By Miah Ayaan
Taking the plunge into a keto diet can be a massive change in lifestyle. With so many restrictions and changes, finding foods that fit into your diet that are healthy and keto-friendly can require a lot of patience and research.
Most of the stuff considered healthy in the grocery store, besides straight up veggies, is filled to the brim with sugars, carbohydrates, and fillers. With a keto diet, you need access to healthy whole foods that are high in fat and low in carbs.
But where do you even start?
To keep your body in the fat-burning state of ketosis, you should try to eat less than 30 carbs a day. The general macro breakdown is 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbs. Since carbs are already present in many nutritious, keto-friendly foods such as leafy, non-starchy vegetables, and low-sugar fruits like blueberries and blackberries, staying away from other grains and carb-heavy starches is the only path to success.
Yes, that means that bread and all your favorite bread products are a big keto diet no-no. Luckily there is a viable solution.
There are many non-bread “bread” options out there. A quick Pinterest search will yield hundreds of DIY bread-like concoctions to try, but creating these alternatives is never as easy as searching on Pinterest is to find them. Many of the recipes require ingredients the regular home cook probably doesn’t have on hand.
However, all is not lost. There are options for the keto enthusiast who wants to have their keto bread and eat it too.
4 Ways Bread can be Keto Friendly
1. If it is Made With Whole Ingredients.
Like paleo, except for the keto addition of cheese and dairy products, the keto lifestyle is about improving your diet with Whole Foods. These whole foods house fewer preservatives and are packed with healthy enzymes, omega-3s, and antioxidants.
Whole foods act as nutrition powerhouses so that every calorie you consume on the keto diet is beneficial and works for you instead of merely filling you up.
2. If it is Made Without Conventional Flours.
Traditional flour is nothing but carbs, and our bodies convert these carbs into sugars to full us. One piece of conventional white bread can have as little as 13 grams of carbs per slice.
Non-traditional flours made from ground almonds or coconut flour are low in carbs, and once they are blended with fibrous seeds and plants like golden flax or psyllium husk, they take on the sticky glutinous type structure of traditional flour.
3. If it is Made with Low Net Carbs.
One of the main things keto dieters look for under the nutritional information is net carbs. When a food is high in fiber, it negates the number of carbs your body will digest and store when you are in a state of ketosis. This fiber flushes any extra carbs that won’t be used for energy through the colon and therefore, will not affect your blood sugar alcohol levels the way traditional sugars and carbs do.
To figure out how many net carbs are in a food item, you simply subtract the total fiber (and sugar alcohol when applicable) from the total number of carbs, and what you are left with are the actual carbs your body will consume.
4. If it is Made with the Correct Ratios of Carbs, Fat, and Protein.
As we mentioned above, those following the keto lifestyle stick to some pretty strict macros. Macro is short for macronutrients. Macronutrients are divided into three categories: fat, protein, carbohydrates.
Therefore those following the keto lifestyle really only pay attention to these three sets of numbers when it comes to planning their meals for the day.
These macronutrients are measured using a ratio. To stay in ketosis, a dieter must consume fewer than 30 grams of carbs, in some cases 50 if you are a bodybuilder, but for the average person, 30 grams is all you get.
These 30 grams of carbs can only make up 10% of what you eat in a day. Fat needs to be the highest percentage of what you eat in a day. Typically 70% fat and moderate protein, such as 20%, are the magic ratios.
Keto Bread Brings Hope to Those in the Keto Lifestyle
By consuming a high fat and low carb diet, you teach your body to run off your stored fat instead of quick energies like carbs or sugars.
Therefore if you find a bread that is low in net carbs, is made with whole foods, and fits into your macro ratios, you can safely stay in ketosis and enjoy bread in its finest of forms, making the meal possibilities endless.
What kind of sandwich will you build with your new-found keto bread?
