Hello, Food

One of the key components of any diet, Keto included, is to develop a healthy relationship with food.  Generally speaking though, most people have a dependent, bipolar, addictive relationship with food. It is not healthy at all.  We tend to teeter back and forth between dieting and cheating, or even just giving up altogether and eating whatever comes our way.  In the past, as I've tried many, many diets. I've lost weight once in awhile without ever really understanding why, other than the fact that I cut my calories.  Well, you can only cut so far, before you stall out and wonder what now?  At that point, most of us usually give up or switch to a new fad that is supposed to be making people lose weight.  It's a vicious cycle and is pretty much never ending.

In all honesty, I've never met anyone who lost weight by the old mantra "eat less, move more" and maintained that weight loss for the long term.  The truth is, unless you understand the food you eat, and what happens to the components of that food once ingested, you're always going to be shooting in the dark, nutritionally speaking.  Fad diets sometimes work (short term) and so do chemical and surgical methods, but again, unless you develop a healthy relationship with the food you consume, nothing will change long term.

Getting to Know Food

The first step in any relationship is getting to know one another.  In order to claim that someone is your friend, you had to first find common ground with them, or at least understand the fundamentals of how they think and act. Without this level of knowledge, you merely "know of" the person vs. "know" the person.  The same is true of food.  If you don't know what is IN your food, and how your body reacts to that set of nutrients, then you can't know how that food will affect you and whether or not you should continue to consume that food.

Before we go any further, let me clarify something.  There is a vast misuse of the word "Healthy" when it comes to food.  The word most marketers should be using is "Healthier".  (i.e. This is a healthier choice than that.).  Instead, they remove that little tidbit and extrapolate to say that X product is now "Healthy" simply because it is healthier than something similar.  The logic breaks down if you examine it too closely.


Let's look at some foods and I'll show you what I mean.  Let's start with everyone's favorite "health food" -- whole grain products.  Whole grain bread is SO much better for you than plain old white bread, right?  Well... not so much.  Let's take a look.

What does it mean when something is "made with whole grains".  Well, it only needs to mean that a portion of the grain is left whole (leaving the husk and the germ in the grain).  The rest (sometimes the lion's share) is often made up of refined flour due to cost.  The real issue is that the portion of the grain that is retained, whether whole grain or refined, is the starch.  And THAT is the culprit.  Telling someone who is trying to lose weight to eat whole grains instead of enriched or refined flours is like telling an alcoholic to only drink fine liqueurs instead of cheap whiskey.  Marking a product "whole grain" doesn't magically make that starch healthy.  

Wonder White Bread

Ezekiel Sesame Sprouted Whole Grain Bread

 


As you can see from these two labels, the whole grain bread is really only marginally more nutritious than the white bread.  It has more calories (not that we care about calories), less fat (which we DO care about) and a comparable number of net carbohydrates.  In other words, the whole grain bread is not that much healthier than the processed white bread.

Another good example is fruit.  "Eat more fruit!" they say. Well, they also say that "Fruit is nature's candy" and that is accurate.  So is the message really "Eat more candy?"  That's sort of the underlying effect of adding a lot of fruit to your diet.  It's sort of like the analogy above, because fruit is "healthier" than straight up candy, that makes it "healthy".  No, not really.

The Keto diet works because it removes sources of glucose from your diet, forcing your body to use another form of fuel.  Glucose is the "easy fuel" that your body will use any time it is available because there is no work involved.  If you give your body carbohydrates (which then become glucose in the body), naturally your systems are going to use the glucose that's right there handy and store its fat for a later time when the glucose becomes scarce.  With today's SAD (Standard American Diet), the glucose never becomes scarce because we are always loading up with carbs.  You see how that can build up and backfire?  

So, just like you wouldn't advise someone who is trying to lose weight to "eat more candy", you should also be careful of the candy-like amount of sugars in fruit.  "Natural sugars" are still sugars, still spike your insulin levels, and still cause your body to burn glucose rather than fat.  That said, just like everything else, some fruits are better than others.  On the Ketogenic diet, you should limit your fruit intake to berries (blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.) rather than apples, bananas, oranges, melons (especially watermelon), and other fruits, which tend to have enough sugar in them to offset their otherwise appealing nutritional value.  The berry family is full of antioxidants and other helpful micronutrients which are healthy for you and are a good choice for a special treat.  Try mixing up some homemade whipped topping (heavy whipping cream and a tiny bit of sweetener beaten till stiff) and mixing that with a few berries for a low carb, healthy sweet.

Grow the Relationship

Once you have a handle on the fundamentals of watching your carbs and making choices that don't spike your insulin levels, you can fill the bulk of your daily intake with low carb, high fat, moderate protein choices.  And here's the pay-off.  Yes, you CAN have a banana, or an orange, or even a bowl of pasta, a baked potato, or a piece of birthday cake. The difference here not so much WHAT you eat, but WHEN you eat.   You've already surrounded yourself with good foods that are good for your body.  Every day, you eat lots of protein and fat, but limit the carbs and you have a working system.  But then life happens.  Somebody has a benchmark birthday, a work party, a wedding, etc.  Life's celebrations are what we live for!  

What do you do? You have choices, really, and it is going to be okay as long as you're prepared.  First of all, if you know that a day is coming when you are going to want to eat off-the-books, plan ahead.  Have a day of fasting. No, your body will NOT go into "starvation mode" (BTW - that is the stupidest thing anyone has ever spouted...skipping one meal or even a few days of meals will not affect your physiology in any negative way.) Spend the 24 hours leading up to the celebration by drinking water or black coffee/tea only.  (Note: consult your physician before fasting if you are on medication that requires food).

You've heard the phrase "it's easier to beg forgiveness, than to ask permission"? Well the best part about fasting is that it works well on either side of the equation.  If you know and can plan ahead, fast before the event and then enjoy yourself.  If you get caught off guard and feel the need to eat to participate and/or socialize, then fast afterward and the effect is about the same.  In either case, fasting keeps your body from reverting back to burning glucose once you are fat-adapted (meaning your body is accustomed to using ketones for fuel).  Here's the secret.  Celebrations should be ONE-OFF events. It's fine to have cake, or mexican food, or whatever treat it is that is plaguing you... once.  Then back to the ketogenic way of eating.  Make celebrations special by keeping them limited to truly special occasions.  When every day becomes a celebration, there is nothing special about it any more.

Another strategy to combating party food is to make simple choices.  Okay, so you've given yourself permission to go off-menu for this special occasion.  That is not cart-blanche for pigging out.  Stick to your normal foods for the most part, avoiding obvious breads and sugars, even it means bringing a snack of your own, or eating before you arrive.  Then, when the event happens, make one indulgent choice and enjoy it thoroughly.  If you are tasked with helping provide food for an event (like a pot luck), be sure to bring something that you can and do enjoy. That way, if there are no good Keto choices, at least you'll have one thing you can enjoy.  Meat and cheese trays are a great example. (Put a bowl of crackers on the side for the carb-eaters, but you can enjoy the meat and cheese without guilt).

I highly recommend that you stick to a strict Keto way of eating for at least a month (maybe more if you're still struggling with cravings) before off-diet indulgences.  Give yourself a chance to get used to the Keto way of eating, and your carb cravings WILL eventually ease up and even go away completely for the most part.  Once the carbs really don't haunt you, it's easier to make a single off-diet choice, and enjoy it without relapsing.

Finally...

Take Control

The ketogenic way of eating is sustainable for a lifetime.  I've been at it for over a year and I honestly can't even imagine going back to my old ways.  If you focus day to day on eating simple Keto food, your life celebrations will be all the more special because it might be the first time you've had cake in months!  These days, people have the convenience and ability to get cake at the gas station on the way to eat cake!  And too many take advantage of that convenience.  Really, "just say NO" has its application here as well.  Sugars are like drugs... Just say No.

In summary, know what you are eating, know how it affects you, and take control of your cravings.  When you can master these three points, you will be in control of your food and you will have a healthy relationship with the consumables around you.  One of the wonders of Keto is how efficiently it breaks the sugar addiction.  While there are great sugar substitutes out there, and I am big on making sweet treats on Keto, it's best to avoid any sweeteners at all (as much as you can) in the beginning.  Even the sweet taste, although it does not directly affect blood glucose levels, does affect stimulators in the brain that can keep the sweet addiction alive.  Break the hold that sugars have on you, then you can start slowly adding sweeteners back into your diet, once YOU are in control.

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