Healthy fats are an essential component of the keto diet. While this might feel counterintuitive at first glance, replacing most of your carbohydrates with fat can be instrumental in weight loss.
Saturated fats such as tallow, lard and ghee are nutritional powerhouses; try adding them to eggs, whipped cream cheese or vegetables as an energy-packed way of upping their nutrition!
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats have earned themselves a bad rep in recent years, but on keto they’re actually healthy and help you meet your macros. Butter, red meat, chicken skin, cheese and full-fat dairy are excellent sources of saturated fats to help reach ketosis faster. Trans-fat-laden processed vegetable oils should be avoided to lower heart disease risks.
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats are an integral component of the keto diet and can be found in foods like olive oil, avocado and canola oil. These easy-to-digest and antioxidant-rich dietary elements may also help lower blood pressure, boost cholesterol levels and assist weight loss.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3 fatty acids are considered essential, meaning you must obtain them through diet alone because your body cannot produce them naturally. You can find omega-3s in fish, grass-fed beef and seeds; their anti-inflammatory effects have been found to enhance brain function, decrease heart disease risk factors and lessen depression symptoms.
Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats are another essential part of a keto diet, found in nuts, seeds, certain vegetable oils and avocados. Since polyunsaturated fats tend to be more unstable than their monounsaturated counterparts, moderation should be observed when eating polyunsaturated fats; they’re an excellent source of fiber, vitamins and minerals as well. They contain both omega-6 fatty acids as well as omega-3s; it is best if we consume more omega-3 than omega-6s!
Unsaturated Fats
Unsaturated fats are an integral component of the keto diet, found in foods like olive oil, peanut oil, sunflower seeds and canola oil. Unsaturated fats also contain Vitamin E as a powerful antioxidant that may help prevent cancer as well as heart disease.
Butter is an ideal source of energy on the keto diet as it’s made up of around 80% fat, making it carb-free. Plus, butter contains butyrate which promotes gut health while decreasing inflammation.
Eggs are an excellent source of protein and make an ideal addition to the keto diet, being packed full of healthy fats and offering both water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Try hard boiling them as snacks, scrambling them with vegetables or topping them off with slices of avocado and tomato for breakfast – egg preparation possibilities are limitless!
The keto diet requires an abundance of fat, which may be daunting for some people. Adjusting to eating less carbs and more fat may take some adjustment time; to ease into a keto diet gradually replace processed carb-rich foods with their keto-friendly equivalents such as salad dressing made from olive oil and vinegar or homemade ketchup made without sugar instead of tomatoes; also incorporate more high-fat whole foods such as olives, guacamole and salsa into your diet to increase its volume while limiting excessively-processed fats which may contain GMO ingredients or be high in omega-6 fatty acids which may increase inflammation.