With the new year comes new resolutions. If your goal revolves around health, clean eating, and moderation, consider what you consume in a day. Balance and moderation are the keys to any diet. However, it can be helpful to consider what exactly you are eating and drinking on a daily to weekly basis.
A low-carb diet helps to eliminate or limit processed, starch, or sugar and focuses on healthy fats, lean proteins, and vegetables. While a diet is a term for what you eat, it doesn’t mean you have to be strict. If you make a mistake, it’s okay. Simply, start fresh in the morning.
Health Benefits of Low Carb and Keto Diet
Some of the potential health benefits of moving to a low-carb or keto diet are:
- Reduce your appetite
- Increase your levels of good HDL cholesterol
- Reduce blood sugar and insulin levels
- May lower blood pressure
Becoming a healthier version of yourself doesn’t have to be drastic. Small shifts in your morning routine will add up so eventually, you can build mindful and consistent clean eating habits that last.
Infographic created by How To Cure
Build Healthy Habits
Here are some helpful tips to start building habits towards your clean eating journey:
- Buy a 24-ounce reusable water bottle, fill it up, and finish a few times a day.
- Add a healthy element to each meal, like spinach or kale to your morning eggs. Include a rainbow variety of veggies in your salad. Add flaxseeds or chia seeds to muffins.
- Start with a green smoothie every morning. Include fiber and greens like spinach or kale, healthy fat like coconut oil or almond butter, and superfoods like goji berries or bee pollen.
Low Carb Food
It’s also helpful to keep in mind what you should focus on including on your plate every day. Try to crowd out the bad stuff with delicious wholesome food. Some foods that are good for a low-carb diet include:
- Leafy greens like kale, spinach, sprouts, or collard greens
- Meats like beef, poultry, or pork
- Seafood like salmon, halibut or shrimp
- Fruits like raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries
For an easy shopping list or low-carb or keto food list, download or print the reference by Kitchen Cabinet Kings below. It breaks down types of foods, net carb amounts, and serving sizes to help you stay on track with your goals.
Click here to print Low Carb and Keto Food List
Free Printable Keto Food List
The ketogenic diet has a wide variety of foods, and thus, one will not be hungry during the plan. Fat is super filling as a macronutrient. Besides, there are no tight calorie restrictions concerning this diet as long as you are in ketosis.
Below, you’ll discover the preferred keto-friendly foods, suitable for the Standard Ketogenic Diet. For a comprehensive list, refer to our infographic:
75% of Your Diet: Healthy Fats and Non-Starchy Vegetables
- Non-starchy vegetables: These include leafy greens, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus, bok choy, and zucchini.
- Healthy fat sources will be flaxseed, MCT, and coconut oil from olives, olive oil, and tallow from organically raised animals. Additionally, include omega-3-enriched egg yolks, nut butter, and avocado oil with naturally grown foods.
- Animal fats: These will bring out some fish like salmon, mackerel, halibut, and organ meats, including the inside parts of the animals like liver, bone marrow, and tongue, and bacon. Shellfish like crabs, lobsters, and shrimp. Ghee is a better option.
- Nuts and seeds: Choose unsweetened butter of nuts and seeds (avoid peanut butter), pecans, cashews, pine, sunflower seeds, and Brazil nuts.
- Other alternatives could be 100% organic cocoa powder, spirulina, mineral water, almond flour, unsweetened drinks such as tea or coffee, or the same versions of nut milk such as almond, hemp, or coconut.
20% of Your Diet: Proteins
- Animal Protein: Choose from grass-fed meats (best sources of omega-3 essential fatty acids), such as Beef, Lamb, Venison, and Bison, plus Pork.
- Bone broth: Prepare bone broth using your Instapot or follow our recipe. Collagen and gelatin supplements.
- Full-fat dairy: organic sour cream, cottage cheese, and cream cheese without sugar added, heavy cream.
5% of Your Diet: Carbs
- Limited amounts of berries, such as raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries.
- Legumes: Small portions of green peas and beans.
Please note that these percentages are based on the Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD). If you want to learn more about stocking your kitchen for the SKD, refer to our detailed guide.
Foods to Avoid on Keto
To maintain ketosis, avoid the following foods:
- Grains
- Refined sugar
- Sugar alcohols like xylitol and sorbitol
- Processed foods containing vegetable oils
Comparison of Different Types of Ketogenic Diets
The factuality on the other hand of the ketogenic diet remains that it addresses from the ordinary to even those maintaining it as part of their bodybuilding goals. This includes the following: Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD) with high-fat, moderate-protein, and very low-carb consumption. It is the most traditional and ideal type for those looking to lose some body weight or bring metabolic parameters back into health status. The Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD) is a variation of the standard ketogenic diet in this way, active individuals can have some extra energy by consuming carbohydrates during workouts. Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD): The refeeding period of a higher number of carbs on such days as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high carb days is designed for athletes or intense training schedules, which have to replenish their storage of glycogen. All of these carry within them their artfulness and benefits, making the ketogenic diet adaptable to a wide range of health goals and lifestyles.
What Can I Eat on the Keto Diet?
The keto diet is involving high-fat foods that are fairly rich in protein and have very low carbohydrates. They include meats, fatty fish, eggs, butter, and cream. Others are cheese, nuts and seeds, healthy oils, avocados, low-carb veggies, and condiments. The purpose is to maintain carbohydrate consumption to a bare minimum, to be able to remain in effective states of ketosis, in which the body can effectively burn fat for energy.
What Can I Not Eat on the Keto Diet?
Besides, just to ensure further that the keto diet works, you should avoid some alcoholic drinks with a lot of carbs, sweetened drinks, and, if possible, those much-processed foods and snacks with a low-carb” or “keto-friendly” label. This is meant to ensure you eat wholesome and nutrient-dense foods that will assist in the induction of the state of ketosis.
Ketogenic Diet Advantages
Now, solidly founded among its use in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, is another source of benefit from lower rates of seizures. Short-term adherents to the diet will often report significant weight loss. It has brought promising results for people suffering from autism, traumatic brain injuries, and brain tumors, as well as for people prone to Alzheimer’s disease, migraines, and quite surprisingly, even Type 2 diabetes in the recent survey. They include reduced need for insulin, levels of fasting blood sugars, improved levels of A1C, and marked weight loss.
Ketogenic Diet Disadvantages
As with most diets severely limiting food intake, meeting basic nutritional requirements might be challenging with keto,” says Stone. Such a regime often bears with it such common unpleasant side effects as constipation and the onset of ‘keto flu’; what is more, possible potential long-term health consequences remain poorly understood. It is largely accepted that following highly restricted diets can be problematic and affect the relationship with food.
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