It is well known that the ketogenic diet is one of the most evolutionarily appropriate ways the human beings can eat.
We should even call it “The Ketogenic way of eating” because it is designed for a long-term run.
As you may know, the Keto diet assumes a very low intake of carbohydrates, and zero intakes of starches or sugars, which can help you balance your blood sugar, decrease your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and improve your brain function. This diet is also known to be anti-inflammatory, it may lower your risk of arthritis, some kinds of cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Higher carbohydrate intake is associated with increased risk of all-cause and disease-specific mortality in head and neck cancer patients: results from a prospective cohort study.
Source: The National Center for Biotechnology Information, Carbohydrate intake study
It is needless to say that the human body needs a source of macronutrients and micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals to function properly and the ketogenic way of eating fulfills these requirements completely when is formulated properly.
But like everything else, the keto diet has its own pitfalls most people fall into.
And one of the most popular reasons why people fail on the keto, specifically in a long term is that they do not eat varied to get the essential nutrients or simply eat crap food. And finally, this “diet” will kill the body’s microbiome.
Nevertheless, the main purpose of the diet is to lose weight, this doesn’t mean it’s helping you optimize your health.
In this article, we’re going to look into the problem of “Dirty Keto”, along with the importance of sticking to “Clean Keto”.
So what’s the difference between eating clean keto and dirty keto?
Ketogenic diet vs clean eating
As the ketogenic diet popularity has been drastically exploded in the last few years big food companies had expanded their product range to meet the growing demand for keto-friendly products. Their foods in most cases are processed, including hidden carbs.
Also, the increasing number of fake gurus may encourage you eating just bacon, butter and fat meat in order to achieve the ketosis. All that is not true and may be very dangerous for your health in the long term period.
What is the dirty keto diet?
It’s been called “dirty keto” because it doesn’t require to care about the quality or the source of your nutrients.
Dirty keto includes such products as:
- spreads and margarine
- mayo,
- sausages,
- canola, soybean, safflower oil.
These foods can increase the inflammation level in the body, and in some cases even contain carcinogens.
This food is very bad for your digestive system as well.
What is a clean ketogenic diet
Clean ketogenic diet should include a quality source of essential nutrients, unprocessed food, healthier fats (like walnuts, olive oil, avocado), organic meats, green leafy vegetables, high fiber intake (which slows digestion and blunts insulin release and appeared to lower inflammation in our body).
Green leafy vegetables like Brussels Sprouts, kale, spinach, Artichoke, swiss chard, bok choy, broccoli, and fermented foods like sauerkraut and Kim chi all have an extraordinary amount of insoluble fiber.
The list of high-fiber vegetables also includes:
- avocado,
- broccoli,
- artichoke,
- Brussels sprouts,
- lentils,
- kidney beans,
- split peas,
- chickpeas,
- almonds,
- chia Seeds
The purpose of the clean keto diet is improving your health along with the weight loss.
A clean ketogenic diet meal should comprise healthier fats, moderate protein, and green leafy vegetables.
The vegetable should take up most of your plate. A cup of spinach, for example, has 7 calories, 0.4g net carbs and a whopping 2.4 g of fiber.
You can simply eat a whole bowl of spinach and not even worry about messing your macros.
Also, a high intake of high fiber vegetable will improve your digestive system.
On a cellular level, eating a properly formed, clean keto diet will support enhanced mitochondrial function, reduce oxidative damage, prevent cellular senescence, and increase the production of ketones (B-hydroxybutyrate). Ketones take a central place in breaking down the fats, so there’s an obvious link between them and a clean ketogenic diet.
A clean ketogenic diet will help you lose the excess weight, improve your health and it will do so continuously over the course of your life.