The ketogenic diet (also called the keto diet) is one that you will almost certainly have heard of by now; it’s achieved more popularity in the past few years as a great general diet, and you’ll likely have noticed that your social media feeds have been filling up with keto diet posts lately. But just what is the ketogenic diet, and what should you be including in your diet if you want to follow it?
The keto diet increases the number of ketones produced by the liver by feeding the body on a diet that consists of a high-fat, but a low-carbohydrate list of foods. This, in turn, was originally used as a treatment for epilepsy when more than three conventional drugs don’t control the condition – and are still applied for this use by experts today.
Here are the 8 ultimate keto diet foods that your diet should have more of.
1. Red Meat
When you switch over to the keto diet, you’re usually made to avoid anything that’s high in carbohydrates – and if you’re used to including carbohydrate-rich meals as sides (for example, potato salad) with your main meal of the day, then you’ll inevitably have to find something to replace your carb-rich staple food with. A lot of people find that red meat is the easiest and best way to consume the maximum amount of nutrients without the carbs – and there are many keto diet meals based around meat.
Find meat that doesn’t contain any added hormones; usually free-range, grass-fed is best. Buy the best quality meat you can afford – and you’ll quickly find that you can do a thousand different things with the same cut of meat.
If you’re vegetarian, you’ll have to make some huge adaptations in order to follow the keto diet effectively – and replace meat with adequate nutrients.