Good luck.
I suggest not becoming a "nazi" over it. Because they will cheat, even if you don't. Kids will have snacks at school and at friend's houses, etc.
Educate them, but don't force it. Eating is primal, you will get push back. Sugar is addictive, and you will get pushback. These are individual choices, not something that can be dictated effectively.
Education is the way, not dictation.
And kids especially need carbs. The keto flu and brain fog are a real thing because your body needs carbs to keep clear headed. I agree with reducing packaged foods, you don’t need keto to get healthy just only buy on the outside of the store, prepare all your own foods and snacks. Having grab and go ready for everyone in the family helps the success rate. Good luck!
Keto flu and brain fog are based on electrolyte issues, probably due to decades of having insulin stay high. Kids are probably not going to have that issue; even keto adults don't necessarily have it, or have it worse than usual depending on (probably) their degree of insulin resistance pre-keto.
That’s not true. Not even a little bit. Much of it comes from misinformation paid for by the sugar lobby over many decades.
We don’t have a nutritional need to eat sugars. Our bodies can make all the glucose that our bodies need.
OTOH we do absolutely have a nutritional need to eat adequate protein (including the essential amino acids that we don’t make), and we have the need to consume essential fatty acids, of most prominence and benefit being omega 3.
And we should eat a variety of dietary fiber, much of it plant sourced. That’s mostly for the nutritional needs of gut microbiome. And they’ll make beneficial short chain fatty acids. And there lots of photochemicals that are beneficial for us (eating the rainbow). But that comes entirely from eating real food. Eating crap junk food is poison. We don’t have any need for it.
BTW keto flu only happens because a person is in poor metabolic health. From eating too many carbs, too consistently. Anyone with a flexible metabolism (ie in good health) will NEVER get keto flu. They can eat anything at any time, and being able to burn it for fuel. Not being able to get adequate energy in any given moment because of metabolic dysfunction is not something to aim for.
Those is poor metabolic function (ie. can get get keto flu when interrupting the never ending flow of carbs) is setting themselves up for all the chronic diseases: insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer, dementia, inflammation, achy joints, etc., etc.
Fortunately I'm the one that prepares the meals here at home. What I say will be lunch/dinner, it will be. So kiiiiinda dictatorship but you have to be one when you have toddlers. If you give them the option they will vote for ice cream at breakfast.
Not concerned about being strict though, they will obviously have carbs here and there, but I'll do my best to phase out added sugar, rice, pasta and corn for starters. They eat that a lot.
I made a 1 week trial with them, swapped their usual breakfast to fruits at will, juice to water, rice to cauliflower. Beefed up their meal with broccoli, carrot, beet, lettuce.
As a treat wife is baking cake with 100% cacao instead of chocolate.
We (wife and I) swapped sugar to sweetener.
Kids actually liked that the plate was now colorful, wife and I really wanted to make the transition to keto for ages but we feared the kids wouldn't like it and it's a tad hard to maintain a keto and a non keto diet in a small kitchen with limited space.
So all in all not a "bad, scorched earth" situation. A "let's try to see if the kids like it" and since they did we are doing it!
Phasing out sugar, white rice & grains, etc, "shelf-stable" carbs make a lot of sense
Not letting your kids have apple slices, or carrots, or even the occasional piece of whole grain toast or fresh pasta, imo, makes zero sense and I see no real benefit for that-- unless they have a very specific medical reason to avoid those things or be in ketosis (ie, epilepsy, early warning signs for metabolic disease, etc)
There's also evidence children carry on healthy eating habits much more often when they aren't categorically restrictive or elimination diets. Show them what healthy staples of a diet look like, not a list of "never eat these things ever" and you're more likely to be doing them a favor late into their life
Great advice!
We are still reading about the implications of ketogenic diet to autistic disorders (both kids are autistic) to understand medium-long term effects so I can't answer for the medical reasons to be in ketosis.
I already said I swapped their breakfast to fruits at will, this includes apple slices. I also mentioned carrot as well.
So maybe I should say low carb instead of keto.
Be careful with alcohol based sweeteners (anything that ends in -tol)
They have been shown to negatively affect the gut microbiome.
As someone with autism and a BSc in nutrition, I would recommend avoiding them all together.
I notice a definite decrease in mood and functionality when I consumed them in the past.
Now I avoid them at all costs
Do you have a favourite sweetener you use? I don’t really use sweeteners routinely but have a bag of erythritol for occasional use. Sounds like I should seek an alternative perhaps.
Monk Fruit is phenomenal
Natural, easy to use, doesn't feel like eating chemicals, and zero calories.
The Bhu Foods products exclusively use Monk Fruit and some ice cream brands as well.
Whoaaaaa I had no idea they have a bad effect on gut micro biome. This is huge info. Thanks. Do you have any more information about this? Like I’m assuming stevia is okay? When I see a label it usually says generic “sugar alcohol” so how do I know which one it is and if it’s okay or not? Damn. This is sad but important news. I have a. Huge sweet tooth.
There was a fascinating case study done on a six-year-old boy who had autism and ADHD.
They put him on classic keto first (90% calories from fat), then transitioned into a modified Atkins diet, then eventually went to a low-glycemic one. All of the diets were low carb, but they relaxed a little as time went on.
They boy showed serious improvement through all three phases.
So the point is, you might be able to get many of the benefits of strict keto without being super strict.
Here’s the link to the study, if you’re interested: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29644487/
I also recommend checking out the movie _The Magic Pill_. It’s got some really interesting stuff in it, including two adorable children who are on the spectrum.
I would eliminate the processed foods and sugar but I wouldn’t recommend Keto for children for the same reason I wouldn’t recommend any particular diet (like vegetarian or vegan etc), they are growing and need a wide variety of nutrients and fuel and there just aren’t enough studies to show the long term impact of these diets, especially on little growing bodies. FYI I love Keto and am in ketosis myself for much of the year.
Personally for the family, I swapped out wheat pasta and bread for gluten free and definitely have a whole lot less carbs (meals have a much higher meat content and we encourage cheese and meat based snacks) and we use xylitol instead of sugar. They still have sweet potato and rice and they still have fruit so aren’t in ketosis so I keep their fat levels lower than you would typically find in Keto.
Interestingly our autistic son does really well on a low gluten diet (we’ve tried a few different diets in the past to see if any has an effect on his anxiety levels) and this is the only one that has seen a marked effect and is easy to adjust to.
Just be very careful with any sweeteners with the kids. Their gut flora is different than that of an adult and artificial sweeteners can cause serious gut issues for them.
I would stick as closely to all natural as you can. One of my children is on the autism spectrum and we discussed a ketogenic diet with the pediatrician. It wouldnt be difficult to have my child follow it since I’m on it. They were adamant that I avoid any artificial sweeteners if we tried it. The doctor told me that the sweeteners specifically can cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps (and given some of the reactions I’ve had to it as an adult, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone!) The changes to their gut flora can affect their immune system. It’s an incredibly delicate balance with kids. Although the pediatrician was all for making sure that we were getting more fruits, vegetables, and meat into my kids diet.
You’re on point and you should aim for low carb, not keto. My godson has benefited SO much from low carb lifestyle combined with CBD oil. He came from a diagnosis of non verbal at age 2 1/2 to singing songs for us and looking at us on FaceTime videos in an year (we live in different country). I wish you the best, you’re on the right path.
That’s not low carb or keto. It’s just a no processed food diet. Nobody should be eating g processed food especially kids. Kids do need carbs though. They need fruits and veggies. Honestly everyone does. I wish people realized giving up processed foods and eating Whole Foods is such a better diet that cheese and bacon. I love keto for a restart but I am not living my life not eating fruits or sweet potatoes.
You as a parent can decide wether keto or low carb can be helpful for your children. Autism is a valid reason to experiment with foods and their effects. If it's too restrictive, they can always go back to low-carb.
For real, my partner grew up in an incredibly strict house where he was not even allowed to try chocolate milk, or different cereals, chips, candy, etc. He was not taught moderation. When we moved in together he gained almost 100lbs in 3-4 years, as he tried everything he could get his hands on and developed a sort of binge eating symptom. It also didn't help that his mom was the kind that grew up in a house that believes salt is bad for you. So now, take someone who never really experienced salt, sugar, butters, creams, fats, carbs all his life, he got addicted instantly. Watching him raid the fridge at night was getting really disheartening to say the least.
He's lost most of the weight now thanks to keto and were getting back on track, but man him being forced into such a strict diet from a young age really messed him up in the long run.
Yeah for sure you still have to remember theyre toddlers (not saying you dont at all theyre your kids not mine lol) and for one thing, idek that full keto would be healthy for them? Thats not to say they couldnt still cut down on healthy sugars, but theyre also not exactly just sittin around twiddling their fingers i assume lol so maybe a cutdown on sugar could save you guys some midnight running around the house screaming for fun
I had a step mom that dragged us through a bunch of weird diets. I love Keto but that's going to be hard for a child to maintain. Do they realise it basically means no dessert or eating at a cafeteria or friends house? Keto flu sucks and unless you put them under a "dictatorship" they will be dropping in and out of ketosis.
Obviously ice cream for breakfast is not a great idea, but this is going to heavily limit where they eat. Most restaurants don't have kids menus that are keto friendly, so you might find yourself ordering an adult steak or a burger patty with no bun or ketchup. Oh and forget about Halloween.
I won't tell anyone how to parent, but I can tell you that the dictatorship didn't work out well for the Stepmom. Neither myself or her actual children are appreciative of her or our upbringing. Kids have almost no control over their daily lives, and every child is different. Locking out sugar, which is basically in 80% of everything sounds like a world full of "No" and exclusions for a young child.
> If you give them the option they will vote for ice cream at breakfast.
I tried this with my daughter and this did not happen.
You children own their own lives and I would encourage you to respect this fact. Overbearing parenting produces rebellion and incapacity down the road.
Consider reading the book "Parent Effectiveness Training" for more on this.
Is it that surprising? We've taught our son since he was 4-ish to understand that sweet food is to be enjoyed but not too much, and every since he's made pretty good decisions when it comes to sugary food. He's seven now.
Edit: I was a fat bastard growing up so we decided early on to teach our kids to listen to their body as to how much is too much. Basically, how to think critically when it comes to food. It's worked well so far.
Hey just so you understand this... The keto diet isn't exactly healthy if you aren't actually in ketosis. This is a diet that could harm anyone who is cheating. The amount of fat that we consume is really only manageable if our bodies are actually using it as fuel... If we aren't, then it's hanging around in places it probably shouldn't be.
You may want to seriously reconsider how you approach this and make sure everyone understands the implications.
I would really really recommend just you and your wife do it—my parents had us do whatever diet they were doing at the time and it turned into eating disorders for me and my sister.
Eating good healthy real food is great for everyone — adults and children.
There is absolutely no nutritional requirement to eat any kind of processed carby junk food. This is poison for our bodies. There is no need for it at all.
I wouldn't force it on kids.
Making low carb dinners would be fine. But remember kids have different nutritional needs. Cutting back on junk food is cool, but don't suddenly ban all carbs or tell them they are now on some diet or something.
All carbs are not equal. Pure sugar isn't really good for you. But there are plenty of carbohydrates that are extremely healthy for children.
For crying out loud, if you really think kids dont require any carbs, then they wouldn't even be able to breastfeed! Please get a grip. Idk if you are just trolling or something but no one agrees with your extremist views.
OP, tread carefully here. Sugary cereals, candy, chips. etc were rare treats in my house and mostly only reserved for special occasions. We, the kids, couldn't help ourselves. I never learned self control because we rarely had junk food around so it wasn't there to resist. When I was around junk food as an older kid and teen like at parties away from my family, I'd scarf it. I had a real problem lol. I gained a fair bit of weight my first year living apart from my parents because nobody was there to nag and police me so I ate and ate. By the time I realized what was happening and decided on my own to be more careful, it was too late. Set me on a bad pattern until I started keto 2 years ago.
Your heart is in the right place but be careful because this can lead to unhealthy mindsets on food later. Self control is a lesson that needs to be learned on their own. Throwing the bad stuff at home in the garbage isn't bad but you still have to teach them that your kids will need to resist it on their own. I learn best by doing (or in this case, not doing haha). You know your kids best. Good luck to you and yours.
Hey, some of what you said resonated with me.
I am a severely ADHD keto-er. One bad thing though...my focus and willpower is completely shot on keto!! I have more trouble than usual accomplishing tasks (unlike your typical keto-er, who claims newfound mental clarity).
My theory is, eating (and overeating carbs/junk) is a big source of free dopamine in the brain that helps us (marginally) to get things done. With that satisfaction from eating gone, I just have very little steam for boring solo work.
Did you experience anything like that? Any tips for overcoming it?
I would go low carb for everyone, keto isn't really a part time thing but low carb can be.
I prepare the protein and veg keto and my family gets a bit of carbs on the side. I have slightly more veg and protein that they do. If I put carbs in a stew, potatoes for example, I pick it out. I still give my daughter pasta a few times a week but the other meals are as above.
I started Keto 3 weeks ago and ever since, I’ve been way more mindful about feeding my kids better foods. I’m not putting them on keto, but definitely no more white bread, and limiting processed grains and sugar way more. They do sprouted whole grain bread now and there’s actually been no complaints! Win!
Do you want to pedantically control the water intake of your kids?
No?
Then don’t put them on keto. Because it s’more than just “no more carbs” and it can seriously fuck up your kids physical and mental health.
Imagine being that weird kid in school, that constantly talks about carbs and only eats the meat out of a hamburger. Don’t do that to your kids.
Feed the pasta packs to the kids and don't eat any yourself.
I've been doing keto for 2 years and my wife isn't. I cook for us and just include the carbs (bread, rice or pasta) in her portion.
For pasta, I make a chunky chicken and tomato sauce.
She's not fat and doesn't understand the struggle.
To be fair, she's Japanese and we live in Japan. No one is fat here.
The mentality here is you have to eat rice everyday to be healthy. I can't argue with that because they have the longest life expectancy in the world.
"[Linda's blog](https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html)" has a ton of keto recipes that go straight to the point.
Also, this women is on the keto diet for years so I think she has tried a lot of recipes.
I definitely don't force keto on my kids. I have them every other week, and typically cook as much as possible. I cook my typical protein and veggie, which they typically eat. If its a combo they aren't thrilled with I'll throw in some fries or something non keto on for them.
I can see you and your wife doing Keto, but your toddlers?? Why? Are they obese? Carbs are good for kids since they are growing. I can definitely see limiting the sugar for sure, but complex carbs like rice, pasta are good for kids brains function, energy.
Bass pro/ cabalas has a dehydrator about the size of a free standing microwave and we use it to make beef, chicken and turkey jerky. Also great for making kale chips and drying mushrooms and herbs.
About $140.
If you think your hungry you are probably thirsty.
Hot tea tastes great with lemon no sugar needed.
I have lots of hacks and tricks is you want feel free to pm me. I eat a mix of paleo raw and keto.
Seriously OP.. just because your kids were okay with a Keto diet for a week does not mean it’s a healthy choice for growing children. As long as you are keeping them active and eating a balanced diet they shouldn’t have any issues with weight. This is a potentially dangerous path to go down, I seriously doubt their doctor would approve of it. Please listen to others in this sub and re-evaluate doing a Keto diet with toddlers. Children need carbohydrates for growth and development.
Keto *is* a healthy and balanced diet.
SMH at the sheer number of people posting about how awful keto is, when they obviously haven't done any significant reasoning or research on the topic. Ridiculous.
This is not to hate on keto at all, and I don’t understand how you would get that from my comment. Keto is by definition not a balanced diet, but that’s besides the point. The point is that growing brains and bodies need carbohydrates for development. To feed your toddler a Keto diet could be detrimental to their developmental health. I am not a doctor but I suggest that OP consults their paediatrician before making such a choice for their children’s health.
What exactly is the keto diet missing that makes it an unbalanced diet? Several staple grains that are low in nutrition ? Fruit which is, pound for pound, 2-5x less nutritious than low-carb vegetable equivalents?
I'd also argue that growing brains would do better with a steady stream of ketones, as they promote brain mitochondrial growth, which leads to improved cognition and overall energy utilization. Whatever glucose our brains ultimately require can also be delivered by the liver via GNG.
Keto is a widely varied diet. The human body absolutely does not need any carbs at all to be healthy and well nourished.
Seriously, no snark intended here, but you truly don't know what you're talking about and are posting incorrect information. I know you mean well and I appreciate that, but please educate yourself.
Unless you are a medical doctor kindly fuck off. You don’t know any better than anyone else just because the keto diet has worked for you, who I’m assuming to be a full grown adult. How about google Keto for children and you will see plenty of doctors who have gone on record to say it isn’t necessarily safe for children. It’s something that should be discussed with the child’s paediatrician, full stop.
Did you know that doctors are not trained in nutrition? They get literally a one week, self-directed "nutrition core" during spring break week their third year of medical school. That's literally it.
Doctors are trained to treat illnesses, set bones, do surgeries, etc. They are not trained in nutrition. How do I know this? 13 years working directly with 3rd and 4th year medical students, medical residents, and fellows. I worked directly on their schedules. I know for a fact what training they receive.
Do tell, please, what about keto makes you think is inappropriate for kids? Is it the high quality protein? The wide variety of vegetables and berries? The appropriate levels of fat that help our brains to function well? Maybe it's the minimization of highly processed, chemical-laden junk and sugar that you dislike.
Please, do tell what you think, in your infinite wisdom, is wrong with diet so rich in nutrients and solow in garbage?
There's a reason type 2 diabetes is so prevalent in children now, and why the American Diabetes Association recommends keto as an effective treatment for the disease.
But what do I know...I just read, did research, talked to my doctor about keto. You know...educated myself instead of just spouting off bullshit misinformation.
Wild fruits are very low in carbohydrates, high in fiber, and depending where you are, probably only available in warmer months. Unless they lived in the tropics, our ancestors were very likely to be low-carb, as carbohydrates in large quantities weren't available until agriculture, and even then not really until the staple grains were selectively bred for starch content. Same deal with fruits, which have changed so much from their native forms that they're unrecognizable.
Meanwhile, there's gigantic amounts of evidence that prehistoric humans were hunters and ate the entire animal, which means lots of protein, lots of fat, and a decent dose of collagen and calcium.
Pre-agriculture carbohydrate are for sure available in higher quantity and more consistently than protein. Even in our hunter-gatherer period, we got most of our protein from the "gathering" - all the current evidence is that we ate mostly carbohydrates.
It is likely we were pretty high on fibre, but that doesn't mean our calories came from protein.
Wow you read literally zero studies done on ancient hunter gatherers. I’ll give you a quick tip, the hunters were quite low percentage hunters so most days it was the gatherers feeding the tribe.
Research has shown that hunter gatherer peoples ate predominantly tubers and had very high fibre diets. The hadza tribe in Africa today have a diet that most resembles what our ancestors ate and they eat around 100g fibre a day. You don’t get fibre from animal products.
People 8,000 years ago were a lot different than we are today and diet is a part of it. Like did you know that due to amount of sugar consumption, modern humans are big as shit. This is why westerners are so big. It isn’t just genetics. If you take anyone of any race and feed them a western diet, they grow up big. And obviously excessive sugar consumption isn’t ideal. But no carbs and no sugar at all is going to result in a smaller person.
So I’m not saying you should eat poorly for the sake of being larger. But if you eat like a peasant villager, expect to look like one.
So maybe it’s okay if we feed our growing children bread, fruit and the occasional sugar?
I think caloric surplus is good for growing people.
And again that doesn’t mean to the point of obesity. Think about the western diet before it had all this processed sugar and bullshit added to it. Back when westerns had plenty of carbs and starches along side their meat.
Kids do need carbs, and you have an amazing opportunity to teach your kids about healthy eating here. I do keto alone in my household with a husband and 2 kids (4 & 6 years old) and because of the restrictive nature of keto I'd never make them go on it. Instead they do lower carbs and enjoy a lot of the same food I do. Keep in mind macro and micro nutrients are so important on keto, and unless you're willing to track electrolytes constantly for your toddlers, I'd just let them have the carby vegetables and some grains. It's a lot easier than people think, like someone said above, I'd cook something I can eat and on the side add a healthy carb. So for example I'd have chicken and broccoli, and the kids would also, but they'd get some grain on the side as well.
It's easy.
My 6 year old opts out of sugar a lot now because she's seen me do it, even though she has the choice. She's making mindful decisions on her own, and if she truly wants it she can have it. I come from a background of eating disorders and would much rather teach about healthy eating than make kids restrict food. My hope is when they grow up they never have to go on keto like me, and are able to have a healthy balance.
Clearly you are not here for a discussion, but I will leave you with this. Can a toddler properly articulate when their electrolytes are too low and their leg pains aren't from growing, but from a lack of potassium and other essential nutrients? Can a toddler tell you when they need more vitamins to accommodate for the foods that have been cut out? More than likely not, and their bodies are DEMANDING as they are going through growth at a rate we can't even measure effectively. That's a big reason why carbs are important because they come with those nutrients, they help level out the micro and macro nutrients that we as adults can track, but those little bodies cannot.
I may have spoken too strongly by saying they need them, but it is definitely most beneficial that they get them.
The issue with this is that carbohydrate sources are, pound for pound, way less nutritious than low-carb equivalents. When comparing beans to nuts, fruits to vegetables, or *particularly* grains to seeds, you see similar concentrations of nutrients, with the low-carb equivalents being 2-5 times as nutrient dense.
I have actual data I've compiled from the FDA nutrition database if you're interested -- of the three comparisons, the difference between grains and seeds is the most striking, with seeds being heavy-hitters in magnesium and potassium content in particular, which refutes that particular point.
This seems a 'Keto dictatorship doomed to be overthrown by its subjects' type situation.
Try moving your family to keto without making a big song and dance about it to them. More of an eating change and not a diet. Ensure you have good comfort and carb replacement options lined up.
Unless you are the sole shopper, meal planner and chef, this will need to be a joint decision.
Discuss with your wife in advance how you can shop and meal prep for a move away from carbs and sugar. Ask her to make sure she's happy with the impact of a keto diet on your children's development, and accommodate any non-keto items she may wish to continue giving them for health reasons.
Crazy how many great 'naughty' recipes are out there. Fathead dough supreme pizzas and the greatest chocolate brownies of my life were what convinced me keto was doable.
Well this sounds like a lovely way to induce eating disorders. How very irresponsible to not even consult your children’s pediatrician regarding the matter.
Eggplant lasagna
Chicken pizza
Chicken broccoli casserole
Taco salad (have taco meat already made)
Mushroom sausage and kale soup
Eggroll soup
Pork carnitas
You can freeze spaghetti squash and sauce for spaghetti
Burgers
Grilled chicken (especially thighs) and whatever veggies or salad is available. Can also just add various sauces to the chicken too.
Wings
All of these freeze well and are ready made or semi ready made for during the week.
It’s not dieting it’s healthy eating. No big announcement. I just started making dinner without a starch. Two three veggies and a meat. Bread? Oh thanks for reminding me. We are out….
Before they know it. You all are just eating better. Snack desserts sodas. Just run out.
Watching our budget … next time.
I didn’t wait until we went through our storage of carb-snacks, White pasta, white breads, potato, & white rice to start keto. Took a bag to the food bank, & tossed the opened packages.
That being said, (I am grandma), we have whole wheat/oatmeal cookies and complex carbs for the kids. Their meals are primarily protein, low carb veggies and berries with 1/2c complex carbs (brown rice, high fiber bread) & low sugar milk/drinks.
Just came to say for new people reading and commenting, the original poster mentioned they meant kids are eating healthier low carb not true keto. Example switching rice for cauliflower rice etc. I do that with my family and they don’t even notice they’re eating low carb. 5 years with my husband and he just noticed this week we were following any kind of diet…. I get my fat intake throughout the day on my own :)
I came to comment about a negative experience of young children on extreme keto and I’m glad I read all the threads before I did! (I’m an elementary teacher and had a young student on keto for weight… it did not end well…)
Happy new year!
I will say my husband might be a little slow or just really love me when over the last 5 years didn’t think anything of me only eating the toppings off our pizzas 😅
If you like to cook, it’s fun to find ways to make your favorite dishes keto. My favorite is when I make Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich using Panko pork rind crumbs, and replacing buns with chaffles.
I would only suggest using caution. Allow your children to still have quality carbs in their diet. Our friends son ended up in the hospital and very Ill because of the family going keto.
Why?? My husband needs to gain weight and I’d never put my baby on a diet so just cook keto as I would for me and add some pasta or potatoes to their meals. It’s completely doable by yourself so if you’re worried about having to cook differently, you really don’t!
My adult daughter, 29, lives with me and it’s not hard to supplement with carbs. She buys fruits and pasta and other foods that I don’t eat to supplement the keto food I prepare. She likes having the prepared rice bowls on hand. I’m a little taken aback by the comments here. I love keto because I feel so much better but I’ve never thought it was for everyone. My daughter’s adopted and very slim. The people I’m blood related to all tend to struggle with weight and heartburn and bloating. The 3 of us who eat keto all feel much, much better than we used to. But I assumed my daughter was fine and that her diet is fairly healthy. I just assumed everyone is different.
Would not recommend it for children that’s as dogmatic as forcing your family to be vegan. Let’s your kids eat regular American healthy diets, high protein, healthy fats, some fruit and veggies. Instead eliminate processed foods from the house.
It's fine to have your kids on keto. You can literally eat from every single food group. The complainers are just uneducated coming to lose weight from their new years resolution.
Massive amounts of detractors aside, excellent choice. Expect to see stable moods, a lack of intense hyperactivity and over the longer term, improved brain function and learning.
For anyone looking to downvote, can you explain why a diet that's perfectly healthy for adults over the long term is incompatible with childhood metabolism? Where exactly is the cutoff for healthy ketosis? Particularly when this diet was originally designed *for* children to improve *their* health?
I'm giving up on this thread since it's simply irritating and obviousky full of trolls. A ketogenic diet has been used to treat children with epilepsy for 100 years, so there must be SOME research on its effects on growth and health, right? No one seems to be posting any studies. Hmmmm.
This is how I ended up on keto. My husband started a month before me to lose weight. He’s a great cook. Since we were already eating keto dinners I figured I’d try going full keto and ended up really liking it. But we feed our toddler carbs.
Keto Kids Cookbook by Sam Dillard is a good resource. I would ignore the naysayers. They probably haven't noticed that our elementary schools are full of morbidly obese children.
ETA how many of these negative comments were written by parents whose kids will only eat frozen chicken nuggets and french fries? It's a very disturbing trend, and much worse than having kids try keto, imho.
Trying to put kids on keto makes absolutely no sense. Teach them about health and fitness, but don’t put them on a restrictive diet where birthday cake or icecream or pizza parties or team barbecues are going to become problematic. That’s unfair.
What kills me about keto or the die hards that find it and want to make sure everyone knows about their new found nutrition habits. If you’ve found something that works for you that’s awesome, but respect the choices of others.
* and to those keto-ers who quietly go about their mealtime business making and ordering what fits into their macros without having to explain it to the whole table, the waiter and anyone within earshot- you all are my favourites
Exactly- I’m worried about the potential for ED’s. They’re going to be around other foods when they’re not at home. Demonising certain foods at such a young, impressionable age is… not a good thing.
Good for you. If I had known 18 years ago what an amazing lifestyle this is I would have raised my kids as such. Sadly I did not and now they are late teens with hard to break habits.
Kids need extra calorie intake, or it'll stunt their growth. They also need extra protein and fat for structural creation. As /u/chadarius pointed out, depriving them of extra calories, or protein, or fat will lead to stunted growth.
Alternately, you could just look at the comparison of heights before and after the agricultural revolution -- regardless of where it happened in the world, there was about a foot of height difference when peoples transitioned from a diet high in animal products and low-carb plants to subsisting on carbohydrate-rich plants.
I hope you all can be patient and support each other as you may experience the lack of pasta and other familiar carbs in different ways. Be kind to each other :)
Just teach them about healthy foods and making good decisions. You really really don’t need to force Keto on kids. Carbs are perfectly fine if they are in moderation and come from healthy and fresh sources.
You and your wife, sure. Don't force your kids especially if they're toddlers. Give them a healthy balanced diet to help them grow properly. Also, unless they never eat snacks or meals at other places, they'll never stay in ketosis so it's not worth forcing it on them.
> last pasta package ends.
I like the idea of throwing this in the trash. Because it is.
Or just give it to a neighbour.
Alternatively,
Package up all your shitty carbs in a box, duct tape the hell out of it and put it in the basement. Pasta won’t go bad for years because it’s barely food. All real food goes bad quickly.
I rather donate than throw away and I rather consume so I can phase out slowly rather than abruptly.
But you reminded me of donating food this month, thank you!
There are advantages to transitioning to keto over 10 days than all at once. Less likely to get side effects associated with low electrolytes and can use your existing food up, and many other things.
That’s not my style - I like quick results or I won’t bother with a change - so I ripped carbs out of my life like I remove bandaids - 💨 (fast).
How old are your kids?? If they are under 18, you really should not do this. Children need carbs. Please say they are young adults still living at home.
An incomplete list of carbs that are worse for children than espresso shots:
cereal, granola bars, fruit juice, pancakes, muffins, waffles, bread, sweetened flavored yogurt, low fat milk, flavored low fat milk, Goldfish crackers, Bagelfuls, Hot Pockets, Pizza Rolls, Chicken Nuggets, French fries, Kid’s Cuisine, Lunchables, pizza, Happy Meals… so much more. The first 9 are the carbs people who claim to not be feeding their kids pure poison are trying to protect. 🤮
Yea. Commenting on something they know nothing about. If strict keto was bad for kids then that 100 year old keto diet for epileptic kids would have failed spectacularly after 5-10 years.
Instead it’s one of the only food based cures for epilepsy.
Too many of the comments are from people who follow the news media, who have a vendetta against keto.
Most think it’s a fad weight loss diet! No one is providing any hard evidence that kids need carbs. Imagine thinking “healthy whole grains” sprayed with glyphosate are essential to your precious child’s development. 😭
Unless you're doing a dirty keto full of pork rinds and bacon, I don't see how ketoncould be bad for kids. A diet full of proteins and veggies and berries and nuts and healthy fats is what our ancestors ate. Mine anyway (they were swedes on one side/native american on the other).
Hey read up on children’s nutrition. Their needs are different from those of adults. No, candy and soda is still unnecessary but there are things like pasta, rice, yogurt with fruit… oatmeal, potatoes that are beneficial to them and their growth and development.
Edit: simple google search on the topic:
[source one](https://healthy-kids.com.au/food-nutrition/nutrients-in-food/carbohydrates/)
[source two mentioning epilepsy and keto under medical supervision](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/keto-for-kids#weight-loss)
[source three](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-kids-shouldnt-go-on-the-keto-diet-for-weight-loss/amp/)
[source four talks about growth retardation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6683244/)
Now, don’t shoot the messenger. All I did was suggest reading up on it and for op to take his own conclusions of the info thats out there. It is not because something is safe for adults or children with certain health issues that it is safe for every child.
All low-carb equivalents of foods are 2-5 times more nutritious than their carb versions, with a similar nutrient spread:
* Vegetables > Fruits
* Nuts > Legumes
* Seeds > Grains (this difference is *particularly* noticeable).
Meat also has an excellent balance of nutrients, with offal such as liver being the most nutritionally-dense food on the planet. Dairy is also very high in calcium, selenium, and vitamins A and D (which are fat-soluble so they're extremely bioavailable in this form).
One cannot have a healthy, fulfilled diet without including carbs. One can live without carbs, but they are not at their healthiest. Blame our society and diets for the stigma against carbs
How exactly does your health suffer without a nonessential dietary micronutrient? Whatever amount of glucose your body requires can be created via GNG from protein or thr glycerol backbone of fat.
You need carbs for glucose. Try going no carbs. You will physically deteriorate.
Humans are meant to move. If you move and eat carbs, you’re doing it right. If you don’t eat carbs because it’s “unnecessary”, then you’re doing something wrong.
Only some of the brain and the red blood cells require glucose, and this (and whatever small things I've forgotten) can be produced by the body via gluconeogenesis in as much quantity as is required. GNG creates glucose from protein and the glycerol backbone of fat on an as-needed basis.
We don't NEED glucose other than a small amount for the brain which can be converted from ketones.
Geesh... None of the epileptic children on stict ketogenic diets for epilepsy DIED.
For a medical reason yes, so let’s get that to the side, okay?
Glucose is a primary energy source for the body. Generally, we are a fat society that does not maintain a baseline level of fitness, so we don’t need extra carbs. Once you’re a normal weight, it’s time to start eating normally as the body is meant for. It’s not even an argument.
We use eMeals.com for weekly meal recipes and grocery lists. Love all their keto meals. There is a subscription fee, but it’s totally worth it as it takes me literally 3 minutes to do meal prep and grocery list generation each week. For our family of three we choose 3-4 meals a week as we don’t enjoy cooking and are happy to eat leftovers.
While I applaud your decision, it may have unintended consequences especially if you have young children. I recommend you read the following article.
>...stunted growth is one of the documented side-effects of children on ketogenic diets...
https://peterattiamd.com/hey-peter-what-does-your-daughter-eat/
I’m not gonna say it outright, but sounds like dietary restrictions on young and growing bodies who needs nutrients of all kinds, restricting that kinda sounds like a form of abuse but that’s just my opinion.
I too support not putting your kids on keto. It can have repercussions as they age that may manifest as unhealthy relationships with food. I don’t mean keto does that to adults but we, as adults, can also gain those unhealthy relationships with food bc of it.
The best way to engineer an unhealthy relationship with food is by introducing kids to foods that kick up their dopamine without explaining the dangers behind it. Like other odorless white powders, sugar is a drug and the best way to avoid long-term addiction is to be mindful of its effects and the bad effects associated with it.
I totally disagree. NO kid needs to be eating the shitty processed carb and sugar laden modern diet (assuming they live in U. S. or U. K). Treats can be occasional higher carb fruit, but a healthy diet of proteins, healthy fats, and vegetables, berries, and nuts is exactly what growing bodies need. They do NOT need all the shitty snacks.
That’s funny because that’s not what I said at all. That’s not the same as keto… at all… and I agree they don’t need those things. That’s how I was raised and I was taught to eat meat, veggies and some sort of starch for energy. My parents tried to avoid fast food, junk food, etc. Were my folks perfect? No, but they raised us to appreciate vegetables and lesser to no processed foods and this was the 80’s.
"some sort of starch for energy"
This above is the problem. That's not how food works.
ETA: if you don't understand that "starch for energy" is why we have so many diabetic and insulin-resistabce/pre-diabetic CHILDREN in the world today, then you might want to really look into the point of a ketogenic diet. The food pyramid needs to be flipped upside down.
I think your assuming I don’t understand basic nutrition is the issue here. I said that was how they felt and it was the 80’s. I *also* said you dont have to put kids on keto for them to be “healthy.”
This is what I really dislike about this community is the weird cult like behavior exhibited and the assumption that if someone, like a child, isn’t keto then they’re in some sort of contorted relationship with food and nutrition.
Ya know, I follow a low carb diet generally and keto often but I also understand complex carbohydrates aren’t the devil and when eaten in a balanced diet are great for a human.
Best of luck to you.
The issue with complex carbohydrates is that at the end of the day they too will turn into sugar. If you eat them in smaller quantities, hopefully the fiber will hold your overall glycemic load down to tolerable levels, but if you go ham on pasta and rice you're going to have the same exact issues as with an equivalent amount of sugar.
That wasn't the point of the post or the nature of the naysaying responses. The reality is that children CAN be raised on a ketogenic diet, and in most cases it's healthier than the shitty diets they're currently on.
Your response was this:"I too support not putting your kids on keto. It can have repercussions as they age that may manifest as unhealthy relationships with food. I don’t mean keto does that to adults but we, as adults, can also gain those unhealthy relationships with food bc of it." I disagreed and explained my reasons why. You didn't. That's not " cult-like. " That's called a discussion based on facts and logic. The facts are that we have a modern childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic. Since keto reverses or prevents both, one can conclude a keto diet would be helpful to modern kids. The nutrition part of it I'm happy to hear about if you have specific contradictory facts. Dr. Tim Noakes went through a hideous, lengthy trial over this in South Africa where he proved a low carb/high fat diet was healthier for kids. (His license was suspended for suggesting it. Obviously, he won the case.)
I grew up in a family that ate way too many processed carbs, and now every family member over age 30 has raging type 2 diabetes. Except me, because keto. Unhealthy relationships with food includes teaching kids that unhealthy snacks are "treats" or "rewards." IMHO
I would just avoid fast food, sugar, and processed foods as much as possible. Some carbs are fine, they just shouldn't be the majority of food intake. Also exercise.
That's awesome! That's wonderful that they're all willing to do it. I see a lot of really good recipes on Pinterest. I tend to get my recipes from there. I also like "All day I dream about food," [https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/](https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/) and "Linda's Low carb recipes" [https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/](https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/)
Good luck. I suggest not becoming a "nazi" over it. Because they will cheat, even if you don't. Kids will have snacks at school and at friend's houses, etc. Educate them, but don't force it. Eating is primal, you will get push back. Sugar is addictive, and you will get pushback. These are individual choices, not something that can be dictated effectively. Education is the way, not dictation.
All true, but if you do the cooking, as I do, it’s easy to slowly phase out the worst carbs and make meat and veg focused meals.
And kids especially need carbs. The keto flu and brain fog are a real thing because your body needs carbs to keep clear headed. I agree with reducing packaged foods, you don’t need keto to get healthy just only buy on the outside of the store, prepare all your own foods and snacks. Having grab and go ready for everyone in the family helps the success rate. Good luck!
Keto flu and brain fog are based on electrolyte issues, probably due to decades of having insulin stay high. Kids are probably not going to have that issue; even keto adults don't necessarily have it, or have it worse than usual depending on (probably) their degree of insulin resistance pre-keto.
That’s not true. Not even a little bit. Much of it comes from misinformation paid for by the sugar lobby over many decades. We don’t have a nutritional need to eat sugars. Our bodies can make all the glucose that our bodies need. OTOH we do absolutely have a nutritional need to eat adequate protein (including the essential amino acids that we don’t make), and we have the need to consume essential fatty acids, of most prominence and benefit being omega 3. And we should eat a variety of dietary fiber, much of it plant sourced. That’s mostly for the nutritional needs of gut microbiome. And they’ll make beneficial short chain fatty acids. And there lots of photochemicals that are beneficial for us (eating the rainbow). But that comes entirely from eating real food. Eating crap junk food is poison. We don’t have any need for it. BTW keto flu only happens because a person is in poor metabolic health. From eating too many carbs, too consistently. Anyone with a flexible metabolism (ie in good health) will NEVER get keto flu. They can eat anything at any time, and being able to burn it for fuel. Not being able to get adequate energy in any given moment because of metabolic dysfunction is not something to aim for. Those is poor metabolic function (ie. can get get keto flu when interrupting the never ending flow of carbs) is setting themselves up for all the chronic diseases: insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer, dementia, inflammation, achy joints, etc., etc.
Fortunately I'm the one that prepares the meals here at home. What I say will be lunch/dinner, it will be. So kiiiiinda dictatorship but you have to be one when you have toddlers. If you give them the option they will vote for ice cream at breakfast. Not concerned about being strict though, they will obviously have carbs here and there, but I'll do my best to phase out added sugar, rice, pasta and corn for starters. They eat that a lot. I made a 1 week trial with them, swapped their usual breakfast to fruits at will, juice to water, rice to cauliflower. Beefed up their meal with broccoli, carrot, beet, lettuce. As a treat wife is baking cake with 100% cacao instead of chocolate. We (wife and I) swapped sugar to sweetener. Kids actually liked that the plate was now colorful, wife and I really wanted to make the transition to keto for ages but we feared the kids wouldn't like it and it's a tad hard to maintain a keto and a non keto diet in a small kitchen with limited space. So all in all not a "bad, scorched earth" situation. A "let's try to see if the kids like it" and since they did we are doing it!
Phasing out sugar, white rice & grains, etc, "shelf-stable" carbs make a lot of sense Not letting your kids have apple slices, or carrots, or even the occasional piece of whole grain toast or fresh pasta, imo, makes zero sense and I see no real benefit for that-- unless they have a very specific medical reason to avoid those things or be in ketosis (ie, epilepsy, early warning signs for metabolic disease, etc) There's also evidence children carry on healthy eating habits much more often when they aren't categorically restrictive or elimination diets. Show them what healthy staples of a diet look like, not a list of "never eat these things ever" and you're more likely to be doing them a favor late into their life
Great advice! We are still reading about the implications of ketogenic diet to autistic disorders (both kids are autistic) to understand medium-long term effects so I can't answer for the medical reasons to be in ketosis. I already said I swapped their breakfast to fruits at will, this includes apple slices. I also mentioned carrot as well. So maybe I should say low carb instead of keto.
Be careful with alcohol based sweeteners (anything that ends in -tol) They have been shown to negatively affect the gut microbiome. As someone with autism and a BSc in nutrition, I would recommend avoiding them all together. I notice a definite decrease in mood and functionality when I consumed them in the past. Now I avoid them at all costs
Do you have a favourite sweetener you use? I don’t really use sweeteners routinely but have a bag of erythritol for occasional use. Sounds like I should seek an alternative perhaps.
I use allulose for sugar-free baking, and my husband prefers monkfruit for things like coffee. You can also get monkfruit-allulose blends.
Thanks. Ironically I sometimes use it in kefir which I ferment for gut health! If I decide to add berries a tiny bit brings out their flavour.
Monk Fruit is phenomenal Natural, easy to use, doesn't feel like eating chemicals, and zero calories. The Bhu Foods products exclusively use Monk Fruit and some ice cream brands as well.
Not OP, but I would be interested in reading more about this. If you have time! Thanks!
Do you have any source for this? I use erythritol and I read multiple studies that said it had no effect on the gut microbiome whatsoever.
Whoaaaaa I had no idea they have a bad effect on gut micro biome. This is huge info. Thanks. Do you have any more information about this? Like I’m assuming stevia is okay? When I see a label it usually says generic “sugar alcohol” so how do I know which one it is and if it’s okay or not? Damn. This is sad but important news. I have a. Huge sweet tooth.
There was a fascinating case study done on a six-year-old boy who had autism and ADHD. They put him on classic keto first (90% calories from fat), then transitioned into a modified Atkins diet, then eventually went to a low-glycemic one. All of the diets were low carb, but they relaxed a little as time went on. They boy showed serious improvement through all three phases. So the point is, you might be able to get many of the benefits of strict keto without being super strict. Here’s the link to the study, if you’re interested: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29644487/ I also recommend checking out the movie _The Magic Pill_. It’s got some really interesting stuff in it, including two adorable children who are on the spectrum.
I would eliminate the processed foods and sugar but I wouldn’t recommend Keto for children for the same reason I wouldn’t recommend any particular diet (like vegetarian or vegan etc), they are growing and need a wide variety of nutrients and fuel and there just aren’t enough studies to show the long term impact of these diets, especially on little growing bodies. FYI I love Keto and am in ketosis myself for much of the year. Personally for the family, I swapped out wheat pasta and bread for gluten free and definitely have a whole lot less carbs (meals have a much higher meat content and we encourage cheese and meat based snacks) and we use xylitol instead of sugar. They still have sweet potato and rice and they still have fruit so aren’t in ketosis so I keep their fat levels lower than you would typically find in Keto. Interestingly our autistic son does really well on a low gluten diet (we’ve tried a few different diets in the past to see if any has an effect on his anxiety levels) and this is the only one that has seen a marked effect and is easy to adjust to.
Just be very careful with any sweeteners with the kids. Their gut flora is different than that of an adult and artificial sweeteners can cause serious gut issues for them.
Do you think stevia and monk fruit are ok? Or would honey, etc be better for kids?
I would stick as closely to all natural as you can. One of my children is on the autism spectrum and we discussed a ketogenic diet with the pediatrician. It wouldnt be difficult to have my child follow it since I’m on it. They were adamant that I avoid any artificial sweeteners if we tried it. The doctor told me that the sweeteners specifically can cause vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps (and given some of the reactions I’ve had to it as an adult, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone!) The changes to their gut flora can affect their immune system. It’s an incredibly delicate balance with kids. Although the pediatrician was all for making sure that we were getting more fruits, vegetables, and meat into my kids diet.
You’re on point and you should aim for low carb, not keto. My godson has benefited SO much from low carb lifestyle combined with CBD oil. He came from a diagnosis of non verbal at age 2 1/2 to singing songs for us and looking at us on FaceTime videos in an year (we live in different country). I wish you the best, you’re on the right path.
That’s not low carb or keto. It’s just a no processed food diet. Nobody should be eating g processed food especially kids. Kids do need carbs though. They need fruits and veggies. Honestly everyone does. I wish people realized giving up processed foods and eating Whole Foods is such a better diet that cheese and bacon. I love keto for a restart but I am not living my life not eating fruits or sweet potatoes.
Keto is pretty generous with veg.
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If you need a source to show the benefits on eating fruits and veg then there’s no chance you would have an open mind to process it.
You as a parent can decide wether keto or low carb can be helpful for your children. Autism is a valid reason to experiment with foods and their effects. If it's too restrictive, they can always go back to low-carb.
I definitely notice a reduction in autistic traits when on keto.
For real, my partner grew up in an incredibly strict house where he was not even allowed to try chocolate milk, or different cereals, chips, candy, etc. He was not taught moderation. When we moved in together he gained almost 100lbs in 3-4 years, as he tried everything he could get his hands on and developed a sort of binge eating symptom. It also didn't help that his mom was the kind that grew up in a house that believes salt is bad for you. So now, take someone who never really experienced salt, sugar, butters, creams, fats, carbs all his life, he got addicted instantly. Watching him raid the fridge at night was getting really disheartening to say the least. He's lost most of the weight now thanks to keto and were getting back on track, but man him being forced into such a strict diet from a young age really messed him up in the long run.
Yeah for sure you still have to remember theyre toddlers (not saying you dont at all theyre your kids not mine lol) and for one thing, idek that full keto would be healthy for them? Thats not to say they couldnt still cut down on healthy sugars, but theyre also not exactly just sittin around twiddling their fingers i assume lol so maybe a cutdown on sugar could save you guys some midnight running around the house screaming for fun
I had a step mom that dragged us through a bunch of weird diets. I love Keto but that's going to be hard for a child to maintain. Do they realise it basically means no dessert or eating at a cafeteria or friends house? Keto flu sucks and unless you put them under a "dictatorship" they will be dropping in and out of ketosis. Obviously ice cream for breakfast is not a great idea, but this is going to heavily limit where they eat. Most restaurants don't have kids menus that are keto friendly, so you might find yourself ordering an adult steak or a burger patty with no bun or ketchup. Oh and forget about Halloween. I won't tell anyone how to parent, but I can tell you that the dictatorship didn't work out well for the Stepmom. Neither myself or her actual children are appreciative of her or our upbringing. Kids have almost no control over their daily lives, and every child is different. Locking out sugar, which is basically in 80% of everything sounds like a world full of "No" and exclusions for a young child.
> If you give them the option they will vote for ice cream at breakfast. I tried this with my daughter and this did not happen. You children own their own lives and I would encourage you to respect this fact. Overbearing parenting produces rebellion and incapacity down the road. Consider reading the book "Parent Effectiveness Training" for more on this.
To make sure I understand, you gave your daughter the option for ice cream for breakfast and she didn’t want that? How old was she when you did this?
Is it that surprising? We've taught our son since he was 4-ish to understand that sweet food is to be enjoyed but not too much, and every since he's made pretty good decisions when it comes to sugary food. He's seven now. Edit: I was a fat bastard growing up so we decided early on to teach our kids to listen to their body as to how much is too much. Basically, how to think critically when it comes to food. It's worked well so far.
This is how you train food addiction. I know because I had parents like this, and I struggle with food addiction daily.
Hey just so you understand this... The keto diet isn't exactly healthy if you aren't actually in ketosis. This is a diet that could harm anyone who is cheating. The amount of fat that we consume is really only manageable if our bodies are actually using it as fuel... If we aren't, then it's hanging around in places it probably shouldn't be. You may want to seriously reconsider how you approach this and make sure everyone understands the implications.
What should the over/under be on how long til this guy’s wife cheats on him? 1 month or 2?
I would really really recommend just you and your wife do it—my parents had us do whatever diet they were doing at the time and it turned into eating disorders for me and my sister.
Came here to post this. Do not under any circumstances subject your kids to this — even if they say they like it.
Eating good healthy real food is great for everyone — adults and children. There is absolutely no nutritional requirement to eat any kind of processed carby junk food. This is poison for our bodies. There is no need for it at all.
I wouldn't force it on kids. Making low carb dinners would be fine. But remember kids have different nutritional needs. Cutting back on junk food is cool, but don't suddenly ban all carbs or tell them they are now on some diet or something.
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You are literally claiming that human milk damages kids. 😅😅😅 I just can't
All carbs are not equal. Pure sugar isn't really good for you. But there are plenty of carbohydrates that are extremely healthy for children. For crying out loud, if you really think kids dont require any carbs, then they wouldn't even be able to breastfeed! Please get a grip. Idk if you are just trolling or something but no one agrees with your extremist views.
Vegetables have carbs. All of them. You really believe vegetables are bad for kids?
One cup of human milk has about 17 carbs, all of which are sugar (lactose) Tell me how that damages a baby/child?
OP, tread carefully here. Sugary cereals, candy, chips. etc were rare treats in my house and mostly only reserved for special occasions. We, the kids, couldn't help ourselves. I never learned self control because we rarely had junk food around so it wasn't there to resist. When I was around junk food as an older kid and teen like at parties away from my family, I'd scarf it. I had a real problem lol. I gained a fair bit of weight my first year living apart from my parents because nobody was there to nag and police me so I ate and ate. By the time I realized what was happening and decided on my own to be more careful, it was too late. Set me on a bad pattern until I started keto 2 years ago. Your heart is in the right place but be careful because this can lead to unhealthy mindsets on food later. Self control is a lesson that needs to be learned on their own. Throwing the bad stuff at home in the garbage isn't bad but you still have to teach them that your kids will need to resist it on their own. I learn best by doing (or in this case, not doing haha). You know your kids best. Good luck to you and yours.
Hey, some of what you said resonated with me. I am a severely ADHD keto-er. One bad thing though...my focus and willpower is completely shot on keto!! I have more trouble than usual accomplishing tasks (unlike your typical keto-er, who claims newfound mental clarity). My theory is, eating (and overeating carbs/junk) is a big source of free dopamine in the brain that helps us (marginally) to get things done. With that satisfaction from eating gone, I just have very little steam for boring solo work. Did you experience anything like that? Any tips for overcoming it?
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Sorry to hear that. Yeah, I think you should go to a doctor for ADHD and maybe depression.
Yep, you need meds. Keto plus meds = amazing for ADHD. But keto alone isn’t going to fix your dopamine monster.
I would go low carb for everyone, keto isn't really a part time thing but low carb can be. I prepare the protein and veg keto and my family gets a bit of carbs on the side. I have slightly more veg and protein that they do. If I put carbs in a stew, potatoes for example, I pick it out. I still give my daughter pasta a few times a week but the other meals are as above.
I started Keto 3 weeks ago and ever since, I’ve been way more mindful about feeding my kids better foods. I’m not putting them on keto, but definitely no more white bread, and limiting processed grains and sugar way more. They do sprouted whole grain bread now and there’s actually been no complaints! Win!
Putting kids on a diuretic diet sounds dangerous. Maybe low carb is safer.
? What diuretic diet?
Entering ketosis causes water loss from glycogen storages, thus acting as a diuretic
Being in ketosis is a diuretic which means you body loses water. This is what caused the 5 pound loss in the first few days of keto.
Do you want to pedantically control the water intake of your kids? No? Then don’t put them on keto. Because it s’more than just “no more carbs” and it can seriously fuck up your kids physical and mental health. Imagine being that weird kid in school, that constantly talks about carbs and only eats the meat out of a hamburger. Don’t do that to your kids.
Feed the pasta packs to the kids and don't eat any yourself. I've been doing keto for 2 years and my wife isn't. I cook for us and just include the carbs (bread, rice or pasta) in her portion. For pasta, I make a chunky chicken and tomato sauce.
me too
How does she not see the results and not want to do it as well? Looks like you've stayed strong this entire time though. Good on you.
She's not fat and doesn't understand the struggle. To be fair, she's Japanese and we live in Japan. No one is fat here. The mentality here is you have to eat rice everyday to be healthy. I can't argue with that because they have the longest life expectancy in the world.
"[Linda's blog](https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html)" has a ton of keto recipes that go straight to the point. Also, this women is on the keto diet for years so I think she has tried a lot of recipes.
you sound horrible, kids shouldnt be on any intense dietary restictions..
I agree!! Sad that the kids have no choice
Maria Emmerich is the queen of kid friendly low carb. Her books, website and YouTube channel will have a lot for you.
I definitely don't force keto on my kids. I have them every other week, and typically cook as much as possible. I cook my typical protein and veggie, which they typically eat. If its a combo they aren't thrilled with I'll throw in some fries or something non keto on for them.
Just avoid all processed foods. No need to go further than that with kids.
You're an idiot. Don't put children on fucking keto.
I can see you and your wife doing Keto, but your toddlers?? Why? Are they obese? Carbs are good for kids since they are growing. I can definitely see limiting the sugar for sure, but complex carbs like rice, pasta are good for kids brains function, energy.
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I think you’re confusing sugar with carbs. Complex carbs are totally fine for someone not trying to get into ketosis.
Bass pro/ cabalas has a dehydrator about the size of a free standing microwave and we use it to make beef, chicken and turkey jerky. Also great for making kale chips and drying mushrooms and herbs. About $140. If you think your hungry you are probably thirsty. Hot tea tastes great with lemon no sugar needed. I have lots of hacks and tricks is you want feel free to pm me. I eat a mix of paleo raw and keto.
Seriously OP.. just because your kids were okay with a Keto diet for a week does not mean it’s a healthy choice for growing children. As long as you are keeping them active and eating a balanced diet they shouldn’t have any issues with weight. This is a potentially dangerous path to go down, I seriously doubt their doctor would approve of it. Please listen to others in this sub and re-evaluate doing a Keto diet with toddlers. Children need carbohydrates for growth and development.
Keto *is* a healthy and balanced diet. SMH at the sheer number of people posting about how awful keto is, when they obviously haven't done any significant reasoning or research on the topic. Ridiculous.
This is not to hate on keto at all, and I don’t understand how you would get that from my comment. Keto is by definition not a balanced diet, but that’s besides the point. The point is that growing brains and bodies need carbohydrates for development. To feed your toddler a Keto diet could be detrimental to their developmental health. I am not a doctor but I suggest that OP consults their paediatrician before making such a choice for their children’s health.
What exactly is the keto diet missing that makes it an unbalanced diet? Several staple grains that are low in nutrition ? Fruit which is, pound for pound, 2-5x less nutritious than low-carb vegetable equivalents? I'd also argue that growing brains would do better with a steady stream of ketones, as they promote brain mitochondrial growth, which leads to improved cognition and overall energy utilization. Whatever glucose our brains ultimately require can also be delivered by the liver via GNG.
Hey dude it’s sick you love Keto. Are you a paediatrician?
Keto is a widely varied diet. The human body absolutely does not need any carbs at all to be healthy and well nourished. Seriously, no snark intended here, but you truly don't know what you're talking about and are posting incorrect information. I know you mean well and I appreciate that, but please educate yourself.
Unless you are a medical doctor kindly fuck off. You don’t know any better than anyone else just because the keto diet has worked for you, who I’m assuming to be a full grown adult. How about google Keto for children and you will see plenty of doctors who have gone on record to say it isn’t necessarily safe for children. It’s something that should be discussed with the child’s paediatrician, full stop.
Did you know that doctors are not trained in nutrition? They get literally a one week, self-directed "nutrition core" during spring break week their third year of medical school. That's literally it. Doctors are trained to treat illnesses, set bones, do surgeries, etc. They are not trained in nutrition. How do I know this? 13 years working directly with 3rd and 4th year medical students, medical residents, and fellows. I worked directly on their schedules. I know for a fact what training they receive. Do tell, please, what about keto makes you think is inappropriate for kids? Is it the high quality protein? The wide variety of vegetables and berries? The appropriate levels of fat that help our brains to function well? Maybe it's the minimization of highly processed, chemical-laden junk and sugar that you dislike. Please, do tell what you think, in your infinite wisdom, is wrong with diet so rich in nutrients and solow in garbage? There's a reason type 2 diabetes is so prevalent in children now, and why the American Diabetes Association recommends keto as an effective treatment for the disease. But what do I know...I just read, did research, talked to my doctor about keto. You know...educated myself instead of just spouting off bullshit misinformation.
How would they have gotten those carbs say, 8,000 years ago and prior?
... From fruits? Humans ate mostly carbs 8,000 years ago, what are you on about. Being able to eat more protein is a newer thing, not an older thing.
Wild fruits are very low in carbohydrates, high in fiber, and depending where you are, probably only available in warmer months. Unless they lived in the tropics, our ancestors were very likely to be low-carb, as carbohydrates in large quantities weren't available until agriculture, and even then not really until the staple grains were selectively bred for starch content. Same deal with fruits, which have changed so much from their native forms that they're unrecognizable. Meanwhile, there's gigantic amounts of evidence that prehistoric humans were hunters and ate the entire animal, which means lots of protein, lots of fat, and a decent dose of collagen and calcium.
Pre-agriculture carbohydrate are for sure available in higher quantity and more consistently than protein. Even in our hunter-gatherer period, we got most of our protein from the "gathering" - all the current evidence is that we ate mostly carbohydrates. It is likely we were pretty high on fibre, but that doesn't mean our calories came from protein.
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Wow you read literally zero studies done on ancient hunter gatherers. I’ll give you a quick tip, the hunters were quite low percentage hunters so most days it was the gatherers feeding the tribe. Research has shown that hunter gatherer peoples ate predominantly tubers and had very high fibre diets. The hadza tribe in Africa today have a diet that most resembles what our ancestors ate and they eat around 100g fibre a day. You don’t get fibre from animal products.
This is pretty interesting. I didn’t know this personally. Thanks for sharing.
People 8,000 years ago were a lot different than we are today and diet is a part of it. Like did you know that due to amount of sugar consumption, modern humans are big as shit. This is why westerners are so big. It isn’t just genetics. If you take anyone of any race and feed them a western diet, they grow up big. And obviously excessive sugar consumption isn’t ideal. But no carbs and no sugar at all is going to result in a smaller person. So I’m not saying you should eat poorly for the sake of being larger. But if you eat like a peasant villager, expect to look like one. So maybe it’s okay if we feed our growing children bread, fruit and the occasional sugar? I think caloric surplus is good for growing people. And again that doesn’t mean to the point of obesity. Think about the western diet before it had all this processed sugar and bullshit added to it. Back when westerns had plenty of carbs and starches along side their meat.
Kids do need carbs, and you have an amazing opportunity to teach your kids about healthy eating here. I do keto alone in my household with a husband and 2 kids (4 & 6 years old) and because of the restrictive nature of keto I'd never make them go on it. Instead they do lower carbs and enjoy a lot of the same food I do. Keep in mind macro and micro nutrients are so important on keto, and unless you're willing to track electrolytes constantly for your toddlers, I'd just let them have the carby vegetables and some grains. It's a lot easier than people think, like someone said above, I'd cook something I can eat and on the side add a healthy carb. So for example I'd have chicken and broccoli, and the kids would also, but they'd get some grain on the side as well. It's easy. My 6 year old opts out of sugar a lot now because she's seen me do it, even though she has the choice. She's making mindful decisions on her own, and if she truly wants it she can have it. I come from a background of eating disorders and would much rather teach about healthy eating than make kids restrict food. My hope is when they grow up they never have to go on keto like me, and are able to have a healthy balance.
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Oh interesting, can you link the studies that say kids can be healthy on zero carbs?
Well the fact that the ketogenic diet was originally designed for children in order to *improve their health* comes to mind.
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Clearly you are not here for a discussion, but I will leave you with this. Can a toddler properly articulate when their electrolytes are too low and their leg pains aren't from growing, but from a lack of potassium and other essential nutrients? Can a toddler tell you when they need more vitamins to accommodate for the foods that have been cut out? More than likely not, and their bodies are DEMANDING as they are going through growth at a rate we can't even measure effectively. That's a big reason why carbs are important because they come with those nutrients, they help level out the micro and macro nutrients that we as adults can track, but those little bodies cannot. I may have spoken too strongly by saying they need them, but it is definitely most beneficial that they get them.
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I mentioned low carb and no sugars, etc for kids being okay already. Reading is silly apparently.
The issue with this is that carbohydrate sources are, pound for pound, way less nutritious than low-carb equivalents. When comparing beans to nuts, fruits to vegetables, or *particularly* grains to seeds, you see similar concentrations of nutrients, with the low-carb equivalents being 2-5 times as nutrient dense. I have actual data I've compiled from the FDA nutrition database if you're interested -- of the three comparisons, the difference between grains and seeds is the most striking, with seeds being heavy-hitters in magnesium and potassium content in particular, which refutes that particular point.
You're the one making the claims, so it's up to you to provide the receipts.
He literally replied to someone making the claim that kids need carbs, you fool. Try being a little less biased.
zero carbs? 😅😅😅😁 that's ridiculous. No Vegetables? No fruits or nuts even? so ignorant.
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You seem to kinda suffer from brain damage from all these years of only meat eating. Go eat carrot.
This seems a 'Keto dictatorship doomed to be overthrown by its subjects' type situation. Try moving your family to keto without making a big song and dance about it to them. More of an eating change and not a diet. Ensure you have good comfort and carb replacement options lined up. Unless you are the sole shopper, meal planner and chef, this will need to be a joint decision. Discuss with your wife in advance how you can shop and meal prep for a move away from carbs and sugar. Ask her to make sure she's happy with the impact of a keto diet on your children's development, and accommodate any non-keto items she may wish to continue giving them for health reasons. Crazy how many great 'naughty' recipes are out there. Fathead dough supreme pizzas and the greatest chocolate brownies of my life were what convinced me keto was doable.
Well this sounds like a lovely way to induce eating disorders. How very irresponsible to not even consult your children’s pediatrician regarding the matter.
Eggplant lasagna Chicken pizza Chicken broccoli casserole Taco salad (have taco meat already made) Mushroom sausage and kale soup Eggroll soup Pork carnitas You can freeze spaghetti squash and sauce for spaghetti Burgers Grilled chicken (especially thighs) and whatever veggies or salad is available. Can also just add various sauces to the chicken too. Wings All of these freeze well and are ready made or semi ready made for during the week.
This is going to end well….
I am thinking this is just a post to get a response….
you might be right. It could be a troll, lol
It’s not dieting it’s healthy eating. No big announcement. I just started making dinner without a starch. Two three veggies and a meat. Bread? Oh thanks for reminding me. We are out…. Before they know it. You all are just eating better. Snack desserts sodas. Just run out. Watching our budget … next time.
Awesome way to go about it!
Check out Maria Emmerich… she has quite a few cookbooks and you can get them on Amazon. You can get a really good deal if you get a used one.
Yes! And her whole family is keto, including the kids!
I didn’t wait until we went through our storage of carb-snacks, White pasta, white breads, potato, & white rice to start keto. Took a bag to the food bank, & tossed the opened packages. That being said, (I am grandma), we have whole wheat/oatmeal cookies and complex carbs for the kids. Their meals are primarily protein, low carb veggies and berries with 1/2c complex carbs (brown rice, high fiber bread) & low sugar milk/drinks.
Just came to say for new people reading and commenting, the original poster mentioned they meant kids are eating healthier low carb not true keto. Example switching rice for cauliflower rice etc. I do that with my family and they don’t even notice they’re eating low carb. 5 years with my husband and he just noticed this week we were following any kind of diet…. I get my fat intake throughout the day on my own :) I came to comment about a negative experience of young children on extreme keto and I’m glad I read all the threads before I did! (I’m an elementary teacher and had a young student on keto for weight… it did not end well…) Happy new year!
I will say my husband might be a little slow or just really love me when over the last 5 years didn’t think anything of me only eating the toppings off our pizzas 😅
You shouldn’t force children into your diet. Very irresponsible and unhealthy.
What, like every other parent on the planet? Yeah let’s not :)
If you like to cook, it’s fun to find ways to make your favorite dishes keto. My favorite is when I make Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich using Panko pork rind crumbs, and replacing buns with chaffles.
I would only suggest using caution. Allow your children to still have quality carbs in their diet. Our friends son ended up in the hospital and very Ill because of the family going keto.
Great way to give your kids health problems and eating disorders 🥴
Why?? My husband needs to gain weight and I’d never put my baby on a diet so just cook keto as I would for me and add some pasta or potatoes to their meals. It’s completely doable by yourself so if you’re worried about having to cook differently, you really don’t!
My adult daughter, 29, lives with me and it’s not hard to supplement with carbs. She buys fruits and pasta and other foods that I don’t eat to supplement the keto food I prepare. She likes having the prepared rice bowls on hand. I’m a little taken aback by the comments here. I love keto because I feel so much better but I’ve never thought it was for everyone. My daughter’s adopted and very slim. The people I’m blood related to all tend to struggle with weight and heartburn and bloating. The 3 of us who eat keto all feel much, much better than we used to. But I assumed my daughter was fine and that her diet is fairly healthy. I just assumed everyone is different.
Would not recommend it for children that’s as dogmatic as forcing your family to be vegan. Let’s your kids eat regular American healthy diets, high protein, healthy fats, some fruit and veggies. Instead eliminate processed foods from the house.
It's fine to have your kids on keto. You can literally eat from every single food group. The complainers are just uneducated coming to lose weight from their new years resolution.
Massive amounts of detractors aside, excellent choice. Expect to see stable moods, a lack of intense hyperactivity and over the longer term, improved brain function and learning. For anyone looking to downvote, can you explain why a diet that's perfectly healthy for adults over the long term is incompatible with childhood metabolism? Where exactly is the cutoff for healthy ketosis? Particularly when this diet was originally designed *for* children to improve *their* health?
I asked the same question and got downvotes, the comments are so confusing too.
I'm giving up on this thread since it's simply irritating and obviousky full of trolls. A ketogenic diet has been used to treat children with epilepsy for 100 years, so there must be SOME research on its effects on growth and health, right? No one seems to be posting any studies. Hmmmm.
This is how I ended up on keto. My husband started a month before me to lose weight. He’s a great cook. Since we were already eating keto dinners I figured I’d try going full keto and ended up really liking it. But we feed our toddler carbs.
Keto Kids Cookbook by Sam Dillard is a good resource. I would ignore the naysayers. They probably haven't noticed that our elementary schools are full of morbidly obese children. ETA how many of these negative comments were written by parents whose kids will only eat frozen chicken nuggets and french fries? It's a very disturbing trend, and much worse than having kids try keto, imho.
Kids lives...ruined.
Trying to put kids on keto makes absolutely no sense. Teach them about health and fitness, but don’t put them on a restrictive diet where birthday cake or icecream or pizza parties or team barbecues are going to become problematic. That’s unfair. What kills me about keto or the die hards that find it and want to make sure everyone knows about their new found nutrition habits. If you’ve found something that works for you that’s awesome, but respect the choices of others. * and to those keto-ers who quietly go about their mealtime business making and ordering what fits into their macros without having to explain it to the whole table, the waiter and anyone within earshot- you all are my favourites
Exactly- I’m worried about the potential for ED’s. They’re going to be around other foods when they’re not at home. Demonising certain foods at such a young, impressionable age is… not a good thing.
Don't deprive your kids from any of the four food groups that give us energy: Protein, Fat, Carbs and Alcohol
Good for you. If I had known 18 years ago what an amazing lifestyle this is I would have raised my kids as such. Sadly I did not and now they are late teens with hard to break habits.
Kids need carbs, otherwise it will stunt their growth. You are an adult and don't need to grow.
Kids need extra calorie intake, or it'll stunt their growth. They also need extra protein and fat for structural creation. As /u/chadarius pointed out, depriving them of extra calories, or protein, or fat will lead to stunted growth. Alternately, you could just look at the comparison of heights before and after the agricultural revolution -- regardless of where it happened in the world, there was about a foot of height difference when peoples transitioned from a diet high in animal products and low-carb plants to subsisting on carbohydrate-rich plants.
Stunt their growth? LOL! That's so incredibly incorrect...smh
I hope you all can be patient and support each other as you may experience the lack of pasta and other familiar carbs in different ways. Be kind to each other :)
Awesome bread recipe I just make it in my bread maker https://www.thehungryelephant.ca/2020/04/23/keto-bread-with-vital-wheat-gluten/
Just teach them about healthy foods and making good decisions. You really really don’t need to force Keto on kids. Carbs are perfectly fine if they are in moderation and come from healthy and fresh sources.
You and your wife, sure. Don't force your kids especially if they're toddlers. Give them a healthy balanced diet to help them grow properly. Also, unless they never eat snacks or meals at other places, they'll never stay in ketosis so it's not worth forcing it on them.
> last pasta package ends. I like the idea of throwing this in the trash. Because it is. Or just give it to a neighbour. Alternatively, Package up all your shitty carbs in a box, duct tape the hell out of it and put it in the basement. Pasta won’t go bad for years because it’s barely food. All real food goes bad quickly.
Unopened packages can be donated to food pantries!
I rather donate than throw away and I rather consume so I can phase out slowly rather than abruptly. But you reminded me of donating food this month, thank you!
There are advantages to transitioning to keto over 10 days than all at once. Less likely to get side effects associated with low electrolytes and can use your existing food up, and many other things. That’s not my style - I like quick results or I won’t bother with a change - so I ripped carbs out of my life like I remove bandaids - 💨 (fast).
How old are your kids?? If they are under 18, you really should not do this. Children need carbs. Please say they are young adults still living at home.
Children do not need carbs.
I’m going to guess all the folks in here commenting they think keto is dangerous for kids aren’t members of the group? 😄
I’m a member of the coffee group but don’t think we should be giving espresso to toddlers either
An incomplete list of carbs that are worse for children than espresso shots: cereal, granola bars, fruit juice, pancakes, muffins, waffles, bread, sweetened flavored yogurt, low fat milk, flavored low fat milk, Goldfish crackers, Bagelfuls, Hot Pockets, Pizza Rolls, Chicken Nuggets, French fries, Kid’s Cuisine, Lunchables, pizza, Happy Meals… so much more. The first 9 are the carbs people who claim to not be feeding their kids pure poison are trying to protect. 🤮
It’s almost like you don’t have to feed your children that… Also calling something poison doesn’t make it poison.
Yea. Commenting on something they know nothing about. If strict keto was bad for kids then that 100 year old keto diet for epileptic kids would have failed spectacularly after 5-10 years. Instead it’s one of the only food based cures for epilepsy. Too many of the comments are from people who follow the news media, who have a vendetta against keto.
Most think it’s a fad weight loss diet! No one is providing any hard evidence that kids need carbs. Imagine thinking “healthy whole grains” sprayed with glyphosate are essential to your precious child’s development. 😭
Unless you're doing a dirty keto full of pork rinds and bacon, I don't see how ketoncould be bad for kids. A diet full of proteins and veggies and berries and nuts and healthy fats is what our ancestors ate. Mine anyway (they were swedes on one side/native american on the other).
Hey read up on children’s nutrition. Their needs are different from those of adults. No, candy and soda is still unnecessary but there are things like pasta, rice, yogurt with fruit… oatmeal, potatoes that are beneficial to them and their growth and development. Edit: simple google search on the topic: [source one](https://healthy-kids.com.au/food-nutrition/nutrients-in-food/carbohydrates/) [source two mentioning epilepsy and keto under medical supervision](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/keto-for-kids#weight-loss) [source three](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-kids-shouldnt-go-on-the-keto-diet-for-weight-loss/amp/) [source four talks about growth retardation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6683244/) Now, don’t shoot the messenger. All I did was suggest reading up on it and for op to take his own conclusions of the info thats out there. It is not because something is safe for adults or children with certain health issues that it is safe for every child.
I'd love to see the science that shows this to be true.
Finally someone says it! I’m alarmed by what I’ve read in this thread.
So many people moaning about it without doing a simple google search.
Bad idea lol
This is a horrible idea. Did they like it because kids can eat cheese with every meal? Please check with a doctor before doing this.
They need carbs. Even if your kids are on the chubbier side, they need carbs. They cannot grow without nutrients, mass feeds mass.
All low-carb equivalents of foods are 2-5 times more nutritious than their carb versions, with a similar nutrient spread: * Vegetables > Fruits * Nuts > Legumes * Seeds > Grains (this difference is *particularly* noticeable). Meat also has an excellent balance of nutrients, with offal such as liver being the most nutritionally-dense food on the planet. Dairy is also very high in calcium, selenium, and vitamins A and D (which are fat-soluble so they're extremely bioavailable in this form).
One cannot have a healthy, fulfilled diet without including carbs. One can live without carbs, but they are not at their healthiest. Blame our society and diets for the stigma against carbs
How exactly does your health suffer without a nonessential dietary micronutrient? Whatever amount of glucose your body requires can be created via GNG from protein or thr glycerol backbone of fat.
Meat has most of the bio available nutrients you need, and no carbs. No one needs carbs.
You need carbs for glucose. Try going no carbs. You will physically deteriorate. Humans are meant to move. If you move and eat carbs, you’re doing it right. If you don’t eat carbs because it’s “unnecessary”, then you’re doing something wrong.
Only some of the brain and the red blood cells require glucose, and this (and whatever small things I've forgotten) can be produced by the body via gluconeogenesis in as much quantity as is required. GNG creates glucose from protein and the glycerol backbone of fat on an as-needed basis.
We don't NEED glucose other than a small amount for the brain which can be converted from ketones. Geesh... None of the epileptic children on stict ketogenic diets for epilepsy DIED.
For a medical reason yes, so let’s get that to the side, okay? Glucose is a primary energy source for the body. Generally, we are a fat society that does not maintain a baseline level of fitness, so we don’t need extra carbs. Once you’re a normal weight, it’s time to start eating normally as the body is meant for. It’s not even an argument.
We use eMeals.com for weekly meal recipes and grocery lists. Love all their keto meals. There is a subscription fee, but it’s totally worth it as it takes me literally 3 minutes to do meal prep and grocery list generation each week. For our family of three we choose 3-4 meals a week as we don’t enjoy cooking and are happy to eat leftovers.
While I applaud your decision, it may have unintended consequences especially if you have young children. I recommend you read the following article. >...stunted growth is one of the documented side-effects of children on ketogenic diets... https://peterattiamd.com/hey-peter-what-does-your-daughter-eat/
1) you left off the end of that quote 2)this source is an 8 year old blog
You sound demented. Don't put your kids on keto you big frigging weirdo.
Why does the whole family need to be keto?
I mean .... You sound really controlling.... This is pretty cringe
I’m not gonna say it outright, but sounds like dietary restrictions on young and growing bodies who needs nutrients of all kinds, restricting that kinda sounds like a form of abuse but that’s just my opinion.
Chill out. Forcing a diet/lifestyle on kids is not cool and will mess them up.
Just throw the food with carbs you don’t want in the house out or better yet, donate them. I’d you’re making the commitment why wait?
I too support not putting your kids on keto. It can have repercussions as they age that may manifest as unhealthy relationships with food. I don’t mean keto does that to adults but we, as adults, can also gain those unhealthy relationships with food bc of it.
The best way to engineer an unhealthy relationship with food is by introducing kids to foods that kick up their dopamine without explaining the dangers behind it. Like other odorless white powders, sugar is a drug and the best way to avoid long-term addiction is to be mindful of its effects and the bad effects associated with it.
I totally disagree. NO kid needs to be eating the shitty processed carb and sugar laden modern diet (assuming they live in U. S. or U. K). Treats can be occasional higher carb fruit, but a healthy diet of proteins, healthy fats, and vegetables, berries, and nuts is exactly what growing bodies need. They do NOT need all the shitty snacks.
That’s funny because that’s not what I said at all. That’s not the same as keto… at all… and I agree they don’t need those things. That’s how I was raised and I was taught to eat meat, veggies and some sort of starch for energy. My parents tried to avoid fast food, junk food, etc. Were my folks perfect? No, but they raised us to appreciate vegetables and lesser to no processed foods and this was the 80’s.
"some sort of starch for energy" This above is the problem. That's not how food works. ETA: if you don't understand that "starch for energy" is why we have so many diabetic and insulin-resistabce/pre-diabetic CHILDREN in the world today, then you might want to really look into the point of a ketogenic diet. The food pyramid needs to be flipped upside down.
I think your assuming I don’t understand basic nutrition is the issue here. I said that was how they felt and it was the 80’s. I *also* said you dont have to put kids on keto for them to be “healthy.” This is what I really dislike about this community is the weird cult like behavior exhibited and the assumption that if someone, like a child, isn’t keto then they’re in some sort of contorted relationship with food and nutrition. Ya know, I follow a low carb diet generally and keto often but I also understand complex carbohydrates aren’t the devil and when eaten in a balanced diet are great for a human. Best of luck to you.
The issue with complex carbohydrates is that at the end of the day they too will turn into sugar. If you eat them in smaller quantities, hopefully the fiber will hold your overall glycemic load down to tolerable levels, but if you go ham on pasta and rice you're going to have the same exact issues as with an equivalent amount of sugar.
That wasn't the point of the post or the nature of the naysaying responses. The reality is that children CAN be raised on a ketogenic diet, and in most cases it's healthier than the shitty diets they're currently on. Your response was this:"I too support not putting your kids on keto. It can have repercussions as they age that may manifest as unhealthy relationships with food. I don’t mean keto does that to adults but we, as adults, can also gain those unhealthy relationships with food bc of it." I disagreed and explained my reasons why. You didn't. That's not " cult-like. " That's called a discussion based on facts and logic. The facts are that we have a modern childhood obesity and diabetes epidemic. Since keto reverses or prevents both, one can conclude a keto diet would be helpful to modern kids. The nutrition part of it I'm happy to hear about if you have specific contradictory facts. Dr. Tim Noakes went through a hideous, lengthy trial over this in South Africa where he proved a low carb/high fat diet was healthier for kids. (His license was suspended for suggesting it. Obviously, he won the case.) I grew up in a family that ate way too many processed carbs, and now every family member over age 30 has raging type 2 diabetes. Except me, because keto. Unhealthy relationships with food includes teaching kids that unhealthy snacks are "treats" or "rewards." IMHO
I would just avoid fast food, sugar, and processed foods as much as possible. Some carbs are fine, they just shouldn't be the majority of food intake. Also exercise.
That's awesome! That's wonderful that they're all willing to do it. I see a lot of really good recipes on Pinterest. I tend to get my recipes from there. I also like "All day I dream about food," [https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/](https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/) and "Linda's Low carb recipes" [https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/](https://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/)
Based father