Future Foods

Sustainable bioreactors to feed the planet and generate wealth.

A few days ago, there was a post on the /r/soylent subreddit that caught my interest and got me thinking (in case you don’t know, Soylent was designed to be a nutritionally complete meal replacement, much like Keto Chow is, but with much higher carbohydrates and sugars). The original post was talking about how Rosa Labs, the manufacturers of Soylent, had changed and lost the original vision of the founder. Among other points, they talked about how Soylent no longer used oils made from algae. One of the comments REALLY got me thinking:

I want soylent to be made entirely from algae and synthesised efficiently and sustainably in bioreactors in huge factories thereby providing cheap healthy food for everyone.
-VividShelter

So I started thinking what would be an ideal set-up for synthesizing food that would NOURISH people: have ample amounts of quality proteins and fats, along with vitamins and minerals. Ideally, I’d want it to sequester carbon and build soil health as part of the process. Here’s what I came up with:

  1. With algae, you need a lot of water and sun exposure, that’s a little hard to do with much of the surface of the planet. I think a better approach would be to grow cellulose and use microbes to process it. We have huge areas that are covered in trees, rocks, and grass that isn’t farmable. When you see graphs of the land usage in the United States, the biggest part is in pasture/rangeland – that would be perfect for this since it’s generally rocky and hilly or too dry for farming anything but grasses.
  2. By using grasses, we get the benefit of carbon sequestration and soil building. When grasses are cut down and then grow back, they not only grow UP, they also grow DOWN into the soil. This added biomass is what made the rich soil of the great plains. Growing crops like corn and wheat tend to deplete the soil (which is odd, since those are grasses too). Regardless, it’s a way to build the soil, shove carbon into the ground, and produce cellulose for our bioreactors.
  3. Using grasses like this, it would be a good idea to have the bioreactors mobile. They would go around from area to area with a harvesting mechanism to cut down the grass and then start it processing. Cutting the grass is important because you need to either cut it or burn it or it won’t grow (and build soil and all that). The movement and harvesting would be best powered by the fermentation process of the reactor so it’s self-sustaining, just needs a little maintenance and some water to move the reaction along.
  4. The reaction that’s going on and the byproducts of it will likely produce some “greenhouse” gasses – but the cool thing is that any produced will be the result of previously sequestered carbon. Everything going into the reactor used to be water, sunlight, and carbon from the air. If some comes back out, it’s really not a big deal since it’ll get captured by the grasses again anyway.
  5. This is a perfect use for the grasses because vertebrates (like us) cannot break down cellulose – no vertebrate makes the enzyme necessary to break the bonds and turn cellulose into simpler sugars, thus we use microbes that can easily do it! We don’t even need to genetically modify these since they already exist in nature.
  6. Here’s an important part: when you talk about protein in vegetable/plant sources, that’s what’s called “crude protein” and it’s measured by looking at the total amount of nitrogen in something and ASSUMING that all nitrogen in it is part of amino acids. Well, that’s a frankly stupid assumption because you can often have nitrogen in other molecules or in proteins that us humans can’t utilize unless it’s processed by a bacteria or other specialized microbe. The nitrogen in the grasses will be converted into amino acids by the microbes in the bioreactor. Research that I’ve seen on the subject indicates that there’s a greater than 100% return, meaning that for every unit of crude protein you put into this sort of reactor, you can potentially get 1.2 or higher back. It’s like printing your own money! Except it’s protein. Whatever.
  7. If we’re dreaming big, it would also be ideal to have mechanisms in place so that (again, powered by the reaction with water, oxygen, cellulose, and some salt and stuff) we can have the reactors self-replicate. It would probably require the use of biological reaction vessels and other stuff that could be made from the byproducts (proteins!) of the reaction because self-replicating metal isn’t really a thing.
  8. Once we have them replicating like that, they would be an amazing way for less advantaged people to generate wealth and improve their lives. These reactors really are like printing their own money! Once people have them and are enjoying the benefits that come from them, it would be a pretty stupid thing for people in more affluent countries to tell them they should stop using the bioreactors because they somehow, inexplicably damage the environment. That’s ludicrous! They only way you could possibly claim they were damaging the environment is if you claimed that the amount of water used by the reactors included ALL of the water that falls on ALL of the grassland used to grow the grass, and you looked at carbon emissions without accounting for the carbon going into the reaction in the form of cellulose. Seriously not an honest conversation here.
  9. Because the reactors are mobile, storage of the reaction byproducts is going to be a challenge. Aside from the waste =) we’re talking about the human USABLE byproducts here, we’ll get to the waste in a second. Some of the byproducts will be coming out in a liquid form that’ll have proteins and fats and all that, but some of the byproducts would be used to form the chassis and other structures of the bioreactor – every so often you’d be able to “harvest” the older bioreactors.
  10. OK, the waste: again, they’re mobile so the majority of the solid and liquid waste from the reactions would be deposited right back onto the grassland so they can be utilized by the grasses to… grow more grass. It would be all of the stuff that the bioreactors didn’t use but that the grass needs to grow. Pretty much a perfect match!
  11. Dreaming big here again: let’s fit them with a sensor package and rudimentary Artificial Intelligence so that they can avoid obstacles, do the harvesting autonomously, handle the self-replication, and more – all without needing humans to do very much at all except maybe transport them around if needed. In fact, a few would probably get lost and eventually “go wild” – just imagine free-roving autonomous bio-reactors wandering around breaking down grass and water into more bio-reactors. It’d be a sight to behold. Having the AI might cause a bit of a moral dilemma for people that have qualms about harvesting something with any intelligence – it’ll create some interesting discussions – just so long as we don’t get bogged down arguing about supposed environmental issues, that was covered in #8

So, sounds like a cool project right? I suspect it would take quite a bit of R&D and time to get it working just right, but once we have these free-roving autonomous bio-reactors working it would be an amazing thing. Until then, we should probably just better utilize ruminants.

By |2020-09-21T11:37:48-06:00January 17th, 2019|Categories: Future Foods|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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Keto Chow in Women’s World Magazine

Women’s World was doing a story about using Keto Smoothies – they contacted us here at Keto Chow to see if we knew people that had experienced success using Keto Chow. They also wanted to get some information from me regarding the efficacy of shakes/smoothies and a ketogenic diet. There’s a bit of a disconnect between my original responses and what was published =) Don’t get me wrong: I think that if 1 woman reads the article, starts doing Keto, and changes her life then the article and interview were a resounding success.

If you want to read the whole article, it should be available on newsstands right now.

Anyway, I thought my original responses to their questions were pretty good so I’m going to publish them here:

First, I need to know a little more about you. I read that you lost weight yourself (and your wife as well!) Can you tell me a little more about that including how much?

As of right now, I’m maintaining a 40lb weight loss over 4 years. Outside of ketogenic diets, that’s so infrequent that I’m considered a “unicorn” =) I started keto back on Oct 21, 2014. My wife was doing Whole30 (which is a lot like Paleo) and decided to join in on the fun when she saw my success (and her best friend went Keto, so they could meal-prep together). She’s down 30lbs.

Our story is about women who used keto smoothies to lose weight. They turned to keto smoothies because they’re easy to prepare, kept them feeling full and they could take them on the go. Jumping right in: Are smoothies/shakes a great option for busy people who are following keto? Why or why not?

One of the biggest problems with doing keto can be learning what you can and what you cannot eat. You’re turning the dietary recommendations on their head: you need to eat healthy fats, especially quality saturated fats. You need to get more salt. Whole grains are off the menu. It goes on! For people new to doing keto it can be daunting and potentially dangerous if they aren’t getting the right amount of electrolytes. This causes the so-called “keto flu” that’s one of the chief reasons people try keto and stop within a few days. It’s entirely avoidable by simply adding more salt to your diet but people may not know that. I see using a well-formulated smoothie or shake that is specifically designed for a ketogenic diet as an extremely useful tool, both for people new to a ketogenic way of eating, as well as experienced users that need something to get them through the “boring” meals and on to cooking a fantastic meal with family or friends. Having something you can turn to that you KNOW will be getting you the right nutrients is very nice!

Studies have shown that using smoothies/shakes as meal replacements can help dieters lose weight faster and without hunger. Do keto smoothies/shakes as meal replacements have the same effect? Why or why not?

I think they can, and in my experience (and the experience of thousands of people I’ve interacted with) it holds true. I think one of the main reasons it can help accelerate weight loss is that you have your nutrition tightly controlled for the meals you’re using a well-formulated keto shake. It should have ⅓ of your daily nutrition and the correct amount of protein and fat for what you need. Getting the right micronutrients (vitamins, trace minerals) lets your body have what it needs to heal; and when your body is healthy, weight loss comes along! Now I want to be clear on this: I’m talking about shakes that are designed for keto and have the right amount of nutrients in them, this isn’t just randomly throwing ingredients at a blender and drinking it. You’d need either a well-researched recipe or a product that’s been engineered and tested to be complete. A random shake/smoothie would only be suitable for occasional use (maybe 3 times a week and not more than once a day) whereas one that’s complete can be used as often as you feel like it. Personally, I’ve used the recipe I came up with for all 3 meals with absolutely no other food for up to 6 weeks and I know of others that have gone as long as 6 months for various reasons, but for most people: 1-2 times a day with some baked salmon or a steak with their family is more appealing!

Do you think keto smoothies/shakes might help a keto newbie do a better job of keeping carbs down and fat up?

Oh, absolutely! Both are particularly difficult as carbs tend to be in everything that’s convenient, and at the same time, they’re usually low fat! Having a shake that you can control the amount of carbs, and mix in some delicious heavy cream, avocado oil, or even straight-up avocados is phenomenal. Hit the right balance and you’ll be satiated and happy and look forward to the next one.

Can overeating keto-friendly foods slow results—especially in older, sedentary women?

Yes. Most “keto friendly” snack foods are low in carbohydrates and work great for occasional use, but you eat 4 or 5 and suddenly you’ve blown through half your carbs for the day. Also, many are high in protein and low in fat, not having the fat in there makes them less filling and too much of the protein can hamper your progress. This effect is especially amplified in older women who will often have to work especially hard to stay on track. They’re really facing an uphill battle. One thing that helps everyone is to eliminate snacking. Try to only eat at mealtimes and let your body enjoy having a rest from elevated glucose and elevated insulin. If you can, you might even try grouping your meals together: skip breakfast, eat a late lunch and an early dinner. That “intermittent fast” will get food out of the way and let your body heal!

Would keto smoothies be a good way to help prevent overconsumption of keto foods?

If you’re not experiencing the results you want with a keto diet, using a well-formulated shake or smoothie will indeed help keep you from having too many “keto friendly” foods. Especially if you’re adding the right amount of fat for your needs to the shake, you may even have a hard time finishing it all because you’ve gotten your fill.

Do you think keto smoothies have the potential to help some women lose weight more quickly? If so, what type of women might benefit most?

I think that women who have a busy schedule, don’t know how or what to cook, or that simply need a convenient go-to meal would benefit the most from using smoothies as part of their keto diet. Having the nutrition, calories, carbs, and more so tightly controlled gives women the opportunity to meet or exceed their goals or better health and weight loss.

What are some guidelines for making a keto smoothie? (ie: ? amount fat, protein, veggies to use or not use, fruit to use or no use, etc)

The key to making a good keto smoothe right is going to be to get the right amount of quality fats, adequate protein, keeping the carbs as low as possible, and getting the right micronutrients. There are a bunch of online “keto calculators” that can help you establish how much fat, protein, and carbs you need in a day and you’ll want to plan accordingly. You’ll need to limit the amount of fruit, remember: it’s nature’s candy and your liver doesn’t care if the sugar is “natural” or “organic” – it just sees sugar. Adding a few berries for a touch of flavor usually works well and doesn’t add too many carbs. Mind you: we’re talking about 3-4 blueberries or a pair of strawberries, not a full container! Avocados are excellent and full of potassium (way more than a starchy banana!). If you can tolerate dairy, look for heavy cream or unflavored and unsweetened full-fat yogurt. Milk, especially skim milk, is loaded with sugar and should be avoided. Unsweetened almond milk is OK to replace water but it’s low in fat so plan accordingly. Green leafy vegetables are a good addition but you need to avoid tubers and other vegetables that grow in the ground like CARROTS – the plants store sugar and starch in the roots and you don’t want that! Don’t be afraid to add salt to your smoothie too. That salt is vital to keeping the “keto flu” from ruining your day. Avoid seed/vegetable oils, they aren’t what you want – olive, coconut, and avocado oils are actually fruit oils and work great!

Any particular ingredient or ingredients that you feel would make a keto smoothie particularly powerful?

  • Avocados are absolutely amazing and work great if you’re mixing up your smoothie in a blender. They have high-quality fats, lots of potassium, are very low in carbohydrates and taste pretty good (to me!)
  • MCT Oil is a fantastic source of great fats made from refined coconut or palm oil. Your liver turns it right into ketones which can help get you into a deeper state of burning ketones (or “ketosis”). Be aware that most people can only tolerate 1 tablespoon at a time of MCT oil, trust me: you don’t want to overdo it!
  • Almond or other nut butters are also a great addition in limited quantities. They give a great taste and add some quality fat and protein. Make sure you don’t go overboard, they have a fair amount of carbs.
  • Erythritol is probably the best thing to use to add some sweetness to your own smoothie recipe. It doesn’t hurt dogs like xylitol, doesn’t raise blood sugar, and pretty much counts as 0 carbs for most people. The powdered version dissolves more easily.
  • Heavy cream is fantastic (and what I use for most of my own shakes!) It adds an amazing taste, great creamy mouthfeel, is low in carbs (0.4g per tablespoon), and the fat profile is exactly what you want. People with lactose intolerance can often handle as much as a half cup per meal without problems.

What are the best fats to add to a keto smoothie and why?

The best fats for your body are going to be the ones that don’t oxidize and that means saturated or mono-unsaturated fats. Poly-unsaturated “vegetable” (seed) oils react easily and cause all kinds of stress on your body and damage to your cells. It’s a bit much to go into here, but there’s never been a link between saturated fat and heart disease (though they’ve spent 50 years trying to prove, unsuccessfully, that there is one!). To the contrary, studies show that eating more saturated fat is associated with lower MORTALITY or lower risk of dying from everything (which is really the goal, right?). That means dairy, avocados, coconut oil, butter, and olive oil are what you want and the processed seed oils are what you do not want. It’s pretty much the opposite of what the dietary guidelines USED to say back in the 80s, they’ve been slowly changing those guidelines over the last few years without calling attention to the changes.

If someone wants to purchase a pre-made keto shake, what should they look for and what should they avoid?

Look for something that’s not just a protein “snack” – too often you’ll find a shake that’s been rebranded as “keto” just because they added a little MCT oil, or they’re adding lab-created ketones. For a smoothie to be something you can use consistently, and not have it leave you hungry and with a vitamin deficiency, it needs to be designed for complete ketogenic nutrition. The label will have a bunch of vitamins and minerals that may be hard to pronounce but don’t let that deter you, all vitamins are “chemicals”. I’d recommend staying away from shakes that have “BHB” or ketones added to them, those are great for performance athletes or seizure patients; but if your goal is to lose weight, you want your own body to be making ketones for you (for free!). Look for “nutritionally complete” and I wouldn’t be worried if it’s not “organic” or “all natural” – with a keto diet you’re eliminating the stuff that should concern you simply by getting rid of processed carbohydrates.

If someone is replacing two meals a day with a keto smoothie/shake, how much would you say they could lose in 48 hours?

For optimal success, keto needs to be an all-in thing. You can’t have two keto meals, then eat french fries and donuts and expect it to work. Doing 2 meals using a quality keto shake and then having a good keto dinner is a great way to go. When you first start doing keto, there’s often a “whoosh” of water weight loss that can happen in 48-72 hours. It’s your body using up sugar bound to water in your muscles and liver – yes it’s water weight, but it will stay off so long as you stick to keto. Now: not everyone experiences the “whoosh,” so don’t get discouraged. I’ve seen people healthily lose 8lbs right off the bat and continue losing 10-15lbs a month, but your results may vary and it’s much harder for women than for men. Men tend to lose pounds and women tend to lose inches, especially at first. Your body is doing a remodel and that may not show on the scale at first. The key is to Keep Calm and Keto On (or “KCKO” as we say)!

And why would you say this would be a great jumpstart for someone who is just trying out keto for the first time?

Using smoothies is a really great way to control your food and give you something actionable you can work on. Especially at the beginning when you’re new to everything and unsure what you can or can’t eat, it can lead you through the rough patches to success.

If women start this before an event do go to during the holiday season will they be able to drop weight in a short time? Why or why not?

Many women will be able to use keto to quickly drop weight before an important event, it’s the release of the water weight that goes along with starting keto. Usually even more important than the initial weight loss will be a reduction in water retention, inflammation, puffiness, and looser clothing. If you’re planning on starting a keto diet, take some measurements and some “before” photos so you can track your progress. The scale isn’t the only measure of success, so don’t get discouraged if your husband loses 10lbs after a week of keto and you don’t. And be aware that for greatest success, keto is a way of life – not just a quick diet. You can’t expect to keep off the weight if you go back to eating what made you heavy to begin with!

What’s the most you’ve seen someone lose in 24 hours on keto?

I know a lady that lost 5lbs in 24 hours (and kept that off).

In 48 hours?

8lbs

What’s the most you’ve seen someone lose in total on keto?

I know several people that have lost over 100lbs (and kept it off for years!), I think the most weight loss I’ve seen is 250lbs.

What words of advice do you have to readers who are interested in adding a smoothie/shake as a meal replacement to their keto diet?

  • If you’re making your own recipe, I’d recommend adding the ingredients as well as your other food into a good tracking app like “cron-o-meter” so you can make sure you’re getting the right nutrition, keeping your carbs down, and getting enough electrolytes.
  • If you’re using a recipe you found, pay attention to the nutritional information provided, and you might want to do the same “track it in an app”!
  • If you’re thinking about buying a pre-made shake mix, make sure it has the nutrients you need and that it’s not just a protein snack. Look for shakes that allow you to customize the amount of fat in each meal so you’re not getting too little or too much.

And finally, here is what was condensed out of my responses:
By |2019-02-08T01:40:45-07:00December 14th, 2018|Categories: Future Foods, Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Comparison of Keto “Meal Replacement” nutrition, costs, net carbs, fat, and more

in 2017, when we went to our first KetoCon in Austin Texas, I noticed that quite a few of the vendors that were going to be there offered “meal replacement” products marketed to the keto eater – so I decided to do a comparison of the available options, mostly for myself so I could speak intelligently about what’s out there but I thought it would be of value to the community at large.

Meal Replacement Comparison Sheet

You can view the spreadsheet I’ve put together here. The table is sorted by whether it’s nutritionally complete and then by cost for 2000 calories. I put “meal replacement” in quotes for a reason: many of the mixes do not give you a nutritionally complete meal, rather they are more of a snack – honestly, you’d be better off grabbing some string cheese (you’ll notice I have an entry in the table for string cheese! =). You cannot use any of the non-complete products for more than an occasional “meal”, once a day at the most though you might want to limit consumption to 2-3 times a week.

The ones that are nutritionally complete are designed to give you all your nutrition for any given meal. Meaning you should get all your vitamins, electrolytes, fats, everything. In theory, you could replace a single meal, multiple meals in a day, or even go nuts and replace all of your meals without suffering from nutritional deficiencies. Personally, I like to call them “engineered staple foods”.

Earlier today, we got an email from a guy using Keto Chow that thought it was remarkable the change in how many supplements he no longer takes when using Keto Chow, you can see that at the top of this post. That email got me thinking about a photo someone posted on Facebook showing the difference in nutrition between their old “meal replacement” and Keto Chow using Cron-O-Meter (which I think is the BEST app for tracking a keto diet, period). I thought it would be good to show a similar comparison, I simply loaded up Cron-O-Meter and selected a meal of 8 different “Keto Meal Replacement” options to compare with Keto Chow, here’s what you get:

None aside from Keto Chow even come close to providing 1/3 of your daily vitamins and minerals, and most are extremely low calorie and low fat – like they’re not sure about this whole “keto” thing. I have no problem at all living for weeks or months on Keto Chow alone, I doubt that any of the creators of the other “Meal Replacements” would even attempt such a thing (and for good reason). I believe that if a product isn’t good enough for me, it isn’t good enough to sell to other people either.

Two of the nutritionally complete options in the spreadsheet require you to buy your own fat source (Keto Chow and Keto Fuel) and that’s included in the cost per meal based on Great Value Heavy Whipping Cream for Keto Chow, Chosen Foods Avocado Oil (also for Keto Chow), and Great Value Olive Oil for Keto Fuel. Your costs may be higher or lower depending on how much you use. Putting in the cost for 2000 calories on these two was weird. If you use 157ml of heavy cream in Keto Chow, it costs $10.86 – use 118ml (for 1600 calories a day) and the cost for 2000 calories goes up to $13.10. The same sort of thing happens with Keto Fuel (which could also use heavy cream instead of olive oil, that’s just what’s in the directions). You could also use your own fat source to amp up the other products to a higher calorie. Anyhow, because of this confounder, I’ve also included a cost per day for how much it would cost to get a full day’s nutrition based on the number of meals per day the manufacturer recommends.

By |2019-12-30T15:57:25-07:00October 24th, 2018|Categories: Future Foods, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Others using Keto Chow to conduct science!

Siobhan Huggins recently posted about her half of an experiment where she was tracking biomarkers while changing around the amount of fat she was using. We were super happy when she approached us about using Keto Chow for the experiment. I (Chris) have done my own experiments using Keto Chow to tightly control variables, which is difficult to do with nutrition unless you’re using something like Keto Chow – it’s cool to see others using Keto Chow for science as well.

Siobhan was going for 6000 calories a day during parts of the experiment. That’s a REALLY difficult thing to do unless you’re using something like Keto Chow:

I’d say, in this case, the inconvenience of having to drink 6 shakes a day was far outweighed by the data I got in the process. Lipoprotein(a) coming from a baseline diet to a high calorie/high fat phase provided some useful information that – of course – leaves me with even more questions, and possible future experiments in mind, for sure. Plus, it wasn’t too bad, as the very kind staff at the hotel where the conference was taking place offered to store my shakes in the front office fridge so they could stay refrigerated until I needed them. I’m extremely grateful, as this made the whole process much less of a hassle, and allowed it to go as smoothly as it did. The food served at the conference actually did look quite appetizing, but in this case the sacrifices of citizen science won out over the freshly carved meat they were serving.

Even with that said, I must say that my diet over the conference weekend was definitely more appetizing than what Dave was eating – as he expressed multiple times! I’m sure he’ll be mentioning that himself, however, in part 2

Sometimes science is hard =) You can read about the entire experiment and see all the cool graphs and data over on cholesterolcode.com.

By |2018-10-24T08:32:16-06:00October 24th, 2018|Categories: Future Foods, Keto Chow|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Comparison of Fitbit Charge and Oura Ring – activity and sleep tracking

I was intrigued talking to a friend about the first generation Ōura ring he had and decided I wanted to try it out for myself. I also had a Fitbit Charge HR and an Android Wear (not WearOS because they didn’t update it, I’m not bitter) watch that I was using. I figured a comparison is in order! All of the following data can be found on this Google Docs Spreadsheet.

One feature that Oura champions is heart rate tracking. Because the ring is snugly on your finger, they can do some cool stuff with tracking how variable your heart rate is, they also use the HR data for tracking sleep (just like Fitbit does). So here is how the Resting Heart Rate compares with the Oura and Fitbit:

It looks like the Fitbit is taking a longer average rate, while Oura is doing a shorter sample window but I’d say they’re both showing similar things.

Speaking of heart rate, let’s see how sleep tracking compares. In this graph, I’ve added the values from Sleep As Android, a sleep tracking program that I run on my phone as an alarm clock and tracks sleep. I actually have data going back to 2015 (I sleep more now since I quit my day job and stopped going to work at 5:30 am). Sleep As Android added support for using an Android Wear/Wear OS watch for tracking movement and heart rate to indicate sleep cycles, otherwise you stick your phone on your mattress and it measures the movement.

The plots for Fitbit and for Oura are REALLY close. Easily within a reasonable margin of error. SAA + the watch tracks at about the same, except it shows me sleeping about 0.5-1 hours longer on a given day. I suspect that the Fitbit or Oura data is more accurate since both are far more consistent with their heart rate data. SAA will often not show HR data at all.

OK, what about activity tracking? I’m right-handed and have Google Fit tracking on my left hand with Fitbit and Oura on my right. Fitbit has an option to select “handedness” – if you wear the tracker on your dominant wrist, it lowers the sensitivity to account for more non-step movement from that hand.

I’m guessing that having my Fitbit on the dominant hand with the lowered sensitivity accounts for the consistently lower numbers from Fitbit.

So what’s the take-away from this? It seems that the Oura ring is a very comparable sleep and activity tracker. The Fitbit has some other features that are lacking in the Oura (Social challenges against other users, differences in workout tracking, no way am I wearing the Oura while weight lifting) but I think I’m done wearing two watches – the Oura works good enough. If you happen to work in a profession where the ONLY allowed jewelry is a ring, the Oura would be phenomenal.

By |2018-10-03T11:48:27-06:00October 3rd, 2018|Categories: On Tour|Tags: , , , , |4 Comments
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Official: October be nuts. We’re going to Low Carb KC *and* Low Carb Houston

This entry is part 123 of 131 in the series Ketogenic Diet

Alright, we just got everything lined up. We’re going to be going to Low Carb KC – October 19-20, and then the following week we will be going to Low Carb Houston – October 25-27. If you’re going to be near Kansas City or Houston, please come by our booths and say “hi!”.

Coming up next year we’ll be at:

By |2018-10-03T08:47:45-06:00October 3rd, 2018|Categories: Ketogenic Diet, On Tour|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Invite to participate in the 2018 “Complete Food” Survey

Keto Chow was originally (and still is!) designed to be nutritionally complete, that’s one of the core fundamentals. I wanted something I could eat without having to worry about getting some weird vitamin or mineral deficiency so it’s set up to give you at least 1/3 of your daily nutrients in each meal. Do you have to eat 3 a day? Absolutely not, but you can if you are so inclined. There are other “Complete Foods” – most are in Europe and only a very small minority are designed for a ketogenic lifestyle (like Keto Chow).

About once a year, there’s a survey sent out to find out more about how people are using the complete foods/future foods – we’ve agreed to promote the survey that Queal is doing right now. So, if you want to head over and answer some questions about Keto Chow, please do!

More info about the survey and last year’s data can be found on https://completefoodsurvey.com/

By |2018-09-20T07:48:00-06:00September 19th, 2018|Categories: Future Foods|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Using Keto Chow while camping, hiking, traveling, etc…

I have people asking for solutions they can use for doing keto while camping, hiking, staying in a hotel (with or without refrigeration), or otherwise traveling. I thought I’d share some of my recent experience. The headline image above is from when I was making Keto Chow for 2 of my kids and my wife.

July 2018 has been a little crazy for me; with Keto Con, a 4 day-30 mile hike, family vacation, scout camp, Ketofest, and Low Carb USA all strung together. Particularly challenging was the hike, and later the scout camp with my oldest son since I wouldn’t have any refrigeration nor anything resembling a kitchen. The camp also wanted $6 a meal for amazing dishes like spaghetti, or grilled cheese sandwiches. My plan for the days I would be at camp was to bring:

They did have lots of clean, cold, mountain spring water available. The basic routine every meal went like this:

  1. I would grab my dry blender bottle.
  2. I’d put in the amount of avocado oil I wanted, it was marked on the side of the blender bottle with a marker to make measuring super easy.
  3. Add a scoop of Keto Chow powder.
  4. Add the water.
  5. Shake it up – from step 3 to step 5 you want to minimize time as much as possible to avoid clumps, try to hit fewer than 5 seconds.
  6. Go help some kid with something for 5 minutes (this lets the protein dissolve more so it’s not gritty).
  7. Drink
  8. Use the soap, water, and bottle brush to wash out the bottle – this is easier with hot water but I’ve used cold without problems.
  9. Leave the lid off and let the bottle dry.
  10. You’re ready for the next meal.

In the cases that I had access to refrigeration, using heavy cream was also an option instead of avocado oil. That entire sequence (steps 1-10) only takes maybe 5 minutes, not counting however long you take to drink the meal and it’s super handy when it’s raining but you already have your Keto Chow in your tent with you

So, there you go – a week’s worth of Keto Chow weighs around 1000g with 21 meals worth of avocado oil clocking in around 2000g (about a half gallon worth). Provided you have access to water, you can stick to a strict Ketogenic diet easily (oh and depending on the flavor you get, your net carbs for the DAY will be around 1.5-4g (more for chocolate compared to salted caramel and the others).

By |2018-07-31T11:57:39-06:00July 31st, 2018|Categories: Keto Chow, On Tour|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment
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A Keto family vacation

We recently did a family vacation down to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. When planning it, we decided to do all keto food for all 10 people going. It actually turned out really well and allowed a few of our children who hadn’t ever tried doing keto an opportunity to give it a try. Sadly they’ve gone back to eating carbs away from home but at least they recognized how crummy they felt eating candy the first time after the trip.

We rented a house (because frankly, it was cheaper than getting 3 rooms at a hotel, more comfortable, and overall better!). The kitchen was quite nice and there were enough beds for everyone that wanted their own bed could have one.

Our staples on the trip included:

  • Heavy Whipping Cream – mostly for making Keto Chow but we also used it to cover keto pancakes.
  • Costco rotisserie chicken breast – makes the chicken salad really easy, just add mayo and other seasonings.
  • Keto Chow – perfect for drinking while driving!
  • Far too many almonds.
  • Low carb tortillas from Sams Club – they’re 5g of net carbs each so I didn’t eat them frequently but for little kids they’re perfect.
  • Carb Control yogurt from Kroger – also 5g of net carbs, not the end of the world but you don’t want them all the time
  • Eggs – with 10 people we went through almost 9 dozen Xlarge eggs.
  • Cream cheese – for the tortillas and to make keto pancakes
  • Sugar-Free syrup.

FYI: the recipe for the keto pancakes is silly easy – 8 ounces of cream cheese + 8 eggs in a blender. Blend. Cook. Done.

Drag around, it’s a 360 photo:

[vrview img=”https://old.ketochow.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/R0015640_20180405140945.jpg” width=”100%” ]

By |2018-04-13T11:56:13-06:00April 13th, 2018|Categories: On Tour, Ketogenic Diet, Keto Chow|Tags: , , , |2 Comments
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