Top 3 Fats for a Vegan Keto Diet

(Newswire.net — April 8, 2018) Cheyenne, Wyoming — The restrictive nature of a vegetarian keto diet can leave the body yearning for more fat if one’s not careful about managing it. Luckily, there are a number of plant-based sources of fat to reach for in addition to consuming eggs and high fat dairy. While the ketogenic diet is most popular amongst meat eaters, it is very much possible, with considerable effort, for vegetarians as well. 

 “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.” 

So in the case of a vegetarian, protein needs to come from plants that are rich in nutrients as well as healthy fats to be sustainable. Avocado oil, red palm oil and coconut oil are all highly recommended for adding healthy fats when cooking and baking meals. Having the highest smoke point of any other cooking oil, the avocado oil is packed with healthy oleic acid and lutein which lowers the risk of developing age-related eye diseases. 

“Due to its high smoke point and heat stability, red palm oil is a good choice for dishes that are fried or sautéed,” states Dr. Axe. “Besides lowering your cholesterol levels, palm oil has also been shown to help improve the health of your heart by slowing the progression of heart disease. Red palm oil is also jam-packed with tocotrienol, a form of vitamin E that has potent antioxidant properties and can support healthy brain function. This can have far-reaching benefits and may aid in everything from slowing dementia to enhancing cognition.” 

Coconut Oil is considered a superfood as far as healthy fats go because it’s rich in fatty acids which makes it a great fuel source for anyone, especially those on ketogenic diets. By nature, coconut oil helps the body absorb fat soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D, E and K. Ensuring a high protein and healthy fats intake is critical to supporting ketosis. 

“Our bodies prefer to burn carbs for fuel before they burn fat, so a ketogenic diet forces our bodies to use our fat as fuel, which leads to weight loss,” explains DietinigWell.com. “Ketogenic diets work because consuming a low amount of carbs causes our metabolism to go into a state called ketosis. This happens when there is an increase in ketones in our bloodstream. Ketones are created when our bodies use fat as fuel. These ketones are a form of fuel that helps the body burn fat as the main source of fuel, instead of using the glucose (sugar) from carbs.” 

With that said, it’s clear as to why vegetarians need to plan carefully how to eat more protein and healthy fats to fuel their body and maintain safe levels of ketosis. To help the process along, it’s good to complement such diets with exogenous ketones such as the HealthyWiser™ KetoFast Supplement Powder which also promotes brain health and enhances nutrient absorption.