Diet Soda on Keto diet

Can I drink diet soft drinks while I’m doing a low-carb or keto diet? It’s a big question.

In general, I say, Yes, absolutely! There are, of course, some early studies which describe an effect on the microbes in your digestive system whendrinking artificially sweetened soda. And those studies may prove important; we are just beginning to understand how bacteria in our gut affects our diet.

But, that said, don’t worry about those studies. No researcher denies that sugared soda raises your blood sugar and insulin levels in a crazy way that diet sodas do not. At all. Forget it.

For people who are switching from sugared sodas, or people, like me, who get tired of water all day, diet soft drinks are a nice treat, with few drawbacks.

If you want to stay as natural as you can with sweeteners, you can try a Stevia-sweetened drinks, like the soda in this picture: Zevia.

Stevia is a “natural” sweetener which doesn’t raise your insulin levels or cause a glucose response, and Zevia has a whole rainbow of flavors.

I just drank a case of these, which – full disclosure – Zevia sent me because I’m obviously a soda expert, but I really liked a few of the flavors. I saw them for sale at my local Sprouts supermarket, and I plan to mix them in with my coffee and water at the office.

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How to eat keto at a food truck

So, here’s an example of how to do a low-carb lunch, eating out. In this case, this afternoon, the restaurant was a food truck.

Order a foot-long Polish sausage, apply a bit of mayonnaise and a slice or three of jalapeno, and then don’t eat the bun.

It tasted real good. I was full and satisfied. Homemade mayonnaise usually doesn’t have sugar in it, but store-bought has some. Still, as condiments go, it’s mainly fat and protein.

Mustard works, too. Keep it enjoyable and you’ll keep it going.

I think the food truck guy saw it as a waste of a perfectly-toasted bun.

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Another keto tune-up. Join in!

Started another keto tune-up today: Had buttered coffee for breakfast, ham and liver pate for lunch, and am planning on just having a burger for dinner. Also made sure to eat plenty of butter and coconut oil in my coffee all day, to get my body as quickly into ketosis as possible. I’ll measure my ketosis level with my ketostix tonight and in the morning and see how long it takes for ketosis to start after eliminating carbs.
It is possible to maintain ketosis while eating carbs, especially the green leafy variety, but it’s easier for me to start ketosis by going zero carb for about two days.
Why am I doing it? A health tune-up, that’s all. The human body is meant to work in ketosis part of the time, and that’s what I do. Keeps insulin resistance down, weight under control, blood pressure low, and fights disease.