Keto Tips Archives - Oh My Heartsie Girl

November 4, 2019September 11, 2020

What Nuts Can You Eat on a Keto Diet?

A ketogenic diet is low carb, and getting started is not easy. But, with the inclusion of snacks such as nuts, the whole journey becomes simpler. You can feel better when hungry between meals and craving for foods such as pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes. Besides, the diet eliminates all sugary foods, and therefore even desserts are out of reach. Here are some of the nuts allowed on in a keto diet.

Macadamia nuts

Macadamia nuts are some of the satiating nuts you eat while on a keto diet. They have about two grams of carbs and 21 grams of fat per ounce. The fat content of the nuts is 75% and they help lower cholesterol levels and insulin resistance in the body while keeping off belly fat and cardiovascular diseases.

Since the nuts are rich in selenium, magnesium, and potassium, they help quicken weight loss and help manage hypertension, which lowers the risk of stroke. You can find these nuts in peanut butter or as eat them as snacks.

Pecans

Pecans are rich in oleic acid, and their fat content is 70%. A single serving of pecans has a gram of starch, protein is 3 grams and fat is 20 grams. The presence of oleic acid helps lower cardiovascular disease risk and also diabetes type 2. What’s more, the nuts enhance immunity in the body while lowering inflammation.

Brazil nuts

Brazil nuts are beneficial to the body, with only a single gram of carbs per serving. They are rich in fats at 18 grams and proteins at 4 grams in every serving. They help to lower triglycerides and cholesterol. They are large and in a keto diet, you eat about eight of them in every ounce serving. The selenium in the nuts is great for cognitive function, especially in older people as it overcomes oxidative stress.

Walnuts

Walnuts have polyunsaturated fat weighing 18.3 grams, proteins 4.3 grams and carbs 1.9 grams. The healthy fat in these nuts is similar to what you get in avocado and sunflower seeds and they help prevent cardiovascular diseases and improve testosterone levels in men. Besides, those following a ketogenic diet lower weight, lower cancer risks and prevent damage of the cell by eating these nuts.

Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts make a healthy snack and keep you full between meals in keto. Studies revealed that these nuts could lower bad cholesterol in the body and do not interfere with the levels of good cholesterol in the body.

Nuts to Eat in Moderating During Keto

The above five nuts have very low carbs. But these ones should be eaten in moderation because they have more carbs and can throw you out of ketosis if you overindulge.

Pine Nuts

Pine nuts are tasty and may look harmless. But their carb content is 3 grams, protein is 4 grams, and starch is 19 grams. If you overeat of these nuts, you could end up with over 30% carbs in your meals throughout the day.

Almonds

Almonds’ fat content is 14 grams; carbs content is 6 grams, and protein 5 grams. Baking flour used for keto diet is made from almond. It is a staple that you should not overeat as it can increase your carbs per day and affect your ketosis. However, almonds have many health benefits, including enhanced metabolism and lower cholesterol in the body.

Cashews

Cashews are ideal when consumed as nut butter. They have 12 grams of fat, which is not much compared to most keto nuts. They also have a high content of carbs, 8 grams, making it extremely important to be careful with the nuts. They can make an ideal day time snack to keep you full and minimize the risks of eating non-keto foods.

Pistachios

Pistachios have more proteins than any other keto nut. The protein content in the nuts is 6 grams, 4.6 grams of carbs, and 13 grams of fat per serving. According to studies, these nuts can help lower bad cholesterol and enhance the cardiovascular system’s health. One interesting thing about pistachios is that they come in shells, which can easily discourage you eat a lot of them and it helps in portion control.

How to Eat Keto Nuts

Nuts can be eaten as a snack or an ingredient in your recipe. Here are rules to help you enjoy eating nuts while getting maximum benefits.

Avoid Any Nuts with Suspect Ingredients

When buying nuts, always read the package and stay away from nuts with added flavors, sugars, and some oils, including canola, sunflower, soybean, veggie and peanut oils. The ingredient lists are always clear and make the nuts rich in carbs. The best nut butter should be made of nuts, olive oil and salt, and nut flour should not have extra ingredients apart from the nuts.

Watch Your Portions All the Time

Nuts are tasty, and it is easy to eat large portions in one sitting. You need to measure the amount you eat all the time. A measuring cup comes in handy. You can take too many carbs thinking you are safe because the nuts carb content is below 5 grams, but they can quickly elevate your ideal carb allotment in a day.

Have a Variety

Apart from having several types of nuts to snack on, you should have other foods, including fruits, meats, and vegetables in variety. This not only ensures you get enough nutrients but always helps you avoid overeating nuts. Topping smoothies or salads with nuts make your food interesting. Nuts are a great way to spice your boring low-carb diet, but always remember moderation is essential.

Check for sensitivities

Nuts contain some ingredients which can affect your digestive system. One of the ingredients to avoid in nuts is phytic acids. It is found naturally in most nuts and if you get bloated after any nuts, you should avoid them all. What’s more, phytic acid can also affect the absorption of zinc, iron, and magnesium in the body.

The Bottom Line

Choose your nuts wisely, and you will enjoy your keto journey. Check out our keto fruit list to help you supplement these nuts effectively. They are delicious and can brighten your day and help curb your cravings for carb-rich foods.
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Keto Articles of interest:
Can I Eat Salsa On Keto?
Restricting Intake Of Calories Using a Keto Diet
What Nuts Can You Eat on a Keto Diet?
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August 2, 2019September 11, 2020

Why Keto And Intense Exercise Aren’t A Good Combination

So you want to improve your lifestyle. From losing weight to toning up, building muscle, and improving overall fitness, you know it’s a good combination of changing your diet and undertaking a little exercise. You know that keto is great for burning fat, and increasing the intensity of your work out is the best way to challenge yourself. So why not do both, for maximum impact? Great idea – but unfortunately tough to maintain – and here’s why.

The keto conundrum

At its core, the ketogenic diet involves a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, and high-fat meal plan throughout the day. Denying the body glucose, and slow-to-digest proteins, the primary fuel in the body becomes fat – which can lead to a boost in energy. This is primarily due to the body going into a state of ketosis, which is where the body begins to feed continuously on fat reserves when fat from food runs out.

If you’re concerned that this sounds like an incredible strain on your body, ketosis is actually a natural process that everybody goes through from time to time, particularly when we’re asleep. An unfortunate by-product of ketosis is that it can make your breath smell a little, so if you’ve ever woken with bad breath for no apparent reason – now you know why! However, another downside is that without glucose in the body, energy reserves are significantly depleted.

Intensity unsustainable

And you’ll notice this no more than when you next hit the gym. Whereas with a good supply of glucose in your cells you may be able to lift heavier weights, run for longer, and recover faster, a body in a state of ketosis may not match your usual levels of performance. So, although you’ll be burning more body fat during the day (and night!), you’re likely to find it tough to increase or match your usual levels of performance.

Another aspect of the ketogenic diet that people find hard to sustain, of course, is the diet itself. It can become awkward when you’re preparing food, eating out, and when you haven’t got enough low-carb supplies in the house to sustain the diet – and the human body is very sensitive to the occasional slip in your food consumption.

Finding the right balance

So, unless you can be sure that you’re going to stick wholeheartedly to the diet for a sustained period of time, it might not be worth the risk. For instance, if you were to eat a few potatoes, your body would instantly switch back to turning carbohydrates into glucose again, and all that fat you’ve been eating would be added to your existing fat reserves (even if you’ve managed to deplete them a little during the diet so far).

A more sustainable way to boost your health, therefore, would be to simply lower the volume of carbohydrates you eat and see how far you can push yourself when exercising. A combination of group training and reduced calorie consumption could be far easier to manage and adapt over time, so be sure to start with a weight loss retreat by Prestige Bootcamp, and plan your meals effectively to slowly but surely maintain a calorie deficit.

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May 19, 2018September 11, 2020

7 Signs That The Ketogenic Diet is NOT Right For You

The keto diet might just be the most popular idea in the unconventional health and fitness world right now. More than ever before, a wider audience is considering low-carb diets, especially the keto diet. Why? Because it has proven to be very effective in losing weight and improving overall health.

The keto diet is a low-carb, moderate protein and high-fat type of eating. Keto works by changing the way your body turns food into energy. The goal of the ketogenic diet is to put your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. This is achieved, when you cut out carbs from your daily menu, forcing to deplete all the glucose sources in your body.

Whenever your body doesn’t have enough glucose, it naturally starts looking for other sources of energy. For that, your body starts producing ketone bodies by breaking down fats. This is how your body adapts to lack of carbs. Going keto basically means, that you switch your body from burning glucose to burning fat.

The keto diet was developed during the 1920s by Dr. Russel Wilder, to be used as a treatment for childhood epilepsy. It was effective and widely used.

Once you are in ketosis, you can enjoy all the benefits keto diet offers: effective weight management, stable energy levels, less cravings, increased mental performance and much more.

The ketogenic diet has been shown to be very effective for weight management and as a natural health booster, but the ketogenic lifestyle is not for everyone. There are some potential health-based drawbacks. This affects especially women because it can disrupt hormonal production and nutritional deficiencies. Before considering the ketogenic lifestyle , verify your health status with your doctor.

If you find yourself in one of the following situations, then the ketogenic lifestyle may not be the right one for you.

If you have serious blood sugar issues

Many people will experience low blood sugar during the keto diet, at least initially. This can be dangerous if you are on diabetes medication or just struggling with unstable blood sugar. Yes, there are lots of research done on a topic how can be managed through low-carb diets, but to be safe, people with a history of diabetes or hypoglycemia should consider ketogenic diet only when being monitored closely by their doctor . This is especially true because often diabetes medication dosages need to be adjusted as the diet is very restrictive.

If you have a history of an eating disorder

If you have a history of eating disorder, then you might want to pass the ketogenic diet. This is because the ketogenic diet, at its core, is pretty restrictive. Scientific research has shown, that low carb diets seem to be particularly effective up to 6 months, that is because after that people tend to give up and start eating same old things. This is why the keto diet is more as a lifestyle choice, not a crash diet.

If you have adrenal fatigue

Adrenal fatigue is often developed thanks to various stress factors. Research also shows that adrenal fatigued combined with the ketogenic diet tends to make the condition worse. Mainly because of the spike in cortisol levels. Some symptoms can be insomnia, muscle soreness, irregular heartbeat, depression and much more. Adrenal fatigue takes place when the body is under chronic stressors and the adrenal glands can no longer keep up with the demands . The ketogenic diet is just additional stressor for your body and mind (in the beginning) that you don’t need.

If you have a hypothyroidism

The thyroid helps to regulate your metabolism and energy levels. Insulin is needed to convert the inactive thyroid hormone into active (T4 to T3). When following the ketogenic diet, you will restrict carbohydrates intake to the point, where there is not enough insulin available. A recent study has shown, that people with hypothyroidism who are on a ketogenic diet, have reported their symptoms to get worse when following the ketogenic type of eating style.

If you have a history of gut dysbiosis

The ketogenic diet can alter gut flora. If you have a history of gut dysbiosis, then you need to be extremely careful when considering the ketogenic diet, because it can reduce the diversity of the gut microbiota. You need prebiotic fiber for a healthy gut and many beneficial prebiotic fibers come from carbohydrate sources. As with the keto diet, you will cut out most carb sources, your microbiota can shift to other direction which can, in turn, contribute to digestive problems, skin issues and more. One way to cope with that is to manage your fiber intake during the diet.

If you are nutrient deficient

Although to diet is high-fat diet, it’s not uncommon, that the weight loss can occur very rapidly, if the diet is followed properly. If you are already underweight or deficient in nutrients, the keto diet is not recommended. If you lose weight easily, a moderate diet that includes complex carbs and healthy fats and proteins may be a better fit. Although the variety of ketogenic foods is pretty big, it lacks many fiber-rich foods, as you need to eliminate all the grains and starchy vegetables from the daily menu.

You have a history of kidney disease

Following the keto diet, increases the risk of kidney stones. This is an unfortunate side-effect. If you are prone to kidney problems, then it might be smart to keep away from keto. Now, we all might have experienced kidney stones in some time during our lives, does this mean I should never do anything anymore? Definitely no. If you are still interested managing weight using keto diet, we suggest to consult with your doctor and let them check your urine calcium-creatinine ratio. In this way, you can be sure you are not putting pressure on your kidneys.

It’s important to understand, that keto diet causes disruption to your everyday life. It requires you to change your behavior, your habits, and foods you eat. Keto is not just any other Western diet, where one day you can do a cheat day and start over whenever if feels like it. Listen to your body and know what you can and cannot handle. Just because everyone else seems to be adapting to the keto diet, does not mean that you have to do it in that way.

If you have any medical conditions, then definitely consult with your doctor, before you will consider starting the ketogenic diet.

Author bio: Alex Reed is a health enthusiast, whose mission is to help to change lives, using the ketogenic lifestyle. So everyone can benefit from ketosis and the magical effects it has on the human body.

Website: Website: Body Ketosis

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