What to Eat and Not Eat on a Vegetarian Keto Diet

(Newswire.net — April 6, 2018) Cheyenne, Wyoming — Being vegetarian or vegan can be a bit challenging and demanding on where one lives and the extent of one’s budget. Nonetheless, there are some basics that must be covered when taking on a plant-based keto diet plan. 

“The simplest definition of the vegetarian ketogenic diet is a diet free of meat, fish, and fowl flesh that restricts carbohydrates,” says Ruled.me. “By eating in this way, we can reap all of the benefits of the ketogenic diet while reducing our carbon footprint, decreasing animal abuse, and improving health. Eggs and dairy — two of the main animal products you can eat on the vegetarian ketogenic diet — are nutrient dense, and their production has much less of an impact on the environment than lamb, beef, farmed salmon, poultry, turkey, and pork.” 

Oftentimes, vegetarian diets are packed with carbs which is good when operating on glucouse for energy but with the keto diet, the idea is to function on ketones, the body’s secondary fuel source. The process of running on ketones is called ketosis and this can only be achieved by depriving the body of its primary fuel. So this means strictly limiting or avoiding grains like wheat, corn and rice; legumes like lentils; sugar filled stuff like honey and maple syrup; certain fruits like bananas; and tubers such as yam and potatoes. That’s a lot to give up but it’s definitely worth the stuff gained in return. 

“On a ketogenic diet, your entire body switches its fuel supply to run almost entirely on fat,” explains DietDoctor.com. “Insulin levels become very low and fat burning increases dramatically. It becomes easy to access your fat stores to burn them off. This is obviously great if you’re trying to lose weight, and studies show that ketogenic diets lead to more weight loss. There are many benefits of ketosis. By giving your body and brain an almost unlimited supply of energy, you can increase your mental and physical endurance. It also reduces hunger, facilitating effortless weight loss. Furthermore, as getting into ketosis requires eating very few carbs, it can effectively reverse type 2 diabetes. Ketosis has also been used for a long time to control epilepsy – often even without drugs.” 

So with that said, it’s clear to see why people are raving about keto diets and vegetarians are able to benefit from it as well by focusing on more high protein plant based options. There are vegan “meats” available, as oxymoronic as that may seem, so tempeh and seitan should be kept close. Leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado, berries, coconut oil, almonds, eggs and high fat diary are all excellent sources of protein. 

Still, if it becomes overwhelming to narrow down one’s food options this much, there are always exogenous ketones such as the HealthyWiser™ KetoFast™ Supplement Powder that can induce a healthy state of ketosis with or without a high protein diet plan.