Coconut Oil

Questions about alcohol on keto and using different oils/protein

This entry is part 134 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Got an email today, I took long enough to answer it I thought I might as well put my answer in a blog post.

The first question was about whether they need to give up alcohol

Well, there are a lot of reports on /r/keto about being on keto lowering tolerance for alcohol (just search for “keto cheap date” and you’ll see what I mean). “Liquid bread” drinks like beer have WAY too many carbs but distilled spirits don’t – and the aforementioned lower tolerance makes it less expensive too.

The second question was about if I had considered algal oil in powder form – it’s what Rosa Labs uses for Soylent 1.6

Rosa Lab’s motivation is a bit different than mine: they want to use vegan sources for everything. While that’s possible with keto, it runs counter to much of the philosophy. MCT oil and cream are better (tasting) and have definitive advantages for ketosis. Additionally doing powdered oils with keto is difficult to do because most powdered oils use starch (maltodextrin) and you’d end up with several times more carbs that the max amount. The only exception to that is the Quest powdered MCT/Coconut oil but it’s prohibitively expensive. I did some poking around and found that to get powdered coconut oil in palettes it ends up being almost exactly the same price as the end user simply buying it from Quest off Amazon.

The third question was about switching to soy protein

Rosa Labs was using rice protein in their powdered mix but it gives an icky silty gritty mouthfeel. Doing Soy protein is the best option if you don’t want to use whey protein. Again, I’m not interested in vegan (I eat a lot of bacon) – I want the best tasting and highest nutrition that’s economical, with emphasis on taste and texture. To that end I’m using whey protein. Doesn’t have the grit of rice or the (incorrect but whatever) public relations issues that soy has with the phytoestrogen scare.

So the short answer to the 3rd question is simply: Keto Chow already has superior nutrition, flavor and mouthfeel; it’s better than the new stuff Rosa Labs is using.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:36-06:00June 29th, 2016|Keto Chow, Soylent|Comments Off on Questions about alcohol on keto and using different oils/protein

Review: Keto & Co. Brownie Mix

I picked up some Brownie mix from Keto & Co. Didn’t tell my wife I was making it. She came down when it was about to come out of the oven and wanted to know if I was making cake. Not quite =)

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Overall it’s super yummy. I’m glad I got two packages so I can make another since this first one only has one piece left (and we didn’t let the kids have any). It does require 1/2 cup oil (preferably melted coconut oil), water and two eggs. And it’s $11.50 per mix. The price is the only downside. You might be able to find a recipe that would give you similar results but for convenience it’s a win, literally took less than 5 minutes to make including pre-heating the oven, finding ingredients, finding a measuring cup and melting the coconut oil. The fact that it has coconut flour is a non-issue since it’s solid food and not a drink, makes all the difference in the world. Honestly it tastes like a regular brownie, though it is a bit “airy” and not as substantial as I remember brownies being (sue me, it’s been 18+ months since I had a brownie). My wife likes it too.

By |2016-06-08T17:33:53-06:00June 8th, 2016|Ketogenic|Comments Off on Review: Keto & Co. Brownie Mix

The Effects of a Year in Ketosis (video)

This entry is part 111 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Jim McCarter gave an interesting presentation at the Quantified Self Conference this year. You can check out the video at https://vimeo.com/147795263

By |2016-10-13T07:27:58-06:00December 22nd, 2015|Ketogenic|Comments Off on The Effects of a Year in Ketosis (video)

Fixed nutrient info on Ketofood recipe, fun with fatty acids

This entry is part 17 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Following a question on reddit I went through the nutrient info for just about all of the ingredients and made sure the info was as complete and accurate as I could get.

The recipe has 92.3g of total carbs with 62.2g of insoluble fiber, 10.8g of soluble fiber. Including the soluble fiber in the equation, that gives 30.1g net carbs. If all you’re eating for the entire day is this recipe (which is possible) then you’ll get 30g net. It looks like the number 1 source of net carbs is the raw cocoa powder which turns out to have more net carbs than originally thought. It’d be interesting to tweak that ingredient.

Notably the raw cocoa was using nutrition info for something else entirely, the carbs and calories were really messed up compared to the info on the label. Anyhow, you can find the current version at http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/ketofood-12-for-ongoing-ketosis I also updated the prices.

There are also now 4 oil entries on the page: MCT, Olive, Canola and liquid Coconut. I have the olive and canola zeroed out for my own usage because I’m trying MCT + coconut right now. I was surprised to find some at Walmart.

It’s interesting to see the difference between MCT, liquid coconut and regular coconut oils:

Caprylic Acid (C8:0) Capric Acid (C10:0) Lauric Acid (C12:0)
NOW MCT 55.71% 44.29% 0.00%
Carrington Liquid coconut 32.86% 26.43% 5.00%
Regular Coconut Oil 9.00% 10.00% 52.00%

While the liquid coconut oil has quite a bit more of the smaller MCTs, it doesn’t have as much of the Lauric Acid that makes it solid at room temp. Looking at this breakdown of different oils, there aren’t many oils that contain MCTs. As a refresher, the reason you want MCTs when you’re doing ketosis is they get converted almost directly into ketones so it will help you achieve and maintain ketosis better. I bought a bottle of liquid coconut oil and substituted it for the canola I had been using for half of my fat calories. It’ll be an interesting experiment. It adds right around $1 a day to the cost.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00December 7th, 2014|Weight Loss, Soylent|Comments Off on Fixed nutrient info on Ketofood recipe, fun with fatty acids