chris

chris.bair

About Chris

Chris Bair is a technology and computer geek. He became involved in the nutritionally complete "future foods" movement in January 2014, originally with a conventional recipe and later switching to a high fat, low carb "ketogenic" variant on October 2014. In January 2015 he created the recipe for Keto Chow and released it without restriction for anyone to use, at the same time he began mixing the recipe up for people that wanted a finished product and has seen steady growth in the business every month since.
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Keto Chow has been added to the Cron-O-Meter Database, KC 2.0 update

This entry is part 80 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

I like Cron-O-Meter. I think it works better than MyFitnessPal and has some really cool features designed specifically for doing Keto. You can read how to use Cron-O-Meter to track your net carbs in this post from January 2017. That post used to have links to files you could import into Cron-o-Meter database so you wouldn’t need to enter all the info from the label into a custom food. Dunno what alerted them but a few days ago I received an email through my site’s contact form – it was one of the guys from Cron-O-Meter saying I should publish my custom entries to the database so people wouldn’t have to import the files anymore. Well, yeah but I did that months ago and didn’t see anything happen, but I decided to give it a go, expecting things might move this time! Indeed they did. You can now find in the Cron-O-Meter database all of the different flavors for Keto Chow 1.9 and 2.0, plus the fish pills and the Base Powder. If you have an account, try it out! You can search for Keto Chow by name, or if you have the mobile app, you can use the barcode scanner because I got those in there too!

I’m super excited about this. It’ll make tracking easier for me and for the general public (mostly I’m excited for myself because I’m lazy =)

Now the question comes up: “When is Keto Chow 2.0 going to be ready?!” Better be soon, I just finished my test bags of 2.0 yesterday and I want more! We farmed out 4 of the bags we got in the first test batch to some of our employees and all of them really liked it. Of the 63 meals worth I was sharing with my awesome wife, I probably consumed 40-45 of them – enough that I am completely confident in Keto Chow 2.0. Anyway, I just talked to the manufacturer, he says the protein supplier “confirmed they have the Purchase Order” which doesn’t mean much. He says he’s going to try to get better info from the supplier today if he can. He did say they’ll be starting on the Base Powder early next week though.

By |2017-03-21T14:48:45-06:00March 21st, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Flavor of the Week March 20-March 26: 15% off sale on all sizes of Rich Chocolate (yes, finally)

This week we’re doing 15% off all the different sizes of Rich Chocolate. Yeah it’s been a while since Rich Chocolate was on sale (119 days, but who’s counting?!). We had problems keeping the Rich Chocolate in stock, it didn’t seem prudent to put it on sale if we didn’t have it to sell. Well, we have Rich Chocolate in abundance now so let’s go for it!

By |2017-03-20T07:29:14-06:00March 20th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Some thoughts on MLMs and poor “meal replacements” that are just snacks

This entry is part 79 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

In case you hadn’t noticed, Keto Chow is not distributed via multi-level marketing. There aren’t any “memberships” or other tomfoolery and you don’t have to trick family and friends into hearing a sales promotion to get a discount. I can very happily say that I have never once bought into a MLM and there’s no way I’d ever allow this company to engage in something as disingenuous. I think John Oliver did a fairly good job of summing up everything that’s wrong with Multi-Level Marketing.

What spurred this rant? This morning I was kicking around /r/keto  and saw a promoted post for Soylent. Thought that was weird so I checked the “promoted posts” for the subreddit to see if I was getting that ad based on my reddit behavior or if Soylent were actually targeting /r/keto – it’s the former. But I did see an ad for “Wakaya BulaFIT KetoFUEL” – looked it over to see what it was (gotta check out the “competitors”). Much like the junk Pruvit KETO//OS product, this is another MLM backed quick-fix “Keto” for the masses. Finding the actual nutrition information was extraordinarily difficult – it’s nowhere on the main page or in the shopping cart where you can buy 30 servings for US$115! Ultimately I found it in their marketing flyer they give to the “Independent Ambassadors” who can buy it for $85 if they get “preferred” status.

So what do you get for that $115? 30 servings of a 250 calorie “protein” drink with some powdered MCT oil. The ingredients aren’t even remotely ketogenic. #1 ingredient? Dehydrated Sweet Cream, which I know from my own analysis is borderline keto at best. The label says 0g of carbs per 4g serving but it’s actually 0.48g. Anyhow… then you have some egg powder, some whey protein concentrate and then comes the MCT oil powder. I looked into adding MCT oil powder to Keto Chow but decided the economics didn’t make sense. It’s cheaper for everyone if you just buy Quest MCT oil powder off Amazon. Now here’s the funny thing: in the BulaFIT KetoFUEL they didn’t even bother to use soluble corn fiber to “powder” the oil, instead, they used maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is starch, it’s glucose molecules joined in chains to form a polymer and your body rapidly turns it straight into glucose, spiking your blood sugar and hindering ketosis. Oddly, they also used some acacia gum but show 0g of fiber on the panel.

250 calories for $3.83. Barely any electrolytes, 5g of carbs, only 12g of protein. Could you drink one as a “meal”? I guess – 250 calories isn’t going to keep you full for very long. Honestly, you’d do better to Intermittent Fast and then eat a proper meal. Could you replace all your meals with this product? Absolutely not (and 1800 calories of this stuff would cost you $27 and be 36g of carbs). It’s not designed as a true “replacement” for a meal, it’s more of a snack and if that’s what you’re looking for then go grab some string cheese ($11.09 for 60 at Costco). You’ll get 240 calories if you eat 3. You’ll end up with around 1g of net carbs, more protein, similar fat, AND it’ll only cost you $0.55! And it’s cheese… time to get me some more cheese.

By |2017-03-16T07:32:34-06:00March 16th, 2017|Categories: Ketogenic Diet|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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All flavors back in stock, update on Keto Chow 2.0 availability timeline, KC2.0 certified “Keto Friendly”

This entry is part 78 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

To start: Rich Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter are back in stock. Yesterday we got our shipment of Rich Chocolate protein powder: 4 full pallets and a partial 5th one. 4000 lbs worth – that should last a little while at least =). The shipment came as “No Touch Freight” so we had to haul our pallet jack up into the trailer and move the pallets to the end. One of the businesses nearby has a forklift and was nice enough to unload the truck for us. Then it was a matter of taking a bunch of the chocolate to mix – which is what we did most of the afternoon and evening yesterday. It’s a relief to have everything in stock again and hopefully, this shipment will last us until after Keto Chow 2.0 comes out.

On that topic, everything is set up and ready for production of Keto Chow 2.0… except for the Whey Protein Isolate. We’re still trying to arrange swapping the concentrate that was bought for the first batch of isolate. I had expected it would all be resolved early last week but we’re still waiting. As soon as that comes in, production should start immediately. In the mean time, we’re going to have the Keto Chow “Base Powder” going into production sometime this week. It’s the same product as what we currently have, just with a different label. To that end, once we have the new Base Powder we will be discontinuing the “for 10lbs.” larger bag.

I have the revised and finalized labeling for Keto Chow 2.0 done and up on the KC2.0 Nutrition Page. You’ll notice that there’s now a green (KF) logo meaning it’s Keto Friendly. Keto Chow 2.0 one of the first products participating in the Certified Ketogenic project done by the KetoVangelist podcast crew – the “0001” means it’s actually the very first in the Keto Friendly category. Technically Keto Chow 1.9 is also Keto Friendly but I didn’t bother applying for it to be included… because 2.0 is supposed to be out already (dagnabbit!). The first round of Keto Chow 2.0 will have the old nutrition information with a “label correction” sticker that talks about the change to whey protein isolate and directs you online for updated information. All of the changes are positive but it does mess around with how big a serving is. Depending on the flavor, it varies from 46g up to 49g. Most people will just use the scoop to measure out a serving but for people like me that like precision or are doing 6 meals at a time, weighing it in a bowl is the best way to get exacting amounts.

Yesterday I added the Week and Sample/Individual Keto Chow 2.0 to the shopping cart. You can’t purchase either yet, I don’t like to have back orders or pre-orders (and credit card companies REALLY don’t like them). Trust me, when we’re getting close enough to be able to order – I’ll let you know through multiple channels =). The pricing for KC2.0 is finalized – all of the flavors except Peanut Butter are the same price, which should make things easier.

So when is Keto Chow 2.0 going to be available? If you look back to what I posted in October and November it’s been out since early December. For now, I’m saying that if everything goes perfectly (protein ships today or tomorrow, flavors are all in-stock, fine mesh xanthan gum arrives) we may have KC2.0 ready to ship out before the beginning of April 2017. If the protein is delayed, or something else goes wonky there will be a corresponding delay.

By |2017-03-14T09:48:13-06:00March 14th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , , |7 Comments
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Flavor of the Week March 13-March 19: 15% off sale on all sizes of Gourmet Vanilla

This week we’re doing 15% off all the different sizes of Gourmet Vanilla. Even if you’re not particularly fond of vanilla, it serves as a good base for flavor modifications.

By |2017-03-13T09:55:57-06:00March 13th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Crisis averted, most Keto Chow flavors are back in stock

So… that was fun!

About 2 weeks ago, we determined we would bring in enough materials to make 2 months worth of Keto Chow 1.9, hoping that by the time that’s used up we’ll be rocking Keto Chow 2.0 for a while. So the plan was we would have everything here some time ago. Unfortunately, a couple vendors waited over a week to ship stuff and our supplies of Keto Chow were down to almost zero (like all we had were 4 strawberry and 2 chocolate fudge!). We got the last missing ingredients, xanthan gum and potassium citrate, this afternoon and immediately set to work. I’m finally sitting down to take a rest and enter the inventory numbers into the site. We’ll make even more tomorrow but this allows everyone to start placing orders again.

The one dark cloud in all this is Rich Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Rich Chocolate is our most popular flavor and Peanut Butter is the best flavor – anyone who says different is lying. Anyhow, today we used up the last of our Rich Chocolate protein powder to make some Peanut Butter. So there’s a little bit of the Chocolate Peanut Butter in stock and zero of the Rich Chocolate available. The new supply of Rich Chocolate shipped today (also a week late), we might get it Friday or Monday. So until then, most of the flavors are back in stock – just not all.

By |2017-03-07T19:33:51-07:00March 7th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: |0 Comments
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Temporary Supply issues, you’ll notice stuff going out of stock, should be OK March 8

We are having supply issues with several components, notably xanthan gum and the silver bags we use. We placed an emergency order for some xanthan gum but the order we placed for the bags is finally shipping today, 6 days later. Likely we won’t have suitable supplies until the morning of Wednesday, March 8, when we can restock the several flavors that are out of stock. To that end, the sale on Cookies and Cream has been extended a week, until March 12. So it’ll be on sale and in stock for a 7 days, just with a sad week of no Cookies between. We’ll try to make certain that the stock quantity for all the flavors and sizes are kept up to date so that if you can place an order, there shouldn’t be a delay waiting for other stuff.

The ironic thing is we have enough protein powder to fill over a month’s worth of orders. We’re just simultaneously out of stock of Xanthan Gum, Potassium Citrate, Acacia Gum and the bags. Now would have been a super convenient time to have Keto Chow 2.0 done and ready!

By |2017-03-02T17:45:50-07:00March 2nd, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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A full year of work: first test batch of Keto Chow 2.0 has arrived!

This entry is part 77 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

Can I just say: I’m excited! It’s been over a year since I first started work on Keto Chow 2.0. Now I get to start testing it for a couple weeks as production begins.

 

By |2017-03-01T18:34:01-07:00March 1st, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , |3 Comments
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Flavor of the Week(s) Feb 27-March 12: 20% off sale on all sizes of Cookies and Cream

Update: we are having supply issues with several components, notably xanthan gum and the silver bags we use. We placed an emergency order for some xanthan gum but the order we placed for the bags is finally shipping, 6 days later. Likely we won’t have suitable supplies until Wednesday morning when stuff will go back in stock.  Update again: crisis averted. The sale on Cookies and Cream has been extended a week, until March 12. So it’ll be on sale and in stock for a full week, just with a sad week of no Cookies between.

This week we’re doing 20% off all the different sizes of Cookies & Cream. In my opinion, it’s one of the sweeter flavors and one of my wife’s favorite flavors. It’s also the flavor used in this post over on /r/keto for an eggnog recipe (dang, still haven’t had a chance to try that with all the Keto Chow 2.0 testing I did this weekend).

By |2017-03-08T07:51:22-07:00February 27th, 2017|Categories: Keto Chow|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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“Low Carb Show” Podcast Interview, Keto Chow 2.0 update

This entry is part 76 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

Mark from the Low-Carb Show, contacted me a few weeks ago to see if I would like to do an interview for his podcast and the recording has just been posted. His wife sent him down the rabbit hole of Ketogenic Meal Replacement drinks and he found Keto Chow, ordered some, and enjoyed it enough to get me on his podcast to talk about Keto Chow, the progress of Keto Chow 2.0, Domain Squatters, Mac&Cheese, and a bunch of other stuff! I reference a post about Arches National Park in the podcast, I’ll save you the hassle of finding it: “Vacationing for a week (mostly) on DIY soylent” (you can see more of my Dad’s stuff here) – this is from about a month before I started doing Keto and was still doing “People Chow” which was primarily corn masa.

I keep telling my teenagers I’m “Internet Famous” – they still just roll their eyes.

It’s about time for an update on Keto Chow 2.0, wouldn’t you agree? This week we finally tackled the funny aftertaste problem for realsies. The Whey Protein Isolate we started experimenting with significantly reduced the bad flavor (so it was essentially non-existent)… for a few hours. If you tasted the mix anywhere from 30 minutes to 3-4 hours after mixing it would taste fine. For many people, this would be sufficient, but I like to mix up 3-4 days worth at a time so I can just grab them out of the fridge. I’ve said it before: I’m not going to sell a product I wouldn’t use (and enjoy using!), I’m pretty much my worst customer =). The time delay aspect was particularly vexing and pointed to some sort of ingredient interaction causing the issue. I got samples of each ingredient, mixed them up in water, both alone and in certain combinations. Straight potassium citrate isn’t particularly nice tasting.

Anyhow, the Isolate all by itself did not have any weird flavor, nothing really did… until I tasted the Enzyme Blend + Whey Protein combination. I discovered the flavor anomaly! The enzyme blend alone was fine, the breakdown of the lactose in the whey by the enzymes was most decidedly the problem and it got worse over 2 days. On Thursday we had new samples made that omitted the enzyme blend. I’m super happy to report that all of the flavors now taste exactly the way they’re supposed to, and with the “200 mesh” xanthan gum you can mix it without a blender and get good results – everything is coming up Milhouse! At least in KC 2.0.0 there isn’t going to be an enzyme blend. For most this won’t be an issue, but if you’re lactose intolerant you will want to consider using Lactaid or another enzyme blend. There are 0.58g of lactose in each serving of Keto Chow 2.0 thanks to the Whey Protein Isolate being super low in carbs. Adding 1/2 cup of heavy cream brings the lactose up to 3.31g.

This coming week we’ll make some bigger sample batches so I can start doing more extensive short-to-medium term tests as we gear up for full-on production; which I now expect to be starting (maybe) March 6 or later, not sure which flavors we’ll be doing first. The plan is that they’ll be mixing up all of the ingredients except the color and flavor in their giant mixer to make a base powder, then they can do smaller batches for the individual flavors. Anyhow, I’m super excited about the prospects of getting this going!

On a final note, this week I added a “Recipes and Flavor Hacks” page, check it out.

By |2017-02-25T10:49:43-07:00February 25th, 2017|Categories: Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , , , |3 Comments
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