A balanced diet to me is eating a little bit of everything to get all the nutrients needed for daily function. Not over indulging but consciously knowing when you've had enough of something. Overeating is part habit, part eating the wrong types of food, excessive sugar combined with High GI carbs.
Keto to me just seems like giving a green light for people to over indulge in foods we naturally crave (fatty foods) so it seems easier.
I agree on this last point.
People in here talking about ranch dressing, bacon, sausage, diet sodas, heavy creams: It kinda makes me facepalm. Yeah, you may be off carbs and in ketosis, but all those preservatives, sweetners, and empty calories are hurting you in other ways.
Sauces and creams are awful for you. Yeah, they may be high in fat, but they offer very little nutrional value. And branded products are full of preservatives and sodium.
Bacon, sausage, processed meats like that can have preservatives and nitrates in them, which you should be avoiding.
Lay off the creams and sauces. Especially as individually sold products. Lay off the junk meats.
Dont eat anything with soy in it.
Depending on creams, sauces, and diet products, is going to counteract many of the anti-inflammation benefits which we should be receiving from a keto diet.
Instead of creams and sauces, drink healthy oils. Flax oil. Olive oil. Coconut oil. MCT oil.
Greek yogurt. Fayeh brand has a full fat option.
Eat nuts. Find a place where you can buy raw, shelled sunflower seeds. They are the most cost effective nut/seed.
Watch for deals on beef and chicken. Two weeks ago, I bought 20 pounds of decent steaks at 2.99lb.
Dark meat chicken was like 40 centslb Last week. We bought 60 pounds and gave Half to a friend in hard times.
If broccoli and other fresh veggies are $3 and $4 per pound like they are here: Buy frozen. Two weeks ago, frozen broccoli was 75 cents per pound. Last week it was 1.25 per pound. While the fresh stuff has been 3 and 4 times the price.
Avocados are in season. Dont pay $2.00 each. Wait for $1 and 88cent deals. Then buy 6 or 8 at a time. Try to catch the deal when it starts, then eat avocados all week and buy more right before the sale ends.
Skip the sweetners and diet products. You are supposed to be avoiding sweets and carbs. These things are cheating you and keeping you thinking about supersweet stuff. artificial sweeteners may have averse affects. And diet products are often full of bad junk.
Start learning to appreciate the natural sweetness of things. Cooked broccoli has a wonderful sweetness. Boiled radishes. Boiled bok Choi. Sweet teas. These things are subtle and will help you switch of the sugar/sweets craving.
You coffee dependants may as well fold that into your diet and ween off caffiene dependency. It's a drug and some of you are slaves to it, just like carbs. Many of you will likely have to drastically change how you prepare your coffee anyway. Drink water.
Careful about upping your nut and seed/oils intake. Nuts and seeds aee allergenic. I have zero allergies. But I bought an MCT oil which is a mix of palm and coconut. That stuff feels like a fist in my guts. Coconut only, does not. Start each nut or seed product, one at a time, for a couple of days each. To guage how you feel. I drink olive oil, flax, and various versions of coconut oil, with zero problems. But that palm oil hurts me. I thought it was just me needing to adjust to keto. But its that palm oil. No more pains after I cut it out.
If you are doing enough unsaturated fats/oils, along with tons of veggies, you should be having smooth bowel movements. If you are tired of broccoli and cauliflower and need something filling, try green beans.
All that said, I feel twice as hungry on keto diet. And I was already constantly hungry on a regular balaned diet. Eating more than a few grams of carbs/sugars now, makes me feel over stimulated like a caffiene high and sometimes results in dizzyness.
I feel good on keto, though. But that hunger is insane.
