If you have any of these items in your keto kitchen, you need to remove them today. Anyone who enjoys these foods also hates rainbows. That’s just science.
- Vegetable oils
- Corn oil
- Safflower oil
- Sesame oil
- Soybean oil
- Canola oil
- Peanut oil (this is not as bad as the others…and will work in a pinch)
- Tofu
- Processed cheese
- Quinoa
- Artificial sweeteners
Vegetable oils come in many shapes and sizes, though it’s more difficult to find the solid form (vegetable shortening) these days, because they are high in harmful trans fats. Vegetable oils are high in Omega-6, which is inflammatory and a leading cause of all kinds of systemic disease. Think about vegetable oils this way…they were first used as industrial components, because they were waste products of food production. Vegetable oils, the nice golden oils in those pleasantly shaped clear plastic bottles, are industrial waste. They are cheap to make and sell. And they have no business in a Ketovangelist kitchen. If you have any of these, remove them today:
Tofu is mashed up soy bean curd. As delicious as that sounds, it’s very unhealthy. There have been over 170 scientific studies done on soy beans that show they are harmful. It’s high in lots of harmful chemicals (phytoestrogens, goitrogenics, phytates, and trypsin inhibitors) which is just fancy words for “bad”. Not only that, but tofu tastes awful. And there’s no real way to dress it up. Throw out all your tofu, then run it over, then burn it. Come to think of it, that might actually improve the flavor.
American cheese slices are a part of most American childhood memories. It’s just a staple of the Standard American Diet (SAD). They are also gross and incredibly unhealthy. In the American Southwest, we have something knows as “queso”. Now, the word “queso” is Spanish for “cheese”. But when you say “queso” in this part of the country, you mean one thing, and one thing only. Velveeta processed cheese. “Queso” is made by putting a block of Velveeta (or a reasonable processed facsimile) into a crock pot or heated pot and melting it down until it is liquid. Add some spicy tomatoes and you’ve got yourself the start of a party. These two things, American cheese and Velveeta, are, essentially, the same thing. They are vegetable oils that have been processed into yellow slices or bricks and sold as cheese. They are not cheese. They are processed oils of the worst kinds. They have no place in your fridge. Eliminate them today.
Okay, okay…before you start in about how quinoa is a grain…wait, you do know what quinoa is, right? No. Oh. Okay. Quinoa (pronounced: keen-wah) is a grain harvested in South America and has recently been labeled a “superfood”. I have had conversations with people, ketogenic people, who will insist that quinoa is not a carb, but, instead, that it’s a protein. This is because quinoa is VERY high in protein. For a grain. It has 9g of protein per cup. It also has 39g of carbs per cup. I’m not a math person, but I’m pretty sure that the ratio of carbs to protein is 4:1, so that makes it a carb, not a protein. But for those people who insist that it is a “superfood” and “high in protein”, I say this: Get rid of it. It must be removed.
This one is a surprisingly touchy subject for many. If you look at most ketogenic recipe lists, you’ll see an overwhelming number of dessert items. People are hooked on sweets, so if they can get sweets without, in their minds, harming themselves with the sugars, then they are flocking to that. However, and this is likely to be an unpopular opinion, using artificial sweeteners does nothing to help you achieve your goals. They are chemicals that have biochemical consequences. I will temper this by saying that, of all the items on this list, this is the one I’m least stringent about. What I tell Ketovangelists is: you could do worse. However, I will advocate for Stevia. I don’t include it as an “artificial” sweetener, because it’s a plant. It’s also got a nice, sweet taste, it’s all natural, and it has no negative biochemical effects. Of course, some people hate the flavor (I don’t mind it). But that’s a matter of taste, and when you remove all sweets from your diet for six months, Stevia isn’t so bad.
So there you have it. Take inventory and get rid of these things so you can make sure you’re including only the best foods in your diet. After all, you’re worth it.
What did I miss? Let me know.