FAQ Categories Keto Chow Nutrition

Can you use Keto Chow during a Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF)?

One serving of the Keto Chow dry powder and contains less than 1g of fat and 26g of protein, and can therefore be used in conjunction with a Protein-Sparing Modified Fast. However, be aware that omitting fat will prevent the absorption of certain vitamins (A, D, K), and your Keto Chow will not be as filling.

We recommend mixing your Keto Chow with 10g of fat minimum to gain the full nutritional benefit of Keto Chow. Check out our walkthrough on using the Calorie Calculator to customize Keto Chow to fit your specific requirements.

By Christian DeYoung|2021-09-22T12:52:27-06:00September 22nd, 2021|0 Comments

How does Keto Chow compare to OptiFast®?

Some gastric bypass patients are told by their doctors to use OptiFast as part of their recovery. Let’s see how the nutrition in Keto Chow compares to OptiFast and vice versa. We will be comparing the OptiFast Chocolate shake mix to the Keto Chow Chocolate shake mix to make it a direct comparison.

Here is the Cron-O-Meter entry for Optifast, it has the information laid out a little better than the product page on the manufacturer’s website, which does have the ingredients listed.

Here is the Cron-O-Meter entry for Chocolate Keto Chow.

The first thing you may notice is the far higher carbohydrates in OptiFast (15g of net carbs per serving), that would be because the very first ingredient is maltodextrin. Aside from the vitamins and minerals, the main ingredients are: Maltodextrin, Milk Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate, Calcium Caseinate, Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum, Isomaltulose, Canola Oil, Cocoa Processed With Alkali.

The ingredients to Keto Chow are: Milk Protein Isolate, Acacia Gum, Potassium Citrate, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Choline L-Bitartrate, Magnesium Malate, Potassium Chloride. to that you have the vitamins, minerals, flavors etc…

OptiFast Nutrition	Keto Chow Nutrition

It seems you can’t buy OptiFast directly but I found it for $36 per 7 servings for the shake mix. That makes it around $5.14 per meal – you need 5 for a full day of nutrition ($25.70/day). Keto Chow is $4.75 in the single packets or $3.33 if you get a large 21 meal bag – even 3 of the more expensive single meals would only cost $14.25 per day. Putting a little bit of fat into a Keto Chow shake would get you the same 160 calories with FAR more protein, better vitamins and minerals.

By Chris|2021-08-31T16:17:46-06:00August 31st, 2021|0 Comments

When the ingredients in Keto Chow say “natural” or “artificial” colors are used, what does that mean?

In the simplest terms, a “natural” ingredient means it is derived from something found in nature. That could be something like the red from beets or orange from carrots, but it would also cover poisonous and dangerous compounds from other sources. “Natural” does not mean “better” it’s simply a way to designate the origin. An “artificial” ingredient means that it’s created by combining compounds together. By the strictest definition, you can create “artificial” water and carbon dioxide in a lab using oxygen, heat, and fuel to make fire.

As far as Keto Chow goes, here are the colorings that are used in various flavors. Several of the different flavors of Keto Chow contain no coloring at all:

Savory Chicken Soup
Spicy Taco Soup Base
Creamy Tomat Basil
Beef Soup Base
Chocolate
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Cookies and Cream
Snickerdoodle
Vanilla
S’mores
Mocha

Raspberry Cheesecake has 0.4g of beet extract and 0.04g of Elderberry extract – these are what would be called “natural” colors and they fade to a greyish purple over the course of a few hours. Strawberry and Natural Strawberry use 0.2g of the same beet extract, which does still fade but without the purple from the missing Elderberry coloring.

Banana uses 0.03g of Tumeric. The same color system is used for Lemon Meringue.

Eggnog has 0.035g of beta carotene, it comes from carrots and tints Doritos the orange color you’re familiar with. Although technically it’s a source of an inferior source of vitamin A, we don’t declare that on the nutrition panel because humans don’t convert beta carotene to retinol (true vitamin A) at a very efficient rate.

Chocolate Mint has 0.06g of GNT Blue and 0.04g of Colorcon Green. Pistachio has the same coloring blend.

Pumpkin Spice Caramel uses 0.4g of beta carotene, as well as 0.275g of caramel color. There is 0.4g of Caramel color in Salted Caramel, 0.537g in the Chocolate Toffee, and 0.538g in Root Beer Float.

Orange cream has 0.4g of beta carotene, 0.025g of “Orange Blend N”, and 0.022g of Dye Lake Blend 1488.

To quote Wikipedia: “A lake pigment is a pigment made by precipitating a dye with an inert binder, or ‘mordant’, usually a metallic salt. Unlike vermilion, ultramarine, and other pigments made from ground minerals, lake pigments are organic.”

The simple way of thinking of pigments are they’re ground up minerals, whilst dyes are extracts of organic compounds, often plants or synthetic organic compounds.

By Chris|2020-11-26T20:57:24-07:00November 26th, 2020|0 Comments

What is the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load of Keto Chow?

First things first, you need to understand how the Glycemic Index is measured in foods:

GI values of foods must be measured using valid scientific methods.It cannot be guessed by looking at the composition of the food or the nutrition information panel on food packaging.

Following the international standardmethod, the GI value of a food is determined by feeding 10 or more healthy people a portion of the food containing 50 grams of digestible (available) carbohydrate and then measuring the effect on their blood glucose levels over the next two hours. For each person, the area under their two-hour blood glucose response (glucose AUC) for this food is then measured. On another occasion, the same 10 people consume an equal-carbohydrate portion of the sugar glucose (the reference food) and their two-hour blood glucose response is also measured. A GI value for the test food is then calculated for each person by dividing their glucose AUC for the test food by their glucose AUC for the reference food. The final GI value for the test food is the average GI value for the 10 people.

Foods with a high GI score contain rapidly digested carbohydrate, which produces a large rapid rise and fall in the level of blood glucose. In contrast, foods with a low GI score contain slowly digested carbohydrate, which produces a gradual, relatively low rise in the level of blood glucose.

OK, so we give 10 people a portion of food containing 50g of digestible carbohydrates. Depending on the flavor of Keto Chow, that varies. Let’s use Salted Caramel for the following illustration. Each 44.8g serving of Salted Caramel Keto Chow has 0.50g of non-fiber carbohydrates. That means we would need to give our test subjects exactly 100 servings of Keto Chow to get the 50g. Each of the 10 participants in the study would need to consume 4.480 kg (9.87 pounds) of powder, equaling 11,800 calories, mostly of protein. In a liquid form, mixed with half a stick of butter per serving, you would need the same 100 servings but you would now be consuming 55,000 calories with a volume of 15.6 gallons.

Because our product is designed for a ketogenic diet, the standard method for measuring the Glycemic Index doesn’t actually even work! We would need to give people such an absurdly large quantity of Keto Chow – I’m sure it would be deemed unethical. Calculating the Glycemic Load needs the Glycemic Index. With both figures, it can reasonably be said that they are below the measurable threshold.

By Chris|2020-09-24T12:36:15-06:00September 24th, 2020|0 Comments

Redmond Real Salt in Keto Chow: why there’s a little bit of sand at the bottom of your bottle

Starting with version 2.5.2 of Keto Chow (full changelog here), we switched to using Redmond Real Salt in Keto Chow.

Real Salt tastes better than typical table salt.
Real Salt is mined in Utah, just a few hours away from Keto Chow HQ.
Real Salt has a lot of cool trace minerals that add to the flavor.
…but Real Salt has a lot of cool trace minerals. Some of that shows up like sand at the bottom of your container.

So, lots of pros, with that one con. Most people will notice the bit of reddish “sand” at the bottom of the bottle and it’s not a big deal, but if you have a thicker viscosity (either you use less water, use heavy cream instead of butter, or you thicken the shake using a bit of gelatin/guar gum/xanthan gum) or take a drink IMMEDIATELY after shaking up your Keto Chow, you may get some of those un-dissolved minerals in your mouth. It’s harmless (actually it has some added iron and some manganese which your stomach acid will dissolve) but can be annoying to some people.

To mitigate the issue:

Wait a minute after shaking up Keto Chow before drinking. Around here we tend to habitually give it a shake before taking a swig. However, that’s really not necessary since Keto Chow doesn’t settle or separate like most drinks (again: habit!) You’ll see the minerals settle to the bottom pretty quickly.
If you tip the bottle back to get the last few drops, depending on how quickly you tip it and at how much of an angle, you may get a large quantity of the minerals. We notice this happens a lot when we dump a Keto Chow into an ice cream maker to whip up some soft-serve. The fix is to take a few more seconds to slowly pour the bottle.

By Chris|2020-12-01T15:58:57-07:00July 27th, 2020|4 Comments

What allergens are there in the different flavors of Keto Chow? Does Keto Chow have tree nuts?

The different flavors of Keto Chow have various ingredients for flavoring, here are some of the major allergens and which (if any) flavors have them.

Gluten and wheat

All flavors of Keto Chow are gluten-free and wheat-free.

Soy

All flavors of Keto Chow are soy-free.

Peanuts

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Nutmeg

Eggnog
Pumpkin Spice Caramel

Tree Nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts, etc…)

Aside from nutmeg, all flavors of Keto Chow are tree nut-free.

Dairy

All but 4 flavors HAVE dairy proteins, the dairy-free flavors are: Base Powder, Creamy Tomato Basil, Spicy Taco Soup Base, Beef Soup Base.

Eggs

Eggnog

Fish

All flavors of Keto Chow are fish-free.

Lupin

All flavors of Keto Chow are lupin-free.

Shellfish and Mollusks

All flavors of Keto Chow are shellfish-free.

Sesame

All flavors of Keto Chow are sesame-free.

By Chris|2020-05-13T14:51:05-06:00May 13th, 2020|4 Comments

Is Keto Chow “Organic”? Is Keto Chow “GMO”-free?

The primary goal of Keto Chow is very simple: Simply and easily get the best nutrients for humans doing a ketogenic diet. That’s it. All of the decisions we make, so far as to which ingredients we use, derive from that one goal.

The REASON for that most important factor is also equally simple: Our founder (Chris) uses Keto Chow for most of his food (and sometimes ALL for 100 days, seriously!). When the person in charge of formulating the product LIVES for months exclusively on it, they quickly make decisions to better the product’s taste and nutrition. It’s a bit of a selfish thing, but something that we think more companies should try it. This is why we use the forms of vitamins and minerals that are best for humans:

Vitamin D3 instead of D2
Vitamin K2 (MK-7 to be specific) instead of K1
Retinol instead of Beta Carotene (vitamin A)
Methylated folate instead of Folic Acid for everyone with MTHFR (plus methylated B12)
Magnesium Malate instead of Magnesium Oxide
Selenium, and more – you’ll find additional details at https://old.ketochow.xyz/nutrition/

Many of the vitamins are derived from animal sources, from specially bred single-cell organisms, or even synthesized in a laboratory. From our perspective, the specific manner in which an ingredient is made is less relevant than it’s purity and quality. Also, how beneficial that specific form is to humans. Again, that’s what happens when the person formulating it doesn’t want to get a vitamin deficiency.

So the answer to the questions of “Is Keto Chow ‘organic’?” (and we’re talking the common contemporary usage here as opposed to the actual meaning of “contains carbon”) or “Is Keto Chow ‘GMO’ free?” would be: As a whole? No, it’s neither “organic,” nor GMO-free. There are some ingredients in Keto Chow that would qualify for those label claims. However, we aren’t interested in not using the best, most nutritious ingredients we can find to make that claim. It would be a disservice to our customers that rely upon us for the highest quality nutrition possible.

Having products that are “Organic” or “GMO-Free” are very important to many people. Caring about your health is a great thing! Our research directs us to put actionable data and science above philosophy. This, unfortunately, means that if you only purchase “organic” products, this isn’t the best option for you.

By Chris|2020-04-30T12:03:05-06:00April 30th, 2020|0 Comments

Are there any dairy-free options? Can Keto Chow be dairy-free?

Most of our Keto Chow (all of the sweet flavors) uses milk protein isolate. Three of our Savory Soups (Creamy Tomato Basil, Taco Soup Base, and Beef Soup Base) use beef protein and beef bone broth. These are completely dairy-free and suitable for people with milk protein allergies.

If you’re lactose intolerant, we have some customers who can tolerate the milk protein-based flavors when they use these mixing options.

We do also offer our base powder here. It contains all of the vitamins and minerals in Keto Chow minus the protein powder, flavor, and sweetener. That way you can tailor it to your needs.

By Christian DeYoung|2020-03-25T11:24:12-06:00March 23rd, 2020|0 Comments

Can you use Keto Chow while doing intermittent fasting?

Yes! Time-restricted eating is another name for intermittent fasting. You limit your mealtimes to fall within a designated window, and fast outside that window. You can use Keto Chow as a meal replacement during one (or more) of your scheduled meals.

By Christian DeYoung|2020-03-25T11:35:29-06:00March 23rd, 2020|0 Comments

Does Keto Chow have a low-sodium option? Is that much sodium bad for you?

Keto Chow is designed to provide 1/3 of what your body needs in every serving, including sodium. Unless you have a rare, specific medical condition, it will not negatively affect you.

Interestingly enough, the recommendation that people limit their salt intake isn’t based on good science. New data and studies show that you’re more likely to encounter problems from consuming too little salt! There’s a lot more data about all of this on these sites:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/the-truth-about-salt
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180809202057.htm
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30467-6/fulltext
https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/08/10/spoonful-salt-makes-blood-pressure-go-down-13289
http://2ketodudes.com/show.aspx?episode=71
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lpH06ely7E

Above all, on a keto diet, you need a LOT of sodium. Failure to get sufficient salt will leave you with an electrolyte deficiency commonly referred to as “keto flu.” Many find they feel their best by adding sodium above and beyond what Keto Chow has.

By Christian DeYoung|2020-03-30T13:58:45-06:00March 23rd, 2020|0 Comments