Is grass fed / organic food a must on ketogenic diet?

#1

I have been trying get fat adapted for 6 weeks now still don’t feel fully adapted… my macros are on point. 75/20/5. I workout fasted with a 200mg caffeine pill.

My foods are
Ribeye
Avacado
Eggs
Bacon
Almonds / macadamia nuts / Brazil nuts
Coconut oil / mct oil / butter
Small amounts heavy cream / cheese / sausage
Broccoli / asparagus
Pink salt / electrolytes supplements / fish oil supp

The only thing I take organic is my grass fed kerry gold butter. I find organic / grass fed to be very expensive could not consuming organic be stopping me from full fat adaptation? I am not interested in weight loss it’s energy and metal clarity and focus I want aswell as health benifits?

Any info and experiences with fat adaptation would be appreciated. Thanks

(Mike Glasbrener) #2

For me weight loss and diabetes was a key component of going Keto. I’m fat adapted w/o organic foods or grass fed meats. I haven’t used Kerry gold butter. I just use left over bacon grease for cooking.

(KB Keto) #3

so a short answer is no.

while things like grass fed beef are going to have a better omega 3 ratio - they arent necessary (just a bit healthier and in my opinion taste better). For example, there are people in this group that eat McDonalds burgers without the carbs (buns, ketchup, etc) and still do well in keto.

good to see your taking fish oil. The nice thing about keto is you really dont need many supplements, but i truly believe fish oil is a necessity in the American diet. may be different in other countries where they eat a lot more fish, etc, but i digress.

out of curiosity, what is the electrolyte supplement you take? I personally just added the 99mg potassium pill once daily to help when i felt keto flu-ish (only in my 2nd week of actually doing keto and not just reading up on it - see my log in n=1 that I’m doing for the study I’m doing at Ohio State)

What are you using to test your ketones? blood? urine? breath? again, curious. from my understanding, fat adaptation differs drastically in each person based on their own biology, their diet before, etc. Hopefully, you’ll feel that you’ve transitioned (that feels like the wrong use here considering the other hotly media-ized topic of transitioning going on right now - but anywho) soon.

Good Luck!

(John) #4

This may be the problem, ratio’s usually aren’t good, it is the actual number of carbs for a lot of people. A 2,000 calorie diet with 5% carbs is 100 grams which will be too many for most. My wife can have about 75 a day, if I have over 30 I can really tell it so my goal is 10-20.

(KB Keto) #5

So, the study I’m doing, which is led by Jeff Volek, has me at approximately the 75/20/5 ratio.

The first Week until I reached ketosis they wanted me in the 80/15/5 range - here are the maintenance numbers they gave me.

For me: 20g of carbs and 120g protein is already 560kcal of my daily requirements covered. What’s left comes from fat. That means at a 10-15% deficit - I’m between 200-220g of fat.

Using a quick Keto calculator (keto-calculator.ankerl.com/) - at 10% deficit - I’m here:

2520kcal Daily Calorie Intake
20 g Carbs (3%, 80 kcal)
120 g Protein (19%, 480 kcal)
218 g Fat (78%, 1960 kcal)

Hope this helps some.

Do I really need to eat organic meat + dairy?
(KB Keto) #6

Where did you get that on a 2000kcal diet, 5% = 100g? 5% = 25g

(John) #7

Edit hey its early, 100 calories-25g you are correct. Back to my coffee.

(KB Keto) #8

2000kcal Daily Calorie Intake
25 g Carbs (5%, 100 kcal)
120 g Protein (24%, 480 kcal)
158 g Fat (71%, 1420 kcal)

(KB Keto) #9

haha, it’s all good.

(Todd Allen) #10

Unfortunately organic doesn’t mean as much as many people think. For plants, it doesn’t mean pesticide free or fertilizer free or that the fertilizer was contaminant free. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t grown in an industrial scale monocropped fashion. For eggs the standard requires the hens have outdoor access but it doesn’t require they have access to natural forage with grass and bugs, etc.

The bar for conventional food is very low and organic standards raise the bar a little but it is still a long way from ideal. And it is possible to find good quality food from local small scale producers that don’t have organic certification.

#11

Im around 2000kcal a day. 20g carbs some days lower carbs. Protein around 85g-100g. I started testing ketones with urine strips I don’t anymore as ketones don’t show in my urine anymore. I am ordering a ketone blood meter this week and tracking blood levels from now on. My blood sugar reads around 5mmol on average. As long as organic isn’t essential I should be fine seems I’m just taking longer than some to adapt. Can anxiety/ depression have any effect on adaptation?

#12

My electrolytes

Supplement tablet 1 serving
Potassium 400mg
Chloride 320kg
Calcium 200mg
Sodium 200mg
Magnesium 100mg

Also Avacados and pink salt

(KB Keto) #13

Jonny - try this https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ Seems like your in the right carb/protein ratio, not sure how much fat you get… but this should help you find the right numbers.

I use this meter for my daily tests (around $35)

suSn38S.jpg576×768 64 KB

Fortunately, for the 12 week study, my ketone strips are covered - as they are usually around $4 each, I’ve found them as cheap as $3 but not often. Once I’m done with the study, I’ll probably test ketones much less frequently, maybe once or twice a week or when I’m feeling ‘different’

And Kerrygold butter = deliciousness

(Adam L) #14

Check out the results & philosophy of Butter Bob for some comfort on the use of non organic, non grass fed foods http://www.buttermakesyourpantsfalloff.com/
Like you & I, he also likes some Kerrygold butter but he achieved great results without the organic/grass fed items & has made reference in a number of his YouTube videos to the fact that most people can get great results from this woe by using low carb, high fat, keto foods that are standard supermarket items at standard prices. Keep at it, you’ll get there, cut out the nuts for a while & see if it makes a difference. The thing that kicked my keto adaptation into overdrive was going zero carb + dairy free + sweetener free in January this year. Have never felt so good.

#15

Thanks will have a look at butter bob, I’ve cut out sweetner from last week. Only carbs I get are from broccoli nuts asparagus which have fibre and heavy cream. Plus any trace amounts n eggs ect. I will maybe cut cheese and cream completely and lower nut intake for this week

#16

If you were decently healthy to begin with you may not find there is a big difference in how you feel on keto day-to-day. You may just have to take comfort in that you are potentially benefiting your health more in the long run.