The diet world seems to be bifurcating. On the one hand, you’ve got millions of people advocating that we return to a more fundamental way of eating by eating whole plants food. In times gone by, people didn’t gorge themselves on white bread and Cheetos; they ate whole oats and brown bread made with the entire wheat berry.
Then on the other side, you’ve got those who think that we should give up carbs altogether – grains were never a part of our evolutionary history. We’re not adapted to them.
The picture, therefore, is complicated. We seem to have a medical establishment that is telling us to eat one kind of food and that carbs are not the enemy. And then we have a large number of people, mainly outside the medical establishment, saying that we should get rid of carbs altogether. Which is it?
The good news is that, as you’ll see, it probably doesn’t matter. The keto diet approves a vast list of ingredients that are easy to include in a regular healthy diet too. Anyone can eat them. How great is that?
Berries
Berries are one of nature’s best foods. They’re packed with antioxidants and are among the most nutrient-dense of all fruits.
The reason for this is their high skin-to-volume ratio. When you eat a handful of blueberries, for instance, you’re eating way more skin per unit of flesh than, say, you eat a pear. The smaller size of the fruit is part of the reason that they’re so healthy. You’re getting an enormous nutritional punch for every mouthful.
What’s more, total sugars in berries are surprisingly low. Most berries, except for blueberries and strawberries, are quite bitter. They barely contain any sugar at all; otherwise, they’d taste sweeter. People are often surprised to hear that they can be a part of the ketogenic diet, but they can.
Spices
Spices make freshly-prepared food taste delicious. Without basil, cinnamon, thyme, rosemary, cumin, and coriander, your meals would be pretty bland.
Spices contain carbohydrates – after all, they’re plants. But the carbs that they do provide are bound up in lots of fiber and phytonutrients. Herbs and spices are among the healthiest foods that you can eat according to some studies.
What’s more, because you use them in such small quantities, they hardly provide any carbohydrates anyway. They merely exist to excite the palate and get you to eat more healthy food.
Nuts
For people on the keto diet, nuts are a godsend. The great thing about nuts is that they barely contain any carbs and they don’t come with all the risks of eating animal food. Studies show that nuts like almonds might protect the heart instead of hurting it. It’s not the fat that’s the problem per se, but where the fat is coming from.
Giving up soda, bread, pasta, candy, and cake are all things that you need to do on a low-carb diet. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t still create great food using these delicious ingredients.
