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If you love cheese crackers, you'll love this low-carb version. They have a delicious cheesy taste and are seasoned with rosemary. With only 1.2g of net carbs per serving (4 crackers), you can eat several without feeling guilty!

DETAILED RECIPE :

Preparation time : 10 minutes

Cooking time : 12 minutes

Serves : 8

Ingrédients:

• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, cut into pieces
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 large egg
• 100 g cream cheese
• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• Sea salt, up to your taste

Instructions:

• Combine mozzarella, Parmesan, cream cheese and almond flour in a microwave safe bowl.
• Microwave for 1 minute on high. Carefully remove from the microwave and stir until well combined.
• Let cool for a moment before adding the egg. If you add the egg while the melted cheese is hot, it will start to cook.
• Add rosemary and salt to taste. Stir.
• Transfer the cheese dough to your parchment paper-lined work surface. Cover with another piece of parchment paper and roll out to 1cm thickness. Peel off the top paper and cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter or knife.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Transfer the prepared dough with the parchment paper to a baking sheet.
• Bake the crackers for 6 minutes on each side.

When you transition to a Ketogenic diet, you don’t have to give up your favorite snacks. With a few smart swaps and substitutions, you can continue eating your treats without worrying about getting kicked out of ketosis. With the many keto crackers recipes that exist, you’ll never be without your favorite appetizing snacks.

  Starting the Ketogenic diet can be stressful. You have to change your eating habits, you constantly wonder if you are doing it right. To relax you a bit, we give you the 10 essential tips to make sure you start your diet correctly.

Don't Think Short-Term

It can't be said enough: the Keto Diet is a marathon, not a sprint. We are not here to simply diet. We are here to get healthier through our diet.

You don't give up because you've fallen for a slice of pizza. Instead, we accept that on any long journey there will be mistakes. 

Don't confuse carbohydrates with sugar

For example, some products contain only 1g of sugar, so we think it's good for Keto. Yes, 1g of sugar, but 40g of carbohydrates ! Also – need to know how to count total carb : Total sugar minus dietary fiber and sugar alcohol. 

Get enough sleep

Sleep is like fat: it's life. Lack of sleep has a devastating effect on our fitness, vitality, willpower and even intelligence. And incidentally, it also promotes fat gain.

So we try to give our bodies the rest they need and deserve every day. 

Don’t pay too much attention to weight.

Most of the time, when we come to the Ketogenic diet, it’s to lose weight. But in practice, improving your health through Keto can take many different forms. Better energy, better measurements, better morale, etc… If you also exercise, the muscle gain can completely compensate for the loss of fat on the scale. Don’t forget that fat loss is not linear : some people will lose fat Immediately, some will start to lose fat after a few days or weeks, and almost everyone will experience stability weight periods that can last from a few days to a few weeks, this is normal !

Do not be afraid of fat, do not forget the purpose of the Ketogenic diet.

We have all heard, all our lives, that fat is not good, that it will make us fat, and that it will kill us. And even when we start Keto, it’s hard to lose this mental reflex. As result, we may tend not to take enough fat in our diet first, when the goal IS to increase our fat intake to get the body used to using it as an energy source.

Don't eat the wrong fats - hydrogenated fatty acids

In the Ketogenic diet, we try to concentrate on animal fats, because of their high content of saturated fatty acids, which have a positive effect on reducing inflammation. On the other hand, we try to avoid cereal or flower oils (rich in Omega-6, a source of inflammation), and even more so hydrogenated fatty acids (refined fats, dangerous for the heart and circulation). So leave out the margarine and your sunflower or rapeseed oil.

When in doubt, keep it simple and concentrate on safe values. Hello butter, cream, animal fat, olive oil and coconut oil !

Don't forget your electrolytes and hydration

Electrolytes are minerals that conduct electrical signals in our body. The most common ones in the diet are sodium, potassium and magnesium. And a lack of them leads to all the unpleasant symptoms of keto flu.

On a ketogenic diet, we tend to retain less water in the body, and therefore lose electrolytes with it. So you have to be very careful to consume enough and obviously drink regularly to stay well hydrated 

For sodium, simple, just be careful to eat salty enough and possibly add a pinch of salt to each of your glasses of water. For potassium and magnesium, favour foods rich in these electrolytes, like avocado or spinach. There are plenty of others, just do some research...

Do some research

The Ketogenic diet goes against almost all traditional nutritional advice. So it's very important to know why you're doing it: the answer can't just be "Because I follow people on the internet who do it. "

Take all the advice you are given, do your research, read books, read studies. Really KNOW why you are doing this. For one thing, it's the best possible source of motivation. Two, it will make you more confident in what you are doing.

Listen to your body

The Ketogenic diet works mainly on a hormonal level, which means that little by little you can start to trust yourself again, to listen to your feeling of hunger or satiety. Yes, all this is mainly driven by hormones, much more than by willpower.

Therefore it is important to choose a rhythm of eating that suits us. That is to say, not to eat simply because it's time to do so when you don't feel particularly hungry. Or, on the contrary, not eating when you're hungry because "you've already eaten enough today".

Listen to yourself and trust yourself ! No need to stress.

Don't stress

Firstly, stress is unpleasant. Secondly, stress generates a surplus of a hormone called cortisol. You should know that having a surplus of this hormone disrupts your appetite and fat storage mechanisms. And that's exactly what we're trying to fix.

It's best to start this lifestyle in a relaxed way, allowing yourself small mistakes and learning along the way. If you stress yourself out trying to do everything perfectly from the start, you risk being counterproductive 

Pasta is the essential element you might miss a lot when you’re on a Keto diet. They’re easy to cook and you can prepare dozens of different dishes with them : pasta salads, pasta with sauce, pasta gratin...

But being on a Keto diet doesn’t necessarily mean forsaking pasta ! You can easily buy some Keto pasta on the internet or in any specialized store, or if you have the time, you can even make them yourself at home !

Here is one reliable Keto Pasta Recipe :

Ingredients : for this recipe you’ll only need two things : egg yolk and shredded mozzarella cheese. You could also add some gelatine to stabilize the texture but it remains optional.

For One Serving: 

• 70g of shredded mozzarella
• 1 egg yolk
• In a large bowl, melt your cheese in the microwave for 20-30seconds
• Mix the egg yolk with the melted cheese until you obtain a soft dough
• Roll the dough thin on a baking sheet
• Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
• Cut the pasta into thin strips 

Common mistakes you need to avoid : 

-Don’t boil your Keto pastas, they’re already ready to eat !

- Don’t reheat too much as you would make them melt

Best way to heat your Keto Pasta:

Put hot sauce on them, the sauce will quickly heat your pasta. As they’re made of cheese it shouldn’t take too long !

The Magic of Cauliflower Rice!

To be honest, we were really skeptical at first about substituting rice with cauliflower? Like Really?? How can this be as delicious as curry on rice? But then we completely changed our minds once we had a taste of this. Sure, it's not 100% exactly like rice but with a much lower carb content (plus high fiber to boost) we were sold! 

Plus it's easy to make and doesn't require a rice cooker. Here's the easy steps:

1. Wash a whole cauliflower thoroughly

2. Cut up in chunks and throw them in the food processor until fine. We usually like ours not too fine so there's a bit more texture

3. Using a pot or better, a wok, with medium high heat throw the chopped up cauliflower in and stir it in until enough water evaporates. Be careful not to let it burn

4. Voila! Enjoy your rice substitute! Easy as 123! 

What is Keto?

The Keto or Ketogenic diet is a diet low in carbohydrates* sufficient in proteins and rich in lipids*. Therefore, it is recognized for its beneficial effects on weight loss, but also on health and physical performance.

The term "keto" comes from ketones or ketone bodies. Ketones are molecules produced by the liver from fat as an energy source. They are an alternative energy source for the body that no longer has carbohydrates as an energy source. The brain, which is a large consumer of glucose, can also use ketones when it needs them. It is therefore able to function perfectly even in the absence of carbohydrates in our diet. 

*Carbohydrates= fast and low sugars

*Lipids= fats

How does it work?

In a ketogenic diet our diet is generally made up of 5% carbohydrates, 15 to 35% proteins and 60 to 80% lipids. In comparison, a diet called a “balanced diet” contains about 50% carbohydrates, 35% fat and 15% protein. Ketones are therefore produced when we eat very few carbohydrates (ideally less than 20 g per day), which has the effect of considerably lowering insulin levels and as a result activates the oxidation of fats.

As a result, the body, which used to function essentially on carbohydrates, will then draw all the energy it needs to function from fats. Insulin is the hormone responsible for processing glucose. Its role is to lower the level of glucose in the blood. However, when it is produced it has the unpleasant side effect of activating fat storage. It will then block the consumption of what is already present in the body.

In short, when insulin levels drop, the fat in storage and food is more easily burned by the body.

In fact, when the body produces ketones, it is said to be in ketosis. This state is natural. It is activated during a fast. The ketogenic diet simulates this state while continuing to enjoy the positive effects of fasting.

Why eat keto?

Speaking of benefits, keto is a great way to help with weight loss. But not only that!

Indeed, it allows, among other things, to increase concentration, to improve physical endurance, to have better health (blood pressure, cholesterol, glycemia), to slow down the progression of type 2 diabetes, and is even recommended for the treatment of epilepsy.

Small bonus and not the least: the skin is more beautiful and smoother.

What do we eat on the keto diet?

The principle of the ketogenic diet is to consume as few carbohydrates as possible. Generally, you should stay below 50 g per day, but it is better to aim for less than 20 g. The fewer the carbs, the more effective the keto will be.

We treat ourselves with:

●  Good oils without hydrogenated fats (olive oil, walnut oil, flaxseed oil, coconut oil, avocado oil,...)

●  Natural animal fats (duck fat, goose fat, lard, beef tallow)

●  Oil seeds and fruits (chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts, macadamia seeds...),

●  Protein sources: red meat, poultry, fish (preferably fatty: sardines, mackerel, salmon...), eggs...

●  low-carbohydrate vegetables: cauliflower, zucchini, cabbage, spinach, broccoli...

●  Dairy products (if you are not intolerant): go ahead and eat butter, cheese, and cream...

●  Fruits that are lower in carbohydrates such as avocados, red fruits, or rhubarb.

Avoid:

●  All sugars (white, brown, agave syrup, honey,...)

●  Cereal-based products (such as bread, pasta, rice...)

●  Foods rich in starch: potatoes, sweet potatoes

●  Legumes (lentils, kidney/white beans,...)

●  Prepared dishes and sauces

●  Sweet products (such as cakes, candies, jams...)

●  Very sweet fruits (bananas, apples, dates...).

What do we drink in keto?

The basics: we drink water (1.5 to 2 liters per day), and anything that does not contain sugar or alcohol.

The ideal drinks to drink as much as you like: coffee, tea, herbal tea, fruit water, etc.

Drinks to be consumed in moderation: Dry spirits (vodka, rum, whisky, etc.), red wine, dry white wine, champagne. 

And now what do we do?

And now we start!

The best way to convince yourself, and to see results, is to commit to one or two weeks. You will then see the positive results and changes for yourself!

P.S.: The benefits of the ketogenic diet are still numerous, if you want to know more, more in-depth, and sourced articles are to come

Written by Keto naturals team ®

 In a word where obesity appears as one of the major health issues worldwide, when 13% of the global population is considered as “obese”, alimentary diets are more and more “trendy” and studied.

The Keto Diet is one of them.

For those who don’t know what a Keto diet is, it is a diet where you have very low carbs (no cereals, wheat flour-based products like bread or bakery, no sweet beverage or snacking). With a diet like that your body is going to enter a metabolic state called “KETOSIS” where your principal source of energy is coming from fat and not sugar as it normally does. This is to help you lose weight and might come with other health benefits such as better handling of blood-sugar levels in your body, higher amount of good fat in your organism or a better handling of hunger. Those are the claimed benefits of a Keto diet, and today we are going to try to find out whether there’s proof of its effectiveness.

First off, does the Keto-diet really help to lose weight?

Many studies show that following a keto diet, whether your calories intakes are limited or not, really does result in weight loss, and a faster loss than the one achieved with a traditional low sugar or calorie diet. Here are some examples of serious studies supporting weight loss:

Foster, G. D. et al. A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity.New England Journal of Medicine, 2003

Description: Sixty-three adults with obesity followed either a low fat or a low carb diet for 12 months. The low-fat group was calorie restricted.

Result: After 6 months, the low carb group had lost 7% of their total body weight, compared with the low-fat group, which lost 3%. The difference was statistically significant at 3 and 6 months but not at 12 months.

Result: In this study, 132 individuals with severe obesity (an average BMI of 43) followed either a low fat or a low carb diet for 6 months. Many had metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes. Those on the low-fat diet had a restricted calorie intake.

Result: The low carb group lost an average of 12.8 pounds (5.8 kg), while the low-fat group lost only 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg). The difference was statistically significant.

Many other studies of that sort exists and I invite you to read the following article : 23 studies on low carb and low fat diets, published in 2020 for Healthline and that you can find at the following website : https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/23-studies-on-low-carb-and-low-fat-diets

Ketosis seems to be effective for weight loss. It seems to be more effective than traditional diets, and the plus of this diet is that you don’t have to watch as much your caloric intake. However, very little studies concern the long-term effects of this diet on the body; but some publications seem to prove that the diet is effective on a long term scale. (Very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet v. low-fat diet for long-term weight loss: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, 2013)

What about other claimed health benefits?

Some studies tend to show a lower insulin rate in blood and lower chances to develop a type II diabetes. It also seems to lower blood pressure and increase good fat rate. (Low-carb and Ketogenic Diets in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes, Nutritions, 2019; Very-low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet v. low-fat diet for long-term weight loss: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, 2013).

In the end,

The Keto diet really does seem to be effective when it comes to weight loss. Moreover, it is proven to be more effective than conventional diets where you limit your calories intake or/and with low fat consumption. If the Keto diet helps you to lose weight, it also can improve your health by lowering your global insulin blood rate (by reducing your sugar intake), and lower your global blood pressure. Benefits about better good fat blood ratio can also be expected with that type of diet. At the end of the day, the diet encourages you to consume less processed food, less snacking or soda; which can only improve your general health!

 Looking for a simple and delicious keto almond cracker? This one's for you. With only … net carbs it’s surprising how easy and fast you can do it. You’ll just need an oven and a blender to enjoy this amazing recipe.

Keto crackers are principally made out of almond flour and Okara, two low carbs wheat-flour-like ingredients. As for the greasy materials, some butter, cream and cheese cream are used. Some egg whites are added to give consistency to the prep, some baking soda for the cooking and xanthan gum for stabilizer. Then you mix salt, pepper,  garlic, sesame and flax seeds for the taste of it.

The Making

We turned on the oven and let it pre-heat at 160°C during the making of the dough. We whipped the egg whites. We added the butter, cream and cream and mixed smoothly all the ingredients together until we obtained a sort of foam. In another bowl, we mixed-up all the dry ingredients together (seasoning, flours, baking soda…).

We added the dry ingredients into the creamy prep in two times; you can mix it manually until there’s no lump anymore, or you can blend the mixture in order to have an homogeneous dough. We made it manually

Once we had a dough, we flattened it on a clean surface until we obtained a width of about 3 to 4mm. You don’t want it to be too thick otherwise it’s gonna complicate the cooking on the inside.

Then you’ll have to cut the dough into shapes of crackers, it’s up to you choosing the size of them ! We chose to cut them into tiny squares.

We put our tiny raw crackers on a baking sheet, on a tray adapted to the stove, we then put that tray into the oven ! We let them cook for 14 minutes on turning heat.

The result

The crackers we obtained were really good tasting (the garlic was something special), but the color and consistency of it were not matching our expectations : the crackers were a bit too brown and they easily fell apart into a lot of crumbs.

But for a first try it wasn’t that bad ! The result is encouraging and we’ll learn from our mistakes. In order to fix the color, we should maybe turn off the fan of the oven and let the crackers cook a bit less long. Concerning the lack of consistency, we should mix better the greasy and dry ingredients in order to make the dough more homogenous. We could mix them with a blender.

We’ll try to cook them a bit differently next time, and see how this turns out ! Keep you posted !

Soluble Tapioca Starch and Keto Diet

 Soluble Tapioca starch is an ingredient that you can often find into “Low Carbs” protein bars or Keto-friendly snacking. Yet, starch is full of carbs and it may seem very paradoxical to use this ingredient for Keto diet food. But the thing is, Soluble Tapioca Starch is pretty different from regular Tapioca Starch. In fact, Soluble Tapioca starch, aka soluble tapioca fiber, differs largely from normal Tapioca starch regarding its nutritional qualities.

How so, you may ask ? Let’sl figure this out together.

But first off, what is a Keto Diet ?

Keto diet is a trendy diet in the US. It is based on a very low carbs nutrition but rich in unsaturated healthy fatty acids and proteins. Within this nutrition, your body has such low carbs that it’s going to change its metabolic way of working : you are going to enter in Ketosis. Your body will use its fat being consumed or reserves as a primary source of energy, while in normal circumstances it would use its carbohydrates (sugar) first. In that process, your body fat will be way more available for your body metabolism than it was before, your body is going to draw from this fat reserves. The result of this? A LOT of weight loss in a shorter amount of time. 

The Keto diet is also healthier because it makes you consume less very-processed foods, very sugary foods or drinks; it lowers your chances to develop diabetes and generally makes you eat more vegies to equilibrate your diet.

However, sometimes the keto diet can get quite frustrating for those who have a sweet tooth or who appreciates occasionally snacking. That is where Tapioca starch comes in.

Tapioca Starch in food processing

Tapioca starch is often used in agribusiness as a main ingredient for snacking, like crackers for instance, because it helps with the crunchiness of the products and their consistency. It serves as a flour-like ingredient. Most flours used for bakery or cooking are non keto friendly. Keto friendly flours are quite hard to find. Normal Tapioca can’t be used for keto friendly snacking or can only be used very scarcely. But Soluble Tapioca offers an alternative to that issue because it is actually Keto-Friendly.

How is Soluble Tapioca Starch Keto Friendly and what are its health benefits?

Soluble tapioca has ZERO carbs because it has “resistant” starch. This basically means that its starch can undergo all the digestion steps without being digested due to the molecular structure of resistant starch. They are thereby considered as alimentary fibers and bring no sugar to your diet.
Also, as they transit through your belly, those fibers can also serve as prebiotic for the good bacteria that inhabit your intestines. Eating soluble tapioca starch encourages a good bacterial flora.

All in all, soluble tapioca starch can serve as a low net carb flour for baking, useful for keto-diets for instance; and has also health benefits such as to be a satiety cutter and serve as prebiotic income. YES TO SOLUBLE TAPIOCA STARCH! 

By now most people have heard of the Keto Diet, but how many have actually taken the plunge to fully live this lifestyle? Given the constraints that comes with this diet, is it actually worth it? We speak to Rob Thomas to really understand what it means to live the Keto Life. 

KN:  Why did you started the Keto diet ?

     Rob:  I wanted to try something new since I was starting to gain weight and it was really hard to exercise because I was traveling so much. I was exhausted after a whole day of work. 

KN:   Did you manage to lose weight? 

Rob:  Yes absolutely!  I lost 30 pounds over the course of a few months. And I managed to keep my weight off all this time. Many of my friends lost much more than this.

KN:  How did you hear about the Keto diet?

Rob: Through friends around me. Many friends had impressive results so I was curious.

KN:  I’m sure you’ve heard of other diets. Why choose Keto? 

Rob: I tried the lemon cleanse in the past, but basically regained the weight I lost quickly and had the yoyo effect. I felt it was unhealthy and bad over time. 

KN:  How long have you been in a keto diet? Are you full on Keto now or you take breaks?

Rob: I’ve been on Keto for 2 years now and it’s been mostly full on.. I’ve given myself small cheat days in between however my taste buds have drastically changed. Keto has actually changed my habit of consuming sugar which I think I’m much healthier now. 

KN:  This diet is quite strict. Do you have a coach who supports you and advises you? 

Rob:  I did a lot of research before and it made sense to me from the way metabolism evolves. No coach per say. I read a great book completely before starting and followed the first few meal suggestions to start and followed do’s and don’ts.

KN:  How do you find the motivation not to cheat on the diet?

Rob: I have to admit, initially it was really hard however after a few weeks my body responded positively to this diet which gave me the motivation to keep pushing. And since my desire to eat sugar really changed, I didn’t want to touch a cake or desserts in general. This became a change in mindset as well. The only thing I didn’t cut was wine. No way! 

KN:  Do you exercise at all? 

Rob:  Not enough unfortunately and not consistent. I simply don’t have time.

KN:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of this diet? 

Rob: I’ve lost a tonne of weight. And subsequently I sleep much better and have more energy throughout the day. But of course the disadvantage is that I need to be more selective of what I eat, especially in restaurants. I also need to learn how to count carbs but that’s not too hard. 

KN:  Is it difficult to have a social life because of this diet ? 

Rob: It has an impact, so I started to cook for me only and found out that my family started to like it too. So after the point when my family better understood what I could eat or not, they started to accept more… but yes it has a social life impact with people not familiar. We just need to know what we want.

KN:  Do you like to cook or prefer take out?

Rob:  I prefer to cook. This way I know exactly what I’m eating. But there are also a lot of Keto friendly snacks available right now which makes my life so much easier.

KN:  What can we find in a Keto friendly kitchen?

Rob: Salad, nuts, eggs, cauliflower, tomatoes, a lot of vegetables, I like good meat and fresh fish too. 

KN: . What has changed in your life since the beginning of this diet? Would you recommend it? 

Rob: I am in control of my weight. Still I can gain weight if I eat too much but it is easier to lose when I need to. My advice?  Decide what you want and be strict on yourself for a while to really see the result. No pain no gain i suppose.