Let's face it, there are lots of misconceptions out there about the keto diet. People haven't done their research. People relied too easily and what their friends tell them. In fact, too many individuals, who would otherwise benefit from this amazing diet, let Facebook comments and link shares discourage them. This really is too bad, because if they only knew, they probably would benefit quite a bit from the keto diet.
What benefits? Well, imagine eating fatty and greasy foods with a clean conscience. I know, sounds too crazy to be true. Well, that’s exactly what you get with the keto diet. You can indulge in your ‘guilty’ food pleasures and not have to worry. Keto enables you to melt off your fat by, you guessed it, eating fatty foods. What’s not to love? Another key benefit keto brings to the table is its inflammation fighting properties. Please understand that inflammation is bad news. The reason why the Standard American Diet (rich in carbs) is making so many people sick is because it is an inflammatory diet.
You end up bloated because your carb intake sucks up so much fluid. I wish I can say that this is the extent of the inflammation you suffer from a standard high carb diet. Nope. Not even close. Not only do you bloat up because of all that extra water, your nerves, cardiovascular system, kidneys, even your skin all bear the brunt of all that extra water. Your blood pressure remains elevated, your skin starts to wrinkle up, you end up suffering from brain fog, I can go on and on. To say the least, inflammation is bad news. When you switch over to a keto diet, you cut down dramatically on carbs. This means there’s less water absorbing hyper spongy carb molecules in your system.
Not only will your body start expelling your ‘water weight’ (which is great news for people trying to lose weight), you will also get better skin. All that inflammation weighing down on your skin and prematurely aging and wrinkling it disappears. Similarly, your nerves get a much needed break and neurotransmitters in your brain and central nervous system do a much better job sending nerve signals. This translates to less ‘brain fog’ and increased mental alertness. Finally, getting rid of much of that water in your system means your blood vessels get to relax and your blood pressure starts to normalize. Still, if you believe in some common myths about ketosis, ketogenic foods, and the keto diet in general, you would cut yourself off from the awesome benefits listed above. Here are some common myths you need to keep an eye out for so you don't get thrown off track.
One of the most common misconceptions about the keto diet is that ketosis is the same as ketoacidosis. Ketosis, of course, is the metabolic process your body goes through when it burns fat for energy. On a standard diet, your body burns sugar for energy. This means when you eat carbohydrates, your body processes those calories into energy. This is the body's default setting, but the body does have an alternative. It can use fat for energy; this process is called ketosis. Your body releases the fat stored in fat cells all over your body. This fat is then turned by your metabolic system into chemical compounds called ketones. Your body’s cells then absorb ketones and burn these molecules into the energy your body needs to continue living. Ketosis is the foundation for the keto diet. Unfortunately, a lot of people confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis. The former is safe. The latter is deadly. Obviously, they are not one and the same. Ketoacidosis is a condition where your body builds up too many ketone acids, which is the byproduct of breaking down fat. When your body builds up too much ketones, you can die. The good news is, for most people, ketoacidosis is not a risk at all. This condition really only becomes a risk if your body does not produce any insulin whatsoever.
Put simply, it mostly affects people who have type I diabetes. If you're like most people who are thinking of trying the keto diet, and you can produce insulin normally, you have nothing to fear. You have to understand that even within the keto framework, you're still taking in a little bit of carbohydrates. This is usually enough to flip on insulin for a small period of time in your system to prevent ketoacidosis. Don't think for a second that just because you’ve switched over to burning fat as energy that ketoacidosis is going to be a real threat; it isn't. As long as you are able to produce insulin naturally, you should be fine.
One of the most discouraging misconceptions regarding the keto diet is that the food is simply hard to enjoy. Many people think that the quintessential keto meal plan is chockful of butter sticks, tons of eggs, and liquid fat. In other words, to many people, the keto diet is loaded with waxy tasting one dimensional food items you’d rather forget. This can't be further from the truth. If you think about it, a lot of the foods that you eat are things that you would consider “guilty pleasures.” I'm talking about fatty and salty food. You are halfway keto and you don’t even know it.
All of us have some sort of guilty pleasure when it comes to fatty foods. You know you shouldn't be eating it, but you do it anyway because it tastes so good. Can you imagine changing your diet so that you basically eat your guilty pleasures all the time? I know, sounds crazy, but that's precisely what the keto diet is. It helps you load up on fat (the food that you were supposed to avoid), and you end up losing weight and becoming healthier. Please understand that there are a lot of misconceptions about high-fat foods.
I'm going to go into this issue in-depth with myth #3. But just because people have been saying the same things over and over again for decades, doesn't necessarily mean it's true. You can enjoy the vast majority of your meals on a keto diet. In fact, if you want to switch over to the keto diet, the easiest and the tastiest way possible, click here for the keto blueprint that will help you adopt this diet quickly and easily. For several decades now, we have been led to believe that foods high in fat are very bad for us. This has been the conventional wisdom going on for 50-60 years.
It turns out, according to fairly recent research, that high-fat foods are not the culprits for America's ever-expanding waistline and obesity epidemic. Loading up on eggs and fats will not lead to a dietary death sentence with everything else being equal. For all that fat and cholesterol to eventually kill you, you have to do something else-pump your system with carbs. Carbohydrates inflame your system. When you pair a high fat intake with an inflamed cardiovascular system, you run the risk of developing blood clots. This leads to strokes and other cardiovascular accidents. When you cut out carbs from your diet, you discover the real truth about dietary fat intake. The truth is the precise opposite of what you have been hearing for decades now. High-fat foods actually improve your health. Who knew? After all, we’ve been told time and time again that high-cholesterol foods can make us sick. Who is the real dietary bad guy? Sugar, that's correct.
When you load up on polished white rice, potatoes or refined flour products, it’s only a matter time until you get sick. Carbohydrates inflame your body from nasty skin, pimples, high blood pressure, cardiovascular issues, certain types of cancer. I can go on and on. Sugar brings all these to the table; bad news. The truth is, high-fat foods are actually more consistent with how the human body has evolved. When you look at our ancestors, the main things that they're looking for are fatty foods, because they feel fuller for a longer period of time. Fat is also metabolized by your body into compounds that are actually very healthy for you. There are many high-carb, high-starch foods like rice, you could easily replace with keto-friendly ingredients. Don't think that just because these substitutions are not obvious, that they are impossible.
The secret to staying on a keto diet involves your tastes. That's the bottom line. You don’t have to change your flavor preferences. You don’t have to become a completely new person to adopt the keto diet. You can hang on to your taste preferences. You cannot impose a new system on yourself. You can’t say to yourself that you can switch from liking certain flavors to developing a liking for a completely different set of flavors. That kind of strategy rarely works, if at all. One of the main reasons why people go from one diet to another is the fact that they expect the diet to change them. They bend over backwards trying to twist their taste preferences and habits to fit their new diet. Sure, they might be able to pull this off for the first few weeks. But eventually, old habits catch up. Too many people end up where they began. In fact, whatever weight they lost at the beginning of their new diet comes raging back. To make things worse, they end up weighing more after their diet than when they began. This happens all the time because people impose new tastes on themselves. They put unnecessary pressure on themselves to totally change. With keto, you only need to find a keto substitute for the high carb dishes you enjoy.
There’s no need to totally forget about your taste preferences or ‘go to’ meals. You don’t have to change yourself drastically for the keto diet to work for you. Just because you’re used to a certain way of eating, doesn't mean there's no keto substitute. There is always a keto substitute. It all boils down to how eager you are in making that transition. To make things easier on yourself, click here to get a framework for a bulletproof keto diet transition plan. With a little bit of creativity, you won’t have any problems finding keto substitutes for many of the old standby dishes you’re accustomed to. Here is the great thing about the keto diet; you don't have to change your schedule. Seriously, I know that comes as a shock to a lot of people who have tried diet after diet. After all, if you have gone on some sort of weight loss or weight management program, you know that time is always an issue; not so with keto. You just have to be clear about your taste profile; what kind of flavors do you personally prefer. Once you have a game plan going, then the meal plan pretty much assembles itself.
Nine times out of ten, a lot of the dishes that you already enjoy can be converted to a keto version with minimal effort and substitution. Since keto meal plans are so loaded with fat and are so filling, you can feel full with a fraction of the serving you normally expect of your old standard American diet. The bottom line is you find keto ingredients that meet your flavor profile. It really is that simple. With a few adjustments, you can switch over to a keto diet and eventually turn it into a lifestyle. That's how you keep the pounds off pretty much permanently.