Nuts and higher ketones

[ctviggen]

My daughter is in a psychiatric hospital because she tried to kill herself via overdose and continued to have suicidal ideation. I thought I was having too much chocolate at night because of this (still had ketones though), and decided I’d replace that habit with nuts.

Nuts and I have a love-hate relationship: I love to eat way too many of them, then hate that I couldn’t stop eating them.

Anyway, Costco had these, which I never heard of before:

https://www.costco.com/baru-nuts-15-lb.product.100849995.html

I bought these and had them at night. A lot of them.

The “benefit”? My ketones hit 1.0 mmol/l (BHB, blood ketones) one morning and 1.9 mmol/l another morning. The last time I saw levels like this was the last time I fasted 4.5 days.

I don’t know if the increase is due to high fat, high PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) or both. But these numbers shocked me. (My normal ketones are 0.2-0.3 in the morning, and have been like this for YEARS, no matter what I ate - though I didn’t eat nuts.)

I’m leaning toward the high PUFAs, because I also picked up some macadamia nuts, which are relatively low in PUFAs. While I got higher ketones (0.6) one morning with them, I got nowhere near what I got with the Baru nuts.

So, if you’re looking for higher ketones, nuts (at least the baru nuts and probably other nuts higher in PUFAs) might help.

Detriments? The baru nuts are way too high in fiber, which caused all kinds of issues for me: flatulence, digestive issues (rumbling, etc.), trouble going to the bathroom, etc. Fiber and I tend not to get along. Oh, and I couldn’t stop eating them.

Also, I’m not advocating eating higher PUFAs. I’m just relating what happened to me when I ate nuts with relatively higher PUFA levels.

[Hippie]

Couldn’t it be the monounstatured fats ? I started supplementing hemp oil and feel like that helps stop the appetite in PM? I don’t know anything for sure here, it’s just my latest tweek. Sorry about your daughter hopefully you live in an area that is equipped to handle psychiatric conditions. Were still in the stone age in Ohio, but I’m very familiar w/ psychiatric problems with all the crazy drugs I was forced take.*

*Drug free now.

Besides Green Tea.

[Chezza]

Really sorry to hear about your daughter, hope she starts to recover soon. Look after yourself x

[JustMo]

Sorry to hear about your daughter Bob. Wishing her the best.

I have had high ketones with nuts too in the past. I remember expecting to be out of ketosis as I ate a lot that day & that were on the higher carb side. Instead, I was deeper in ketosis the next day. I haven’t had baru nuts before though.

[SomeGuy]

My heart goes out to you. It must be hard on you to see your daughter fighting such profound inner battles.

It’s certainly enough to drive most of us to seek some kind of comfort - with food being a common way to do so.

As for nuts, yeah, portion control is rough even under the best of circumstances. For most of us, the specific nut in front of us is largely besides the point.

Best wishes to you and your family.

[Pjam]

My daughter is in a psychiatric hospital

That’s a stunner and I don’t know how to respond, I just feel I need to. I’m not great at understanding others feelings, not yours and of course not your daughters either.
Does your daughter share your/our food choice? as we know brain health and mental health must share things and the brain loves ketones right?

[VirginiaEdie]

I’m so sorry. I have a colleague who has been going through something similar. My heart goes out to you and your family.

[scaperdude]

The “benefit”? My ketones hit 1.0 mmol/l (BHB, blood ketones) one morning and 1.9 mmol/l another morning. The last time I saw levels like this was the last time I fasted 4.5 days.

I don’t know if the increase is due to high fat, high PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats) or both. But these numbers shocked me. (My normal ketones are 0.2-0.3 in the morning, and have been like this for YEARS, no matter what I ate - though I didn’t eat nuts.)

I’m leaning toward the high PUFAs, because I also picked up some macadamia nuts, which are relatively low in PUFAs. While I got higher ketones (0.6) one morning with them, I got nowhere near what I got with the Baru nuts.

Hmm. Curious. Baru nuts don’t have any MCTs to speak of, so somewhat curious. Perhaps a cheaper option that will achieve some results is to include some coconut. I make a nut mix with roasted pistachios, raw pecans, almonds, macadamias, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts(price went down at my Costco!), coconut, chopped oat-rolled dates, and sprouted and toasted pumpkin seeds. I’ve never really paid attention to my ketones after eating this, but I have eaten about a 1/2 lb at a time for a full meal. I’m thinking the dates have enough sugar to prevent my ketones from going up. Under certain circumstances up to 25% of lauric acid may get converted to ketones.