it may help you find one.
Here is a lady who talks about all the problems sugar gave her, and her quitting:
https://youtu.be/wVZ4PysHGyA
More general pointers: https://youtu.be/-s5szfPYKY4

A hard switch is probably going to be a bit rough, so maybe start with foods that kids can typically go for - a grass fed burger with trimmings on organic whole wheat. Chili made with grass fed beef and organic canned corn and beans. Look up “keto comfort foods.” Maybe find a grilled chicken recipe with virgin coconut oil or butter. Those are tastes kids can often go for.

What we did raising our kids was to implement a chip system, where they could actually earn chips by finishing their dinner, brushing their teeth earned one chip, doing chores, etc. When they earned so many chips, we would give them several choices for the weekend, and take them out - putt putt golf, a movie, an all you can eat buffet (yes, they had to eat vegetables to get dessert), etc. If they didn’t earn the chips, they had to stay home with a baby sitter… I don’t recall that ever happening… a word of getting left behind, and they were all over it.


(Laurie) #16

Welcome, Max!


(Jane) #17

Welcome Max!

My kids are grown, but if I could do it all over again I would feed them the way we ate in the 60’s (when childhood obesity was a real rarity). I ate 3 meals a day with no snacks and no sugar and rarely processed foods. Sweets were eaten over holidays and birthdays - special occasions, not every day.

I would cook most meals and use olive oil and butter if I need to saute something. I wouldn’t worry about bread and starchy vegetables if they are reasonably active. We didn’t eat rice growing up and when I wore a continuous glucose monitor for 10 days I had fried rice at a Thai restaurant and saw the biggest spike the whole time I wore it.


(Max Scotthorne) #18

@scaperdude That sounds awesome and I maybe asking you some more questions about the monkfruit sweeteners late on. Thank you for the suggestions and the chip system sounds like something all 3 of my girls would go for even though the eldest already wants to be on keto.


(Max Scotthorne) #19

@Janie Rice and pasta are two of the things I want to eliminate from what they eat but I will find an alternative to replace those. I have heard about low carb alternatives on a site called “skinny food” not sure about the ingredients and science yet but I’ll have a look over the weekend.


(Max Scotthorne) #20

@islandlight thank you