The 4 Food Groups for Eating Clean Keto

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I’m laying out everything you need to know about how and why to go keto.

The idea behind the ketogenic diet is that you eat lots of healthy fats instead of carbohydrates and sugar, so you will stop burning sugar as your primary source of fuel, and instead, start to burn body fat for fuel.

That’s where the name comes from – your body enters a state of ketosis (if you’re doing the diet correctly), or fat-burning mode, once you’ve starved it of the carbs that are the staple of the standard America diet.

Fats are a very clean source of energy, and the ideal and preferred source of fuel for your body. It’s kind of like switching from dirty coal (in this case, sugar) to clean hydroelectric power (for example, an avocado). It leaves a lot less junk behind.

So that mean cutting out all:

• Refined carbs
• Sugars
• Grains
• Fruits that are high in sugar
• Potatoes
• Processed foods

Where Keto Gets It Wrong

Typical keto gurus urge followers to eat a ton of animal products – eggs, cheese, dairy, bacon, meat, and so on. This causes 2 major problems.

Because you’re eating so much animal protein and high-fat dairy, you’re not getting enough minerals from fruits and vegetables, which should be the basis for a nutritious diet.

The average American already eats 2 to 5 times too much animal protein, according to USDA recommendations. So imagine how many times the recommended daily allowance you would be eating if protein were the whole basis of your diet!

And here’s why that’s bad. First and foremost, animal proteins contain the trifecta of ACID – sulfuric, phosphoric, and nitric acids.  These acids are highly inflammatory and require a LOT of energy and enzymes for your gut to break them down.

Next, once your protein intake exceeds 15% of your daily caloric intake, guess what happens? It turns to SUGAR via the liver pathway. And as sugar levels spike, so does insulin, which I call the traffic cop for ALL other hormones.

 

So all of that work you’ve put into avoiding sugar is pointless!

If you eat dirty keto with mostly animal products, that produces too much acid, triggering a state of chronic, low-grade acidosis.

Ketosis + acidosis ≠ a happy, healthy body!

Keep It Clean

So if you want to go keto – and there are a ton of benefits to doing so – it’s important that you go CLEAN KETO.

That means minimizing meat and other animal products like dairy and eggs in your diet. Instead, you want to focus on the foods in the 4 groups below that are guaranteed to bring you better health.

These are nothing like the 4 food groups you’ve heard about – grains, meat, dairy, and fruits and veggies. Those are filled with acidic foods in every category.

Focus on these 4 food groups, and you won’t need to worry about calories, portion sizes, or your waistline!

Food Group 1: Healthy Fats

While we’ve all been led to believe that fat is bad for you, it’s actually monumentally important that you get plenty of healthy fats daily. That’s why fats are the basis of the keto diet.

In general, you want to eat 2 to 3 servings of healthy fats at each meal. Serving sizes vary, but for example, 1 tbsp. of oil is a serving.

The first, and arguably most important fat to strive for in your diet is omega-3 fats. It’s an essential fatty acid, which means that your body requires it, but it doesn’t make it on its own. You’ll find it in:

• Fish oil
• Fish
• Micro-algae oil (this is the best source for vegans and vegetarians)

There are omega-3 fats in the following vegetarian sources, but they are ALA (not DHA and EPA as found in fish oil).

• Chia seeds and chia oil
• Flax seeds 
• Walnuts and walnut oil

Here’s the problem – the MOST these healthy fats will convert to DHA and EPA is 5%, and based on current research, the number is under 1%. More importantly, there are NO vegetarian sources of EPA.

You can get small amounts of DHA from plant-based sources like algae and purslane, but again, you cannot get EPA and it will not convert. This is why I STRONGLY suggest all vegetarians supplement with fish oil, unless there are philosophical reasons behind the decision, which I absolutely respect.

Our Alkamind Daily Omega-3 is the best quality supplement on the planet. It’s the ONLY one with the ideal 2:1 ratio of EPA to DHA in a highly concentrated form. So you can take less and get more benefit from it. Plus it’s heavy metal free and guaranteed for potency and freshness, so no fishy taste.

Omega-6 fats are also essential fatty acids, but this one is present in many of the “bad fat” foods that are all too common like fried foods, pasta and pizza, baked goods, and fatty meats. They are pro-inflammatory and Americans already eat far too many of them. The average American diet has 19 times more omega-6 fats than omega-3 fats, whereas the two should be equal.

Healthy omega-9 oils,the last of the essential fatty acids that you can feel free to eat liberally, can be found in:

• Extra virgin olive oil 
• Almonds/ almond oil 
• Avocado/ avocado oil 
• Macadamia nuts/ macadamia oil

Food Group 2: Minerals

Nearly half of all American adults are walking around each day deficient in key vitamins and minerals, according to the Environmental Working Group.

This isn’t just a statistic – minerals make a big difference in our day-to-day lives. Our energy levels, our ability to sleep and fight disease, our hormones, and our skeletal and muscular systems all depend on our choice to consume plenty of minerals.

Let’s talk about 3 of the most important: magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

Magnesium

This mineral is responsible for more than 300 enzyme activities within the human body. It’s vitally important for how you feel and how you function, including your ability to sleep, your mood, your heart health, and your energy levels.

Excellent sources of magnesium are:

 

So while you can include a banana in a morning smoothie along with alkaline foods like greens and healthy fats to balance a banana’s high sugar content,  these foods are great sources of potassium too:

• Avocados
• Beet greens
• Black beans
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes

Food Group 3: Chlorophyll

Foods in groups 2 and 3 should comprise the bulk of your clean keto diet and about 80% of your plate.

You might remember chlorophyll from science class as a plant pigment that’s responsible for photosynthesis, when the plant absorbs light and turns it into energy. But chlorophyll is also an incredibly important superfood for humans.

Its many benefits include:

• Preventing cancer
• Promoting liver health
• Detoxifying the body
• Preventing infections
• Improving digestion
• Stopping inflammation
• Helping you lose weight

As you can imagine, green vegetables are a top source of chlorophyll, but not the only source. Eat more of these chlorophyll-rich foods:

• Spinach
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Wheatgrass
• Snap peas
• Parsley
• Watercress
• Green beans
• Arugula
• Leeks
• Endive
• Chinese Cabbage
• Seaweed like kelp and red algae
• Mung bean and alfalfa sprouts

Raw is best. Chlorophyll levels in food are greatly reduced when you cook them, so the more raw, green veggies you can consume, the better. Add greens to your smoothies and fresh juices, or use them in salads and chilled soups to get more raw chlorophyll.

Food Group 4: Proteins

There’s a reason this is the last food group – it should be the sideshow, not the main event. Protein should make up no more than 15% of your plate, and ideally, it’s coming from plant-based sources like:

• Raw nuts and nut butters (not peanuts)
• Seeds like chia, flax, and quinoa
• Beans, lentils, and chickpeas

If you’re going to eat meat, always choose organic, free-range, and grass fed, as it has 40 times fewer inflammatory fats compared to conventional meat. If you’re going to eat seafood, always choose sustainable and wild-caught, as well as low-mercury. The best choices for seafood are:

• Wild-caught salmon
• Herring
• Anchovies
• Sardines
• Trout

Don’t forget to combat the risks of pro-inflammatory omega-6 in the proteins you eat by getting your daily dose of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats.

Our Alkamind Daily Omega-3 is the best quality supplement on the planet. It’s the ONLY one with the ideal 2:1 ratio of EPA to DHA in a highly concentrated form. So you can take less and get more benefit from it. Plus it’s heavy metal free and guaranteed for potency and freshness, so no fishy taste.

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GET OFF YOUR ACID!

Dr. Daryl