With Spring right around the corner, Summer won’t be far behind. It’s time to get serious about eating better and exercising more to get beach-body ready for warmer weather! If you’ve decided to make changes to your diet by incorporating more protein and vegetables, you’re not alone. Diets such as Keto, Paleo, Whole 30, and Carnivore have gained increasing popularity with foodies and fitness gurus alike. All of the above diets have an increased focus on protein and fat (the Carnivore diet is actually all protein). Beef, Poultry and Fish are all so much better when grilled, and exogenous ketones even better when grilled on GrillGrates. Below is an excerpt from an article written by a GRATE friend of ours Danny Vega, on the Keto diet… Curious about this whole "keto" thing? You’ve probably heard stories from at least a few people in your network who have transformed their health and their bodies in some way or another by switching to a ketogenic diets.

You may have heard how this amazing lifestyle can improve your cognitive function and eliminate brain fog, deliver more consistent energy with less ups and downs through the day, decrease the inflammation in your body driving all those aches and pains, and decrease hunger and carb-blocking formula cravings. Ketogenic diets have steadily increased in popularity in the past decade. Other similar diets, such as the Atkins diet and the Paleo diet paved the way. Paleo was my first love; when I was first introduced to it, I began to focus on food quality, and instead of listening to the "experts" who told us to eat less meat, less fat and more carbohydrates and processed grains, I relied on human biology, anthropology, and lastly, common sense. It was the best I had ever felt, and Keto was the next logical step. My wife and I felt amazing when we cut grains and processed sugars, but we realized how much better we felt when we restricted carbohydrates even more-all of a sudden, we were able to eat less frequently, and we never felt cravings.

This makes sense; the less carbohydrates you eat, the less blood sugar swings you experience. Over time, your body switches back to a more primal metabolism that relies mainly on fat and exogenous ketones. In the 1950’s, the consensus was that without dietary carbohydrate, our brains would starve and we would die after only a short period of time. Dr. George Cahill and his lab at Harvard University began this several decade journey to where we are now with ketogenic research. He and his lab conducted several landmark fasting studies where they found that in the absence of dietary carbohydrate, the subjects’ brain energy needs were still being met. They displayed elevated levels of ketones, and their blood sugar did not drop past a certain level. This suggested that 1) there was an alternative fuel source feeding the brain (that they didn’t quite understand yet) and 2) that the body had ways of regulating blood sugar and insulin in the absence of dietary carbohydrate.

Fast forward to modern day. It’s well established that there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Our brains do need glucose, but our bodies have ways of creating that glucose, Supraketo Keto Pills meaning that we don’t need to eat it! In fact, we wouldn’t have survived as a species if this were not the case. It turns out that fat is a cleaner, more efficient energy source. The average person can store about 2-3,000 calories of glycogen (the carbohydrates our bodies store), but even the leanest person has access to 40-100,000 calories of fat (in the form of free fatty acids). Our muscles can run on fat-the heart actually prefers it as an energy source! However, the brain cannot, so our brains rely on ketones. You may experience a boost in mental acuity, focus, and even productivity. I know I have. So how do we reach ketosis? Simple! Cut out the carbohydrates from your diet.

I will include a list of carbohydrate sources below, although it is not comprehensive, you will get an idea of what types of carbs you can eat while eating this way. That being said, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep it simple! You can generally find some great meal plan examples online. Here is a disclaimer, though: remember that ketosis is a metabolic state, so technically, any food can be ketogenic as long as the carbohydrates are not high enough to cause a spike in insulin that would hinder your liver from creating ketones. However, I recommend you stick to whole foods, and ditch the grains-especially wheat/gluten! My family and I have a list of non-negotiables: no wheat, no food dyes, and no processed seed oils (canola, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, basically anything that seems impossible to extract oil from without a fully functional lab). This rules out most processed food.