Wise Traditions Keto:
The version of Keto described here is what I call “Wise Traditions Keto”. It is applying the Principles of Healthy Diets to the Keto diet. This is a whole foods version of Keto based on traditional wisdom outlined by The Weston A. Price Foundation. There are differences between the many versions of keto. It doesn’t matter which version you follow or if you are doing keto or not, you are always welcome here no matter what you eat!
On the Keto diet the majority of your calories come from fat. Carbohydrates should be kept very low (less than 20 grams per day for starting, mostly from green vegetables). Do not eat any sugar or starch. Protein should be enough to support your lean body mass but not a lot higher. Protein is used for building and repairing muscles and tissues in the body, it is best not to try to use it for energy. Traditional people ate approximately 20% of their calories as protein (here’s an easy way to calculate protein needs based on your height, and here is a wide range of protein calculations based on different people’s recommendations). On keto all of your energy needs should be met by FAT, either the fat on your body or the fat on your plate.
Do not try to do keto and low-calorie at the same time! Eat fat to satiety. This means, eat when you’re hungry, stop when you start to feel full. When starting keto you may eat three meals a day plus keto snacks. After a while of keto adaptation it is better to omit the snacks. If you are hungry between meals eat a bigger meal.
As your body gets used to fueling itself on fat, you may feel like skipping meals. This is fine. Some people do intermittent or longer fasts along with keto. This is natural. Traditional people had periods of feasts and fasts. It is fine to skip meals when you feel like it. Fasting is very helpful for reducing high insulin, but don’t start fasting early in your transition to keto. Make sure that you feast on keto foods when you do eat! If fasting brings on hunger, food cravings, a sense of deprivation, or other symptoms, return to eating 2-3 meals per day full of high-fat satisfying keto foods.
More links:
How to Start Wise Traditions Keto:
“Its common sense to say that ancient foods probably aren’t causing the diseases of modern civilization”
– Tom Naughton, Wise Traditions Podcast, episode #157
Get yourself ready:
Learn about meat, fat, salt and cholesterol, so that you are not afraid that these traditional foods will kill you. Learn about Keto, why you are doing it (do you have hyperinsulinemia?) and what to expect. Have blood work done if you want a “before” picture. Have some ideas about what you are going to eat (such as meal plans, recipes, restaurant ideas, prepared food – see Keto Group References). Have keto foods and good quality salt and magnesium on hand.
Get the household ready:
Ideally everyone in the household would be doing either Wise Traditions or Wise Traditions Keto together. The next best is that everyone in the family is supportive of the one on the Keto journey. Tell them what you are doing and that you would appreciate their support. If you have others in the household who may sabotage your Keto efforts you will need to figure out ways to protect yourself. Have a plan, so that you do not give in to the foods, peer pressure or negative statements. Remove food temptation from your house, car and workspace. Have Keto alternatives ready.
Get a support system:
Hopefully our local Keto Support Group provides a good basis for your support system here in Eugene. You might also set up a buddy system or join the ketogenic forums. You may want to find a Health Practitioner who is knowledgeable and supportive of your eating plan.
What to Eat on a Wise Traditions Keto Diet:
Meat:
All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal food, such as fish and shellfish; land and water fowl; land and sea mammals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects. The whole animal is consumed—muscle meat, organs, bones and fat, with the organ meats and fats preferred.
On the Keto diet you can consume the meat, fat, skin, organs and bones of any animal. They are low in carbohydrates and rich in nutrients and healthy fats. We recommend buying grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and pork from local sources. The fats from animals raised outdoors on their natural diet will be cleaner, higher in fat-soluble vitamins and have a good balance of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids. Contact your local Weston A. Price Foundation chapter for resources in your area.
For starting Keto, aim for a piece of meat, egg or cheese roughly the size of the palm of your hand at each meal. Any meat is allowed. Fatty meats, such as beef with visible fat, pork, dark meat chicken, chicken liver pâté, salmon and sardines are preferred. If you do eat lean meat, such as chicken or turkey breast, add a high-fat sauce or other source of fat to the meal.
Although there are many good reasons to do so, it is not required to eat red meat. If you prefer to get your animal protein from seafood, eggs and dairy, see below for suggestions.
More info:
Pasture Fed Meats
Pastured Pork
Wild seafood
Dairy:
Not all traditional people consumed dairy, but those who did all consumed dairy in its natural unprocessed form. This means that the milk was not pasteurized or homogenized. It was from healthy animals who were eating their natural diet of grass and forage.
On the Keto diet, you can consume high-fat varieties of dairy, such as butter, ghee, heavy cream (whipping cream), cream cheese, sour cream, and cheese. Some people also tolerate Greek yogurt. Butter, cream and other high-fat dairy is where all of the fat-soluble vitamins that are present in the milk are located. The fat-soluble vitamins will be present in the milk fat from animals who were raised outside and allowed to eat their natural diet. Dr Weston Price found that the butter from cows grazing on rapidly growing green grass had the most nutrients. He used high-vitamin butter oil combined with cod liver oil to medicinally treat a wide variety of health conditions. To him it was not simply food, it was medicine!
There are also keto proponents who advise against consuming dairy. We recommend consuming raw, grass-fed cheese, cream and butter if you tolerate them. Raw cheese that has been aged over 60 days is legal in all US states. If you cannot get raw butter, grass-fed pasteurized butter or ghee is acceptable. See our Shopping Guide for recommendations.
Dairy sensitivities:
There are many Keto recipes that use a lot of dairy or cheese in baked goods. If you do not have a high tolerance to dairy, you may find that you are sensitive to these dishes. If so, we recommend avoiding cooked cheese and trying sliced or grated raw cheese added to meals when serving (not cooking with it). Some people also find that they can tolerate cultured dairy (such as raw soured cream or yogurt) when they are unable to consume regular dairy.
Traditional cultures that did not consume dairy often consumed the bones of small animals. If you are not able to tolerate cheese even from high quality sources, we recommend you make whole sardines and anchovies, with the bones included, a part of your diet.
Butter is primarily fat and ghee is butter that has had all of the protein and lactose removed. Butter and ghee are tolerated by most people with dairy sensitivities. If you find you cannot tolerate even a small amount of ghee, then it is fine to use other fats and oils while you work on healing.
More info:
raw milk
32989 – Culturing Dairy for Everyone (even the Lactose-intolerant) DVD $18.00
Learning to Maximize the Use of Your Real Milk and Cream
Pastured Eggs:
Eggs are an extremely healthy and economical food, providing complete protein in the whites and a variety of healthy fats in the yolks. Egg yolks contain large amounts of important nutrients for the brain. For best nutrition, use eggs from chickens, ducks, geese or turkeys raised outdoors on pasture.
We recommend eating as many whole eggs as you would like, cooked in any way you like. We encourage the use of extra yolks in smoothies, sauces and custards, and recommend always eating the whites with the yolks included. Yolks from healthy birds are fine to eat raw, but raw whites should not be eaten frequently. We recommend buying eggs directly from local farms that raise them on pasture.
More info:
Fats & Oils:
Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30 percent to 80 percent of calories. Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids, but only about 4 percent of calories come from polyunsaturated oils. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.
On the Keto diet fats should supply all of your energy needs. In order to switch from using glucose for fuel to fat burning mode it is recommended to get the majority of your calories (65 to 80%) from fat. Once you have adapted to burning fat for fuel you should be able to use your appetite as a judge of how much fat to eat.
We recommend getting fats from a variety of sources including the fat from healthy animals, such as beef fat, tallow, suet, pork fat (lard), chicken fat (schmaltz), duck fat, butter, cream, egg yolks, salmon, sardines, etc. Vegetable sources of fats and oils include, avocado, olive, coconut, and the natural oils contained in nuts and seeds. Olive and coconut are traditional oils that have been consumed for generations. Nuts and seeds are probably best eaten whole rather than as an extracted oil, as they are fragile and easily damaged by processing, storing and heating. If you do buy these oils, get them in dark bottles, store in the fridge and use cold. Do not cook with fragile oils.
Industrial seed oils are a new addition to the human diet. We recommend avoiding these heavily processed oils.
Avoid:
- Corn Oil
- Cottonseed
- Canola
- Soybean Oil
- Hydrogenated fats & oils
- Partially hydrogenated fats & oils
- “Vegetable Oil”
- “Salad Oil”
- Partially-hydrogenated brands of lard
Learn to make your own sauces, gravy, mayonnaise and creamy soups with traditional fats and oils. Traditional sauces are a delicious way to add more healthy fat into your diet!
More info:
Vegetables:
Contrary to popular belief, you can eat vegetables on a Keto Diet! It is best to stick with low-carb vegetables such as leafy greens, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, cucumber, celery, etc. The parts of plants that grow above ground are generally lower in carbohydrates than the parts that grow below ground.
Some vegetables are more nutritious when cooked. We recommend never eating kale raw (such as smoothies). Kale and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage contain goitrogens that are partially broken down by cooking.
For Keto, start with 1-2 cups salad greens and 1 cup cooked vegetables per day. Vegetables should always be served with added fat, such as olive oil dressing on salads, butter, animal fat or coconut oil on cooked vegetables, and cultured cream, butter or coconut stirred into blended vegetable soups.
We also recommend adding fermented foods to your diet. Try to consume at least 2 tablespoons of lacto-fermented vegetables per day, but start with a small amount at first (even just a teaspoon per day of sauerkraut juice). Live fermented foods contain powerful probiotics. Give your body time to adjust.
More info:
Low-Carb Vegetables
Vegetables & Fruits
Fermented Foods
Nuts and seeds:
On the Keto diet you can consume nuts and seeds. High fat ones are preferred, such as macadamia, pili, pecans, walnuts, sunflower, sesame, etc. For starting Keto keep total amount to 1 oz or less per day.
In traditional diets seeds, grains, legumes and nuts are treated with care. They are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened to neutralize naturally occurring anti-nutrients such as enzyme inhibitors, tannins and phytic acid.
We recommend soaking raw nuts in warm salted water overnight and then dehydrating. These are called “Crispy Nuts” in Nourishing Traditions. They are also sometimes available already sprouted or “awakened”. Soaked nuts can be dehydrated in the oven or dehydrator, and then used whole, ground into flour, toasted or left raw. They can also be used while still wet. All nuts and seeds contain phytic acid and should be soaked before using. A small sprinkle of unsoaked nuts or seeds is probably not a big issue, but soaking becomes more important if you are consuming them frequently or in large amounts. Coconut is not a true nut and does not require soaking.
Almonds are particularly high in oxalates. Oxalates are not removed by soaking or sprouting. Care should be taken not to rely too heavily on almonds, almond milk or almond flour, especially if you are already experiencing symptoms related to oxalate overload.
More info:
Grains, Legumes & Nuts
Crispy Nuts & Seeds
Salt:
All traditional diets contain some salt.
Do not intentionally restrict salt. On the Keto diet you will likely need higher levels of salt than you expect, particularly when you first start this way of eating, and you will likely have to remind yourself to add more salt. Some people believe that the symptoms known as “Keto flu” are actuality an electrolyte imbalance. Make sure you are getting plenty of water, unrefined salt, magnesium and potassium. Add salt to your food, and add salt your water if you wish. I find a pinch of salt directly under the tongue will frequently halt a headache. Salted bone broth, beet kvass and other fermented foods are also wonderful ways to add more salt to your diet.
More info:
Bone broth:
All traditional cultures make use of animal bones, usually in the form of gelatin-rich bone broths.
Bone broth, gelatin and collagen are low-carb and high in amino acids that are difficult to obtain elsewhere in the diet. These amino acids are used to build and maintain our bodies, including skin collagen and bones, and are very healing for the gut lining. The nutrients in bone broth can be obtained from bone broth directly or from gelatin or collagen powders. We recommend making your own bone broth with the bones from healthy pasture-raised animals. The Eugene Chapter (and other Weston Price Chapters around the world) frequently demonstrate how to make bone broth.
More info:
Bone broth
You Need to Eat Gelatin. Here Are the Reasons Why
Organ Meats:
Traditional people valued organ meats greatly, especially for children and couples before conception. Organs are the most nutrient-dense foods available, containing a rich source of vitamin A, all the B vitamins, folate (the natural form of folic acid), vitamin D, chromium, iron, copper, zinc, CoQ10 and an unidentified “anti-fatigue factor”. We recommend including them on a regular basis (at least once per week).
Heart, tongue, sweetbreads and gizzards are mild tasting and can be enjoyed in place of other cuts of meat. Chicken and duck liver have a mild liver flavor, and beef liver has a stronger flavor, pork and lamb are somewhere in between. Sneaking a little chicken liver into a well flavored ground beef dish is a wonderful way to hide the liver flavor and a good chicken or duck liver pâté made with lots of butter is delicious.
We also recommend taking cod liver oil regularly to provide at least 10,000 IU vitamin A and 1,000 IU vitamin D per day.
More info:
Fruits:
On a Keto diet you can eat small amounts of low sugar fruits, such as avocado, olives and berries. The amount will depend on your individual tolerance. For starting the Keto diet it is recommended to avoid sweet fruit for the first few weeks. You may include 1/2 avocado and a few olives each day. After you are fat adapted, then slowly add in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries to see how you respond. If you experience an increase in hunger or other symptoms that had gone away on keto, remove the fruit for a while longer.
Conventionally grown berries contain high levels of fungicide and pesticide residue. We recommend organic, local fruits whenever possible. Buy berries in season and freeze for later.
More info:
Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen by EWG
Low-Carb Fruits
Avoid:
We recommend that everyone (no matter what diet you follow) avoid the refined, processed foods of modern commerce. These include refined sugar, refined flour, corn starch, quick-rise breads, muffins, pasta, agave syrup, industrial seed oils (soy, corn, cottonseed, canola, etc), hydrogenated oils (margarine, Crisco, etc.), skim milk, ultra-pasturized milk, modern soy foods, irradiated meat, GMOs, MSG, and artificial sweeteners.
The difference between Wise Traditions Keto and a full Wise Traditions diet is that if you are insulin resistant (hyperinsulinemia) or are treating another health condition (Type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Cancer, etc.) with a ketogenic diet you may need to also avoid a few traditional foods that are enjoyed by others on a Wise Traditions diet. The amount you will need to limit these foods is determined by your individual body.
On Keto you may need to avoid traditional foods such as:
Natural sweeteners (honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc.), starch (tapioca, arrowroot, etc), grains (even whole grains and properly prepared sourdough), legumes, starchy vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, plantain), whole milk (even raw & grass-fed), and an abundance of fruit. You will either need to work with a knowledgeable health practitioner or figure out for yourself how much your body can tolerate. If your health and insulin resistance improves it may be possible in time to add some of these traditional foods back into your life. I believe the ultimate goal should be radiant good health and feeling satisfied with the foods you eat. Everyone deserves to have healthy blood sugar and insulin levels, and to have healthy mitochondria. We encourage you to learn what it takes for your individual body to reach those goals.
More info:
Alternatives to High Carb Foods:
There are lots of recipes online for keto substitutions for high-carb foods. These can be very helpful and can ease the transition to a ketogenic diet. Substituting vegetables for grains (such as “zoodles” for noodles, cauliflower for rice or macaroni or a lettuce wrap instead of bread), or substituting pork rinds, crispy chicken skin or raw cheese for crackers are wonderful ways to reduce carbohydrates and add more vegetables and healthy fats to your diet.
But beware the temptation to rely frequently on recipes that are based on nuts, seeds and baked cheese. These are good keto foods, and if you do well on them that is great, but it is easy to overdue them. Some excellent advice I read years ago was “don’t to try to make your new diet look like your old diet”. Keep it simple. Base your Keto diet on meats, eggs, raw dairy, vegetables and fats. Save the keto breads, pastas, cookies and other treats for special occasions.
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