The most daunting part of any diet is to get started. And since you have decided to start your keto diet, you may face the issue of choosing the correct food list.
The basics of Keto are quite simple. All you have to do is focus on an ultra low carb diet and the high-fat consumption that could help you go into a state of fat-burning ketosis.
The ketosis process, in turn, might allow you to achieve several health benefits, one of which could be weight loss. However, with particular requirements, the keto diet will require discipline and dedication from you.
Moreover, since altering your lifestyle and focusing on a new diet could disrupt your basic routine, you must adhere to it.
One of the significant lifestyle changes you may need to adapt to your Keto diet is changing the way you shop.
Getting the right amount of carbohydrates and fats is crucial for this diet. So to make this task easy for you, here’s a list of the best food items for beginners who follow a keto diet.
Keto Food List For Beginners
The Keto diet aims at sending your body into the ketosis state in which your body can turn the fat into fuel. Under the ketosis process, the body will not rely on carbs for energy[1], due to which fat instead of carbohydrates may fuel your muscles and brain.
Because of the same reason, the keto diet may help you in your weight loss journey. But before you wish to start your keto diet, you should always have a word with your doctor in case of any underlying medical condition like diabetes or blood pressure.
Also, before you embark on the keto diet journey, you might want to stick to the foods list for keto beginners.
On the other hand, you could also go with keto-friendly fruits and keto-friendly vegetables, and most importantly, you must know which foods to avoid on a keto diet.
Let’s gain insight into the food list you could add to your diet.
Butter, Ghee, Or Cream
Yes, you heard it right. Butter, ghee, and cream are quite[2] keto-friendly foods that you may add to your food list. Moreover, since butter is a good source of fat-soluble vitamins, it may be healthy food.
However, if you are looking for a dairy-free alternative, you may opt for ghee. Ghee refers to clarified butter under which the milk solids have been removed.
Moreover, another tip here could be that when you choose butter, make sure to choose butter with a deeper[3] color which could have an amplified level of nutrients in it.
If the color of the butter is slightly orange or dark yellow, it means that the cow had been pastured on nutrient-dense grass, which could be rich in carotene. So while you start following a keto diet, you may always use butter or cream instead of oils.
Avocados
Another food that you could include in your keto diet is avocado. Avocados could serve[4] as an entire meal in just a single fruit because of their high-fat content.
Additionally, these are quite portable and may take no time to prepare. However, since you are a newbie in the field, you may think that avocados have a quite high content of carbs.
But at the same time, this ingredient even has a high amount[5] of fiber which could be subtracted while calculating the net carbs gained from them.
Due to this, you may find only about 3 grams of net carbs in a medium avocado.So all you have to do is to stock up on this fruit while you go out grocery shopping and then try out certain recipes with it.
You could even use this ingredient for times when you are fully occupied during the hectic weekdays.
Eggs
Packed with a plethora of nutrients, eggs are another economic item that you could include in your keto diet. If you are looking for different local foods, eggs are one of the most crucial[6] items.
All you need are just four eggs to cover your daily choline requirements. Moreover, just like butter, when you purchase eggs, ensure that you get the one with the darker colored yolk that suggests higher nutrient concentration in the egg.
Eggs may even provide you with some of the protein percentage required in your keto diet and hence help to keep your immune system, head, and eyes intense.
Spinach
Packed with myriad minerals and nutrients, spinach could be a great ingredient to add to your Keto diet. Other than spinach, leafy green vegetables like cabbage, kale, and collard greens might even be a good[7] option.
But spinach is the most nutrient-dense meal out of all. You could simply add spinach to your salads or even add it to your omelet or scrambled eggs for your low-carb meal.
Beef
With a higher fat content[8] than fish, chicken, and most cuts of pork, beef could even provide you with excellent protein. Additionally, beef has the most available form of iron, due to which you could add to your keto diet.
It could even help you to adhere to your keto macro amounts easily. So all you have to do is roast beef in butter or ghee and mix it with scrambled eggs or spinach to create a healthy keto-friendly meal.
Fatty Fish
Fatty fish options like sardines, herring, salmon, and mackerel could be good keto-friendly ingredients. Apart from fatty fish, other seafood could even provide you with the omega-3 fatty acids required[9] by your body.
If you like seafood, you could get at least one serving of seafood for a week at a minimum. This maximum limit could be amplified[10] to two to three servings per week.
Moreover, if you are looking for travel-friendly foods, you could pick up some canned fish like Salmon, oysters, tuna, sardines, and clams.
Meals That Could Be Prepared By Using Keto Friendly Ingredients
Garlic Mushroom Chicken With Cream
The delectable combination of garlic, mushroom, and chicken with cream could serve as an excellent keto-friendly dinner.
And guess what- this meal could take just 30 minutes to prepare. Moreover, you might even prepare it before and freeze it for up to a month.
All you need to do is to bake chicken, mushroom, and garlic together, along with some spices. Once the chicken becomes tender and soft, you could garnish the dish with cream.
With just 7.66 grams of carbs per serving, you could also get 25 grams of fat, 28 grams of protein, and 1.5 grams of fiber with just a single serving of this recipe.
Chicken Cobb Salad
Besides being moreish, the chicken Cobb salad could serve as a delectable and filling meal for your lunch. You could even top it up with avocado-lime dressing to amplify its flavors while adhering to your keto diet.
With approximately 13 grams of carbs, you could get 25 grams of fat, 41 grams of protein, and nearly four grams of fiber from this meal.
Other than these two recipes, you could even experiment with the different keto-friendly ingredients and prepare meals according to your tastes.
Other recipes you may try include egg muffins with spinach and sausage or fat chocolate bombs.
So to make this task easy for you, here’s a list of the best food items for beginners who follow a keto diet. But before that, let’s know the percentage of fat, protein, and carbohydrate you may consume in your keto diet.
- 70% Healthy FatsPlenty of calories in your Ketosis process will come from healthy fats. Healthy fats may even refer to unprocessed fats like poly and monounsaturated fats.
It is found in fish, plants, or even the saturated fats in pork and beef if consumed in moderation. However, you may even evade all the highly processed[1] fats and trans fats in your keto diet.
- 25% ProteinThe protein percentage recommended in the keto diet is approximately similar to the protein content required by a non-keto diet.
Since you require just 25% protein from your keto diet, you may evade the urge to shop for protein-rich sources in your keto diet because the ketogenic diet is a moderate protein diet plan.
- 5% CarbohydratesSince it might be quite impossible to hinder the carbohydrate content entirely from your diet, you may aim for 5% carbohydrates. This means you could consume 30-50 grams of net carbs daily.
Conclusion
So this was all you need to know about the keto-friendly diet and the ingredients which you may add to your diet.
If you are a newbie in the field and if you didn’t already know, then the ketogenic diet is approximately more than 100 years old and was created to treat people with epilepsy.
Other than epilepsy, this diet may even have other benefits, like truncating the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and strokes.
Moreover, as you must know, one of the major benefits of this diet could be weight loss. Due to this, it may be crucial to adhere to it and be dedicated enough to follow it.
Sources/References
Working4Health prefers using primary and verified references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and our primary references include peer-reviewed research, academic, and medical institution studies.
- Wajeed Masood, Pavan Annamaraju, Kalyan R. Uppaluri. Ketogenic Diet. Date of publication: November 26, 2021. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
- GHEE. Date of publication: 12/6/2019. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/718294/nutrients
- Butter, without salt. Date of publication: 4/1/2019. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173430/nutrients
- Mark L. Dreher1 and Adrienne J. Davenport. Hass Avocado Composition and Potential Health Effects. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2013 May; 53(7): 738–750. Published online 2013 May 2. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2011.556759
- Avocados, raw, all commercial varieties. Date of publication: 4/1/2019. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171705/nutrients
- Eggs, Grade A, Large, egg whole. Date of publication: 12/16/2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/748967/nutrients
- Spinach, raw. Date of publication: 10/30/2020. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/1103136/nutrients
- Beef, ground, 80% lean meat / 20% fat, raw. Date of publication: 4/1/2019. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174036/nutrients
- Joshua J Meidenbauer, Nathan Ta, and Thomas N Seyfried. Influence of a ketogenic diet, fish-oil, and calorie restriction on plasma metabolites and lipids in C57BL/6J mice. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2014; 11: 23. Published online 2014 May 22. doi: 10.1186/1743-7075-11-23
- Fish, grouper, mixed species, raw. Date of publication: 4/1/2019. Available from: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171962/nutrients
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Otella has an experience of around eight years of writing about health and nutrition-related topics. She is a full-time mother and a housewife, and the time she has left after doing her mother and household duties is spent writing for Working for Health as a full-time writer. Her life goal is to raise both her boys into a gentleman, and at the same time, she wants to educate people on how to keep themselves fit by tweaking their daily diet.