Vegan Keto

This read will really split the audience in two. There will be folks going “this is another fad diet article” and there will be those going “wait what the heck is a vegan keto?”. Persevere, give the article a chance and read with an open mind, and just take away from it what you want. That’s all I can ask.

Okay, so here goes. We all know that a vegan diet is one where we eliminate any animal products from our diet. A keto diet is where you drastically lower the amounts of carbohydrates (carbs) you consume… and the two combined is…. Drum roll… a vegan keto diet. 

Hold up, so a vegan diet has no animal products, so no milk, cheese, eggs and other things. A keto diet has no carbs like wheat, rice, most pastas and most breads… So what the heck are you supposed to eat in a vegan keto diet? Well, the truth is that this is a very limited diet. Hence this article. I’m not a health expert so please go ahead and do your own research. The idea behind this article is to provide the information I’ve collected whilst doing this diet and sharing this to you all to hopefully help those who are also considering following this way of eating.

Let’s start from the beginning. The general principle is that you consume very little carbs to force your body into a state of ketosis. Roughly 10% of your daily macro nutrients as carbs, 20% as proteins and the remaining 70% as fats. Other guides that you may read on the internet may say something like you should be consuming less than 30g of carbs per day. Either way, the idea is that you drastically reduce the carbohydrate consumption in your body and substitute it with the extra fat and protein.

When counting how many carbs you are consuming, the trick is to ensure you only factor in net carbs. Net carbs simply refers to carbs which your body would absorb. To calculate net carbs in whole foods you take the total carbs and take away the fibre content. Processed foods have a slightly different way to determine net carbs as you also factor in half of the sugar alcohol content as non digestible carbs that you can also exclude from the net carbs total.

Why? One of the benefits of a keto diet is the impact it has on your weight loss. As mentioned, the idea is that you want to get your body into a state of ketosis, this essentially means that your body will be using your fat as fuel rather than getting that fuel source from glucose. This fat burning state your body goes into really kick starts your weight losing regime. 

So, by now you’ve probably connected the dots… carbs come in the form of sugars and starch. The body uses these carbs to create glucose and then with the help of your insulin hormones in the body, sends that glucose to the parts of the body that need it. So now, you can see that this type of diet could be great for folks with diabetes as they have problems with insulin which causes blood sugar levels to rise. 

One other benefit of a ketogenic diet is that it could boost brain health as well. Many studies are being undertaken on the therapeutic effects of burning ketones to help with several brain disorders. These range from Epilepsy, to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. 

If you’re still reading it means you’re intrigued and want to know more. Number one question will be, “so how do you do it?” It first starts with support from your family and loved ones. You need to understand that this is going to be a crazy detox style diet which I now believe to be not sustainable for extensive periods of time. Saying that, I first hand can see the benefits of this and think you can cycle into this state regularly throughout the year. So you need to acknowledge that meals may have to be doubled up as the rest of the fam may still be on their normal diet. Getting takeaway or going out to eat gets so much harder as you have to do some serious planning beforehand. Going to friends houses for dinner is just downright awkward as you need to impose on them your diet restrictions. I’ve actually rang up a friend and told them not to cook for me as I would bring my own.

But saying all this. Isn’t that what friends and family are for. To support you when you are doing something. Especially in this circumstance where you are trying to improve your own health and well-being. By the way, the above support I mention goes for any diet. It’s not that easy for folks to be on a restrictive diet, whether that be keto, paleo, low calories, low fats, etc.

It’s not all rosey and positive though. Like any diet, especially the restrictive ones, you need to be careful of what you are doing and go into it well informed. Consult your doctor or dietician if you have any prior health issues or you are not sure about some aspects of it. There’s plenty of material online as well, which describes some of the things you need to keep an eye out for. If you still want to go ahead with such a diet, make sure you eat clean, balance things with exercise and sleep as well… and definitely have an exit strategy. You will not be on this type of diet forever. So make sure you work out a way to go back to your normal diet without all the side effects that may bring.

Now that we’ve got past that emotional dilemma, let’s get back to the how. It’s like the boy scouts motto, be prepared. That’s right. It’s all about planning. As mentioned, I’ve been doing this for a while now and have collated a bunch of useful tips and tricks to help you along this journey… I’ve written about these here. 

Stay safe, eat clean and live well.