I love Kerrygold and will buy it as long as I can afford it. After I retire it may become a “treat” - we shall see. I am 64 and retirement is still a few years in my future.
I also make my own ghee but buy the cheapest butter I can find for it. I like the flavor of Kerrygold and to me it is a waste of money to use it for ghee since the flavor will be lost in using it for cooking.
Hi Jane. Yes, I’ve basically replaced snacking on cheese with snacking on KerryGold, lol. My SO can’t understand how I like to eat lumps of butter as a snack, but to me it’s both delicious and nutritious, and I don’t miss cheese or heavy whipping cream at all. I would never waste my precious KerryGold in cooking. I do feel a bit wasteful when in addition to drinking my lovely local grassfed raw milk, I also put some in my coffee, I have 1-2 cups of coffee a day. Coffee is my vice, I’m not sure it has any benefits, but I love the taste of it. I use French Blend☕
I don’t know how to make ghee, I’m pretty rubbish/basic in the kitchen. I cook meat/fish/seafood and steam vegetables for my family. I don’t eat vegetables myself as they don’t agree with me, I think it has something to do with my biome being damaged due to years of antibiotics. But I’m off those antibiotics now and though my roseaca has flared up a bit I’m determined to not go back on them and my quest is to rebuild and replenish my biome.
I buy the cheapest butter on sale and use only grams as it’s so highly expensive. And because I love lard and minimize my added fat intake anyway… But butter has its role and unique charm.
And even with my optimism and sturdy body, I prefer processed food with nothing bad in it, well of course…
I can relate so much 
I like to use my good stuff in a way where it can shine most 
That’s why I buy cheaper cheese for cheese whisps as that takes away much from the unique taste and even that simple stuff works well. My Masdaam cheese (not a fancy cheese but I love it and it goes so rarely on sale) isn’t for cooking… But I can’t snack on my grated Grana Padano so that is for cooking…
I don’t have any idea about my gut biome but I always felt healthy and I don’t think I eat wrong now.
Hi Shinita, I think with the biome, it’s been proven in science that antibiotics, especially long term antibiotics does it great damage by wiping out the good bacteria. If you, unlike me, were never on them or subjected to them for long periods of time, then you still have those beneficial, good bacteria in your gut. I can picture you as very healthy in that case, metabolically and physically.
I believe my health declined because of two things: a gluten sensitivity that showed itself in weightloss when I consumed gluten-rich foods, and generally feeling rubbish. I was as light as 47kg at some point. That’s only 5 kg less than I weigh now, but it’s still significant, and I wouldn’t want to weigh that little again, 50kg is fine. Last I checked I was 52kg, that is fine too. But back then, because of gluten-consumption, remains my suspicion, I was not healthy at all. I didn’t have the knowledge then as I do now. These days, I spend a good portion of my time (when I have the time) researching nutrition, researching the best way to live. And I think the path I’m on now, this ketogenic WOE, my body is really happy, which is probably why I consider these foods I now eat to be so luxurious. They are wonderfully bio-available, deeply nutritious. I’ve changed so much on this ketogenic journey of mine, WOE, and I’m still learning. But every food I eat is enjoyed to the max. This is a far cry from my experience of foods in the past, back then I ate whatever just to get energy. Now I feel both decadent and luxurious. Even my canned mackarel which I ate yesterday and will eat again today (as I’ve run out of meat) is luxurious, if not as wonderfully decadent as pork belly.
The other reason my health declined is I got on that deplorable freight train of long term antibiotics, but I’m off them now and its upwards and onwards - towards a healthier biome!
So, l tried the prebiotics and then started with a probiotic consisting of several strains, and it gave me appalling bloating and indigestion so have had to stop. My gut clearly is not yet ready to assimilate prebiotic fibres; there was also a negative impact on mental health which was hard. So, maybe l will just leave things alone for a while and hope the keto diet will help with healing and rebalancing the biome -although l do doubt that the beneficial strains will miraculously reappear! …
Hi Eve, I don’t really know your situation, but to fix a gut can take a long time, and also, I believe it’s more about just eating nourishing whole foods that does the body well, I believe there is much healing from this, but it takes time. I chose raw milk to be my probiotic and so far so good. I’m not experiencing bloat, I’m also not experiencing that trapped feeling of wind I would when eating conventional dairy, I do pass a bit of wind, not a lot and it doesn’t smell, sorry if too much information, and it does make my body feel better to be able to do this as opposed to when I was experiencing a lot of trapped wind. Am I healed? No. Healing the biome takes a long time, and it takes patience, and I believe one has to tread very lightly when attempting to heal the gut, with maybe just one experimental food or two at a time. I chose raw milk and raw honey for this. My roseaca is starting to calm down, and I will be watching closely how my skin behaves as I believe my roseaca is the outward symptom of my gut health. If my skin clears up I’ll take it as a very healthy sign. I also have the notion I am becoming perhaps a bit more robust, stronger. The food I eat now is so deeply nourishing and bio-available, whereas before I started a ketogenic WOE none of my foods were probably very bio-available as I had a gluten sensitivity, I and consumed bread every day. I believe this is why I could eat a whole shop bought pizza, hot cross buns, tea cakes and gain not an ounce from these foods, or from anything else I ate, because the damage gluten was doing prevented me from getting the nutrients from my food, I remember I felt weak and dizzy all the time. Not the way one wants to live. Now, eating beef and pasture eggs, grassfed butter, grassfed raw milk and raw honey, my body is thriving and if I do experience some slight weight gain on this at some point, that might be a sign of healing too. Another sign of healing would be, in my opinion, a marked improvement in cognition, and I have experienced, since starting a ketogenic WOE, a reduction in the brainfog I was experiencing, though it’s not entirely gone, I would say mental clarity is better. But it’s a long journey yet to heal my gut. I have a couple mangoes sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to ripen, this is my third experiment, to add in some fruit and see how it goes.
Hi Never2 I’m having trouble trying to get off dairy. Did you leave dairy completely or switch from heavy whipped cream to something else?
I’m guessing your off dairy completely as you said you felt alot better without HWC. When you say that you feel better what do you mean?
Did you lose weight when you gave up the cream too?
Hi MrRedFox, I gave up the cream yes, and the cheese. I still use some conventional non grassfed butter in my cooking, as I won’t waste my precious KerryGold butter for this. I like to eat lumps of KerryGold as a snack. Although I gave up conventional, pasteurised dairy, I never gave up on dairy, but I made the switch to raw dairy, and I’ve been feeling so much better since. I now drink a couple glasses of raw milk everyday, and also have some in my coffee. With raw milk as apposed to the cream I experience no uncomfortable bloat, no trapped wind that used to give me chest pains, and my stomach remains fairly flat throughout the day whereas it used to swell up like a puffer fish, which is a bonus. As to whether there was weight loss, I don’t weigh myself anymore and my clothes feel the same, I’m between a UK size 6 and 8, and the clothes fit the same. I’m not after weightloss though, as my goal is to treat my lipoedema mainly and keep it in check by keeping my lymphatics strong, and I also believe I have had, and still have gut issues which this WOE has helped with.
Hi @never2late, thanks for the reply. How long have you been on the keto diet for and when did you start to see benefits? I totally agree that something like the biome will take time to heal, especially if there is extensive damage like in your case and mine. It is just very frustrating that when l tried the first step to doing so, it has not gone well! Even half a teaspoon of the prebiotic fibre powder made me horribly bloated and l was supposed to work up to 2 teaspoons - needless to say, l didn’t get that far, lol! Presumably raw milk has beneficial bacteria in it? Hence it being so positive for you? Do you live near a farm or do you get it online? Since we are not in the American mid-west, it is harder to access these things! Lol.
And for me, the big question is whether the good bacteria will increase and the bad ones will decrease through just being on the keto WOE.
Hi Eve, referring to your last post, I think being on a ketogenic WOE, be it keto or carnivore or ketowore, I consider myself more the latter, allows the body to heal through these two ways (1) reduction or elimination of harmful foods (2) lowering of insulin. Whether it’s wise to start adding prebiotic strains, I don’t know, but personally, I wouldn’t do this. I chose the raw milk because of its beneficial bacteria, and the raw honey for its known abilities to strengthen the immune system. I believe it’s already working. My SO came down with a very bad cold, I seem to so far have escaped it (touch wood!) So to my mind, my body is giving me the signals that it’s healing. But we are all different, and our journeys are unique, I can’t stand in your shoes, knowing how your body feels. And what works for me may not work for you. So the only advice I can give is try to listen to your body, far more than you listen to the science. Keep a food diary and when your body has a bad reaction write it down, when it has a good reaction write that down, as a way to try and discern between the foods that are beneficial to you, and the foods that are harmful. Personally I like to keep my WOE very simple, it currently consists of these basic foods: beef, pasture eggs, raw milk, grassfed butter, raw honey. My body seems to be thriving on these foods, so for now, I’m sticking with this, but come summer and autumn I shall pick some local, seasonal fruits/berries and see how my body likes it.
That sounds like a very appropriate, systematic.approach and l will do the same. I already know that several protein foods l can’t eat are eaten in abundance by others in this forum. And some days l am more sensitive than others, and there is also a cumulative effect. Since starting the keto WOE l haven’t eaten any fruits at all, but am thinking of adding in a few blueberries and cutting out a bit of the veg, and see what happens. I would assume that our ancestors are more likely to have eaten a few berries than courgettes and celery!!
Where do you get the raw milk from?
Hi Eve, I am fortunate enough to live in a rural place with quite a few farms in the vicinity. The farm where I get my raw, grassfed milk is within walking distance, I get my pasture eggs from there as well. They have an honesty box I pay into. Then, I’ve begun buying grassfed organ meats from a butcher in the vicinity, though it’s still a drive, as I wanted to incorporate them into my WOE. My fruit experiment failed because I ate a small piece of mango, and my body said no, I don’t want this. In order to heal my gut I am 100% listening to my body now. I do eat my raw, local wild honey in the mornings, I might also try it on my skin as it has an anti-inflammatory effect. I have roseaca, an auto immune skin disease in addition to lipoedema and lymphedema. All conditions are frustrating but I firmly believe it all stems from the gut. What I do know is my body gives me a thumbs up when I drink my raw milk. My body gives me a high ten when I eat liver. It loves eggs, and beef and lamb. But anything sweet like fruit and it goes … That didn’t blow me away at all. I have been paying attention to Dr. Ken Berry and Dr. Paul Mason, I believe they have lots of wisdom to share, but I don’t agree with them regarding dairy. Dairy, if raw, untreated, unpasteurised, does not make you fat at all. My experience is it does the opposite. My stomach is super flat in the mornings, and as I don’t get bloated anymore, from conventional dairy, it remains flat throughout the day. My skin looks currently rubbish, because I gave up the antibiotics, but I am confident that over time it will get better as I heal my gut.
I look forward to when l have a flat, unbloated, belly! It goes up and down depending on whether l have eaten or not, and at the moment, even safe foods cause some bloating! Although better than it used to be. I don’t think l can tolerate organ meats at the moment so am staying away until things feel better. I may have a hunt around to see if any of our local farms do raw milk - l remember having it as a child, but not since then.
I must be patient - a few months will not heal years of damage.
Do you manage to stay in ketosis even with all the carbs in the honey and milk?
I use to have skin rashes, and athletes foot but I believe since I stopped eating anything with wheat and oats my skin has cleared up as well as my athlete foot. I have even noticed that my skin is so much less dry than it was. At 75 years old that is saying a lot. I still have what I believe is food allergies that I am trying to figure out. But I am getting a much flatter stomach than I have had in a very long time.
I don’t care about ketosis either. I care about my health and well-being. And joy, of course, I am a hedonist, that’s why I am health-conscious too, being healthy is way more enjoyable than being sick 
@never2late probably in ketosis all the time (or almost all the time, I can’t possibly now. I don’t know her exact carb intake or her ketosis carb limit but she follows her body so probably do right, ketosis or not) due to her low carb intake, by the way. Amounts matter a lot. If she goes out of ketosis, it’s probably not due to the 1/4 teaspoon of honey! Maybe the milk can do it, it depends.
Why to eat carbs? There are zillion reasons for it. Why NOT if life is easier (and for some people like me, actually possible, the only realistic way to live) with them while they don’t do harm? My body can handle some carbs. Not like I could avoid them, I eat carbs on my most strict carnivore days though I suppose I am in ketosis then… Not like I care. Keto didn’t really give me benefits. There was fat adaptation but afterwards keto or not keto? Felt the same but keto was harder.
We all should figure out what works best for us and it’s quite complex. Extreme low-carb feels bad for many, even this forum has such members. They do keto but not carnivore.
I often eat plenty of carbs even on carnivore though it’s still keto for me
No way I would keep my carbs super low, I don’t see the point, it would just annoy me and I would quit anyway.
Just because carbs aren’t essential, keeping them super low may bring lots of problems for many people.
And many gets important nutrients from more or less carby items. They don’t eat them for the carbs. Some surely do as carbs help with workout performance, muscle look, some probably need a higher carb intake to feel good, for some reason… We are different and extreme low-carb isn’t for everyone. Keto isn’t for everyone. Even low-carb isn’t for everyone. There are people who forced it and it went wrong (you can say that maybe they did wrong, it’s possible but if they really tried and couldn’t make it work, why to force the clearly wrong thing when they are thriving on more carbs?).
But there can be mental reasons for eating some carbs sometimes. And some people (like me) can’t help it - and why would I try that? Keto never gave me anything beyond fat adaptation and I already have that… I go for what I know is good and enough for me. Force just isn’t my style. But maybe I am not a good example with carnivore-ish as my chosen woe. I go off all the time and what? I am fine with it at this point. I can’t and won’t force myself. If I fancy carbs, I eat them and I don’t see any problem with it as long as I don’t go too far and keep training myself.
Obviously many people can’t afford this but some people better don’t force themselves into extreme low-carb if their body doesn’t want it. Or mind, mental health is pretty important too. It’s easy for me as force isn’t even an option I just don’t do it if it’s hard.
Hi Eve, I’m pretty sure I’m still in ketosis. I still enjoy all the same benefits of ketosis as my lipoedema pain and tenderness is still gone, my mobility is therefore still great, I’ve no water retention and lymphatics are looking good with reduced swelling. I drink about 1-2 small glasses of raw milk a day, and the amount of raw, local honey I eat is tiny, a quarter of a teaspoon in the morning.
Hi Chuck, I stopped eating wheat, oats, anything gluten-y, anything processed, anything not a whole food since 12 October 2022. But my roseaca is a stubborn thing, it doesn’t help that I’ve been treating it with long term antibiotics for many years on and off, masking symptoms but never addressing the root cause, and simultaneously impairing my gut health. I believe it will take years to fix the damage but I can be patient.