Real Food Keto vs. Dirty Keto

Today the keto diet becomes an increasingly famous diet primarily focused on taking most of your calories from fats and getting only a very limited amount of carbs. No matter it’s trendy, it is far from a fad diet. The keto diet is truly an amazingly healthy way of eating. It has many science-backed health benefits, including decreased inflammation, higher energy, successful weight loss, reduced cravings, improved fat burning, clearer skin, and mental clarity.

I must underline that if you are following a keto diet, it is essential that you are consuming nutrient-dense foods rich in micronutrients. It is often happening to make a mistake as you focus only on your macros. However, if you rely on mainly processed foods and processed meats, the chances you will miss out on all the health benefits that a micronutrient-rich real food keto diet can offer are too much.

The real food keto diet is a nutrient-dense manner of eating that can bring you vast health benefits. Unfortunately, with the keto diet’s wide success, many people have turned to a dirty keto diet approach. In this article, you will find out what real food & clean keto diet is, how to perform it, and why it would be better to avoid the dirty keto approach.

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What Is the Keto Diet?

The keto diet or ketogenic diet is a pretty low-carb diet plan. You may be shocked to hear, but it dates back to the 1920s. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center have created the keto diet to help patients with epilepsy. They discovered that intermittent fasting helped diminish seizures in patients, but it also enabled them to reduce their hunger levels, cholesterol, blood sugar, and body fat (1,2).

Because long-term fasting is not easily achievable for more than a few days, they developed the keto diet, which brings similar benefits as intermittent fasting. By limiting glucose from carbohydrates, the keto diet makes your body think that it’s fasting. At the heart of it, the keto diet goes by restricting the intake of all sugary foods and carbohydrates and utilizing fat as a fuel source by encouraging roughly 70–75% fat, 20-25% protein, and 5–10% carbohydrate diet plan.

From Sugar Burner to Fat Burner

Usually, our bodies use sugar or glucose for energy. However, while glucose is not available on a keto diet, your body is forced to learn to burn its stored fat and fat from your food as fuel. The keto diet inserts your body into something termed ketosis, a metabolic state that occurs when most of your energy proceeds from blood ketones instead of glucose.

As a result, your body can burn fat more efficiently and help you lose weight more efficiently, which is one of the great benefits many people love keto for. But it is also efficacious for decreasing inflammation and countering chronic diseases (3, 4).

Since the keto diet’s primary purpose is to start using fat as fuel instead of carbs, some people forget that getting enough micronutrients is just as valuable as the intake of enough macronutrients. If you are following a dirty keto diet and eating mainly processed foods and processed meats, you may end up lacking in essential micronutrients, and as a result, you may go into health troubles down the road. This is why we often highlight that being on a real food keto diet–rich in vitamins, minerals, and enzymes–is undoubtedly vital for your overall health.

What Is Dirty Keto?

Dirty keto got its name because it doesn’t consider how ‘clean’ the food you are eating. The keto diet’s goal is to achieve ketosis by limiting your carb consumption and taking most of your calories from fats. You have to be sure that 60 to 80 percent of your daily calories are receiving from fat, 20 to 30 percent from protein, and 5 to 10 percent or less from carbs. If you follow the dirty keto, you follow the same macronutrient blueprint of fats, protein, and carbs; however, it doesn’t matter what your macronutrients come from (5).

The real food keto diet may need of little bit more planning, cooking, and meal preparation. Instead, dirty keto doesn’t require you to pay attention to the quality and the source of your nutrients–as long as you fit in the right keto macro proportion, you can eat junk and processed food.

In other words, you can get a burger with cheese from any fast-food chain, chicken fried in refined oil, or processed meats from the grocery store, and call it keto. You may opt for non-organic animal foods and drink diet sodas. Even you may reach out for candies, as long as your carb intake is at the required range of 5 to 10 percent of your calories.

While dirty keto may look more comfortable and more available, it is not the healthiest approach to follow a keto diet. If you are going on a dirty keto diet, you miss out on all the great benefits of a wholesome real food keto diet.

The dirty keto approach may look tempting, but without focusing on healthy, clean, and nutrient-rich foods, you will be missing out on essential micronutrients, such as minerals, enzymes, and vitamins, that are required for your health. By following on dirty keto, you drive the risk of more inflammation, bloating, more cravings, rebound weight gain, less energy, compromised immunity, and other health issues.

If weight loss is your primary goal, you may wonder if you can lose weight on a dirty keto diet. The truth is, if you keep your keto macro proportions at the right scale and don’t overeat on calories, you can lose weight while following a dirty keto diet. Still, because dirty keto is missing vital micronutrients, you may also undergo health problems and may feel junk food cravings or rebound weight gain as well.

Processed foods are typically carrying a lot of preservatives, sodium, and artificial ingredients that may lead to puffiness, bloating dehydration, and constipation. These pro-inflammatory foods may raise your risk of symptoms of the keto flu as well. Eventually, the long-term nutritional deficiencies may compromise your health and lead to more inflammation and chronic health issues.

Dirty Keto May Harm Your Gut–The Heart of Your Immunity and Health

One of the significant problems you may develop due to consuming too many pro-inflammatory, processed, and junk foods that lack nutrients is leaky gut syndrome. A dirty keto diet that is usually rich in inflammatory foods can disorder your gut flora balance, harm, and even break your gut lining, and ultimately cause intestinal permeability.

This permeability allows toxins, undigested food particles, and harmful bacteria to enter your bloodstream, injuring your health balance at its root.

Moreover, when it’s happening in the long term, a leaky gut may result in digestion disorders, chronic inflammation, chronic pain, poor brain health, autoimmune conditions, and other chronic health complications. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you follow a real food keto diet rich in nutrient-dense, nourishing, clean, and healthy foods as an effective way to support your overall health and well-being fully.

What Is the Real Food Keto Diet ?

The real food keto diet is also widely known as a clean keto diet, which simply is the healthy way of following a keto diet. The real food keto mainly focuses on whole nutrient-dense foods from quality sources, such as pasture-raised poultry, grass-fed beef, wild-caught fish, free-range eggs, and lots low–carbs vegetables, low–glycemic index fruits, herbs, and spices.

The great news here is that you may satisfy all your micronutrient demands by adopting a real food keto diet while also keeping your macronutrients in the required keto range: approximately fat 75%–protein 20%–carbs 5%.

Benefits of the Real Food Keto Diet

Having a real food keto diet full of nutrient-dense foods, minerals, enzymes, and vitamins has numerous health benefits. Some of its benefits include:

Improved fat burning (7)
Reduced inflammation (6)
Improved Mitochondrial functionality (9)
More energy
Increased mental clarity and sharpness (8)
Reduced cravings
Clearer skin
Delay of aging (10)
Lowered risk of chronic disease

If you want to know more about the real food keto diet benefits, we suggest that you read this article.

Ketones–the compounds that your body relies on while following a keto diet–produce more energy and release less free radicals and toxins than glucose in the widely prevalent high-carb diet.

How to Follow the Real Food Keto Diet?

To follow the real food keto diet, you have to focus on healthy whole foods rich in micronutrients instead of processed foods and processed meats.

Healthy Fats

Healthy fats are at the foundation of the real food keto diet. Most of your energy fuel should come from nutrient-dense, healthy, and anti-inflammatory fats.

The best healthy fat options on a real food keto diet include avocado and avocado oil, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut butter, grass-fed butter and ghee, olive oil, MCT oil, olives, and animal fats but from pastured animals–including lard and tallow. Be sure to benefit from all this nutrition goodness by eating a good variety.

Clean Protein

Although the foremost energy source in a real food keto diet is healthy fats, getting enough quality protein is also necessary. While too much protein may force your body to produce glucose which may hinder you from entering ketosis, adequate protein is essential for building muscles and staying healthy. Keeping of your macros, hence, is critical on a real food keto diet.

Among the best clean protein choices on a keto diet are free-range chicken and turkey, pasture-raised beef, lamb, and wild-caught fish. Pasture-raised eggs are another great clean protein source you may rely on and enjoy.

Antioxidant foods

Antioxidants are an especially critical part of any diet, and real food keto is not an exemption. They support your body to fight inflammation, combat free radicals, reduce the risk of disease, and encourage a healthy balance of gut bacteria.

There are three main antioxidant groups: vegetables, low-glycemic index (low GI) fruits, and fresh herbs and spices. The best vegetables we recommend on a real food keto diet incorporate dark leafy greens, broccoli, cucumbers, asparagus, cabbage, onions, leeks, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, celery, artichokes, radishes, and especially garlic. The best low GI fruits include berries, lemons, and limes, avocados, and olives. Among our favorite herbs and spices to use on the real food keto diet are ginger, basil, oregano, rosemary, cinnamon, turmeric, and cardamon.

Fiber – Nuts and Seeds

Fiber is unquestionably crucial when it comes to healthy digestion. Because constipation is a common concern for people practicing keto, eating plenty of different types of fiber-rich foods may prevent constipation and other tummy troubles. It may not only keep you regular but may enhance your metabolism, microbiome, immune system, and mental health.

Healthy fiber sources if following a real food keto diet include nuts and seeds. We highly recommend nuts such as almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, and pecans. And seeds like hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds.

Fermented Foods

When it comes to your microbiome, fermented foods are powerful means to support it. As they fill up your body with good gut bacteria, that further aids in creating a healthy gut flora balance and help maintain your body healthy.

Our favorite suggestions for fermented foods on a real food keto diet incorporate sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, coconut kefir, coconut milk yogurt, as well as low-sugar probiotic beverages. See which fermented foods you enjoy the most and feel great when eating them, then incorporate them into your meals.

Natural Sweeteners on Real Food Keto

If you are interested in starting a real food keto diet, you may bother that you can’t enjoy desserts and sweets anymore. Don’t worry, as you can still savor delicious treats as long as you choose keto-friendly options with natural, healthy sweeteners.

Some excellent natural sweeteners you may enjoy from time to time are stevia, monk fruit, and sugar alcohols like erythritol and xylitol. Applying these, you may enjoy real food keto desserts, such as Coconut Flour Keto Cookie Bars and Turmeric Coconut Keto Cream.

Final Thoughts on Real Food Keto

The keto diet is growing more and more popular due to its incredible health benefits, including natural weight loss, decreased inflammation, increased fat burning, reduced cravings, more energy, clearer skin, and higher mental clarity. It’s an eating regime that is very high in fats and very low in carbohydrates.

However, you need not only be focused on your macronutrients but also watch out for your micronutrients. Choose nutrient-dense whole foods in the first place, rich in micronutrients, instead of relying on dirty keto foods like processed foods and meats. Follow this guide to guarantee that you are following a real food keto diet and ultimately obtain the best health benefits.

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