{"id":1058,"date":"2012-08-27T09:40:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T13:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/?p=1058"},"modified":"2014-03-17T10:57:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T14:57:16","slug":"vegan-keto-experiment-week-one-food-info-ratios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meshell.ca\/blog\/vegan-keto-experiment-week-one-food-info-ratios\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegan Keto Experiment : Week one – Food, Info, Ratios"},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, a disclaimer<\/strong>: I am not a physician. I am not a nutritionist. I’ll admit to having an academic understanding of biochemistry, and the human body,\u00a0but I wont delve into it too much for brevity.<\/em> This is anecdotal single trial human experimentation. For me, this is a temporary experiment, and not something I’d consider as a permanent lifestyle change. I’m also not encouraging this or discouraging it. This is my experience so far. Your millage may vary.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve spent the last 7 days doing a Vegan Keto style diet with JC’s brother. He has been doing a non-veg keto for around a year now, and I’ve been curious about how it would work veganized. Like most low carb, high fat, high protein diets, at first glance, it doesn’t really look very vegan friendly. I enjoy the occasional challenge, and I’ve been feeling stuck in a rut with my food choices lately. I felt like I could use some dramatic food changes in my life, so this week, I’ve done that pretty successfully.<\/p>\n

I’m not really one for “going on a diet”, but I am and have been very curious to see how this one would feel and what changes I would experience. I think one of the major benefits of doing it vegan style<\/a> is the complete elimination of cholesterol, one of the cited issues people mention with low-carb diets. The con of doing it vegan style is that a suddenly a not-so-limited diet (plant based), becomes a lot more limited, and it becomes really essential to make your own food (something that is admittedly easier with a standard keto diet.)<\/p>\n

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What is the premise of a ketogenic diet\/benefits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, a ketogenic diet is used by two main groups of people. Those looking to lose weight or people with refractory epilepsy. The latter is the one I found most fascinating when researching this diet, but if you’d like to learn more, you can read more about that on the epilepsy foundation website<\/a>, pubmed<\/a>, or on wikipedia<\/a> (which can lead you to even more information – sources!.) There is also an organization called The Charlie Foundation<\/a> that promotes the diet to treat childhood epilepsy.<\/p>\n

Ketogenic diets “work” because by completely restricting carbohydrates to a small fraction of your daily caloric consumption your body goes into ketosis, where it burns its own fat for fuel rather than relying on carbohydrates for fuel. Since I’m currently in ketosis, my body is currently using ketone bodies for energy – the result of fatty acids broken down in my liver. There are two main ketone bodies, acetoacetate and 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate, that are used for energy (especially during the diet,) while acetone is the third, and is primarily excreted through your skin and urine during ketosis.<\/p>\n

The diet generally consists of a ratio where 65% of daily calories come from fat, 30% Protein, and 5% carbohydrates. More info is available here<\/a> in a quick and easy guide that I had nothing to do with.<\/p>\n

Other things of interest: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reddit:\u00a0 \/r\/Keto: Frequently Asked Questions list.<\/a> The \/r\/Keto board is generally not vegan or vegetarian friendly, but the F.A.Q is like a nice reasonable friend that can answer any of your question. \/r\/vegetarianketo<\/a> and \/r\/veganketo<\/a> are other sources of information.<\/p>\n

Potential Long Term Risks or Claimed Risks or general side effects
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