Snookered! 3 Reasons To Reject Keto-Friendly Food

My beloved brother-in-law needs to lose weight.

He is disabled and losing strength every day. One year ago he could use a walker; today he is barely able to stand and pivot from the wheelchair to the bed.

My sister does not have the strength to lift him.

Thus, they began counting their carbohydrates (carbs) and eating low-carb. Again. They’d tried keto before — and he’d lost 50 pounds! — but the carbs crept back in, the pounds crept back up, and now the need is urgent.

After three weeks on keto, drumroll, please… He’s gained three pounds.

Why simply lose weight?

While you’re at it, why not also

• reduce inflammation,
• improve blood sugar control,
• get heart-healthy, and
• enhance mental clarity?

It’s all yours for the taking with a low-carb ketogenic diet, according to Dr. Ken Berry in Lies My Doctor Told Me: Medical Myths That Can Harm Your Health (2020).

Lucky for you, the keto diet is so popular now that the grocery store is full of keto-friendly food options: keto-friendly bread, keto-friendly wraps, keto-friendly granola bars, keto-friendly brownies, for goodness’ sake!

This isn’t going to be so hard after all, say you to yourself as you load up your grocery cart. Sure, these items are a wee bit more expensive, but — Who can put a price on health?

Brace yourself, Bridget. Those package labels are lying to you. Net-carbs-be-damned; they are suspect at best. They are not the full story.

Of course you want your favorite foods, and of course you want convenience.

But.

Keto-friendly is not necessarily human-healthy.

Don’t be suckered.

Dr. Robert Atkins of Atkins Diet fame initially posed the concept of net carbs (Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, 1992), and it was promoted further by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, authors of Protein Power (1996).

Net Carbs = Total Carbs — Carbs from fiber and sugar alcohols

Sounds good, right?

Not so fast.

The term “net carbs” is not recognized or regulated by the FDA.

There is no consistent way to calculate them across different products.

But that’s nothing compared to what we find under the covers.

The American Diabetes Association recommends counting only total carbs.

• The net carb equation assumes that fiber and sugar alcohols aren’t absorbed or metabolized, which isn’t always true. Some fibers and sugar alcohols are partially digested, providing calories and impacting blood glucose.

• Nutrition labels don’t specify the types of fiber or sugar alcohols, making it hard to predict their effect on blood sugar.

• Because of these uncertainties, counting net carbs might not give an accurate picture of how a food will affect blood sugar levels, and the ADA advises against.

The Drs. Eades warn against processed foods marketed as “low net carbs.”

They emphasize that the quality of the food matters. In addition to potentially including ingredients that may still impact blood sugar despite the “low net carb” calculation, processed foods often contain ingredients that aren’t healthful.

Dr. Ken Berry often recommends focusing on total carbs

…rather than net carbs, particularly for those who are new to keto or are struggling to achieve their weight loss or health goals. This approach simplifies the diet and reduces the risk of hidden carbs derailing progress.

I propose a net-carb compromise: net carbs for whole foods, total carbs for processed foods… which we shouldn’t be eating anyway, so…

What newbies miss is that experts in the keto space do not merely warn against carbs; they also, importantly, promote eating whole, natural foods with limited processing and few-to-no additives.

In other words, no ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

According to Merriam-Webster, food, by definition, is “used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.”

I’ll grant that the sugar in UPFs furnishes energy. As for the rest? UPFs are the anti-food. A meta-analysis published by the British Medical Journal earlier this year reported…

…direct associations between greater exposure to ultra-processed foods and higher risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease-related mortality, common mental disorder outcomes, overweight and obesity, and type 2 diabetes (BMJ 2024;384:e077310).

In an interview with Rina Ahluwali on The Primal Podcast (The 5 Minute Body), health educator and cancer researcher Dr. David G. Harper remarked that ultra-processed food is, “edible, but it’s not really food (Harper, 2024, 51:14).”

Am I off on a tangent? Sadly, I am not.

The packaged foods boasting keto-friendly labels are UPFs, with all the same issues as every other UPF.

And, as such, they should be avoided.

Read ingredient labels your “keto-friendly” UPFs.

Here is one such list from a popular ‘keto-friendly” bread:

Water, Modified Wheat Starch, Wheat Protein Isolate, Sunflower Flour, Vegetable Oil (Soybean), Yeast, Inulin (Chicory Root Fiber), Oat Fiber, Sea Salt, Soluble Corn Fiber, Preservatives [Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid], Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid

Modified Wheat Starch, Wheat Protein Isolate, Sunflower Flour,…Inulin (Chicory Root Fiber), Oat Fiber, Soluble Corn Fiber

Low-carb means no grains? Yup. Sorry.

Before you tell me about your great aunt Nellie, who lived on bread and butter and lived to be 99, let me assure you — the flour your great aunt Nellie used was nothing like the flour available to us today.

Modern wheat has been genetically modified and hybridized to increase yield, resulting in a product that contains higher levels of harmful compounds like gluten and gliadin, which are associated with various health issues.

According to Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly:

• Gluten triggers inflammation in the body, leading to autoimmune diseases, digestive disorders like celiac disease, and even neurological issues. Further, the amylopectin A in wheat rapidly converts to glucose in the body, leading to insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

• Wheat consumption also has an impact on mood and brain function, leading to mental fog, depression, and other cognitive issues.

• Finally, and most deviously, the gliadin protein in wheat acts as an appetite stimulant, causing people to crave more wheat-based products and other carbohydrates, contributing to overeating and food addiction.

Grains do not belong in a clean low-carb diet.

Vegetable Oil (Soybean)

The term “seed oil” refers to any oil extracted from seeds through physical and chemical processing.

Seed oils include

• corn,
• canola/rapeseed,
• cottonseed,
• grapeseed,
• soybean,
• sunflower,
• safflower,
• rice bran,
• vegetable oils,
• any hydrogenated oil,
• any oil blend.

These sound natural but are not. They are highly processed, highly unstable, and highly damaging to your metabolism.

What does that mean in simple terms? According to Dr. Cate Shanahan, (1) they make you hungry for carbs and (2) they cause inflammation. In sum, they make you fat and sick.

Preservatives [Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid]

??? Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid

Almost all prepackaged foods include mystery ingredients for color, for preserving freshness, for reasons unknown to the average consumer.

Of the list above, I recognized Xanan Gum. It is used as a thickener in many keto recipes.

The rest are a mystery.

Do I trust them? Nah. Beth Greer, the Super Natural Mom, shares research linking common additives to a range of health issues, including behavior issues in children. Many additives permitted in the USA are banned in Europe.

Why take the chance with your body?

Maltodextrin

Oh, it’s in there.

Like seed oil, sugar goes by many names. It is a lead ingredient on most UPFs, but — we wouldn’t expect to find it in “keto-friendly” bread, would we?

But we do!

Maltodextrin is a manmade additive made from sugars. Like Xanthan gum, it is used as a thickener. In small amounts, it does not bother most people. However, as it is essentially a carb made from sugars, it can spike blood sugar and therefore should be avoided by those with diabetes. It can also trigger gastro-intestinal upset and, for that reason, should be avoided by anyone with IBS.

Honestly, it — like all sugars and manmade frankenfoods — should be shunned by all of us.

My sainted sister works long and hard, both providing income for the family and round-the-clock care for her disabled husband.

Of course she bought the keto-friendly bread.

Of course she scolded me for being dogmatic when I clucked my tongue: But we are only just starting! Baby steps, remember?!

Sadly, between the keto-friendly UPF lies, the baby step pace — which I advocate! (SMH), — and an unwillingness to abandon what she considers harmless indulgences like popcorn and Diet Coke…

Her mister gained three pounds!!!

The popcorn and Diet Coke are on her.

But the keto-friendly bread is criminal.

Not to mention outrageously expensive.

Imagine her delight in adding this near-net-zero carb toast alongside his morning eggs, and, later, pulling out another couple of slices for his keto-friendly tuna salad sandwich at lunch.

She was proud of these healthy choices.

But she was snookered.

Read that label. There are 11 grams of total carbs per serving… 11 grams of carbs for one slice of bread.

• If we count net grams, he is good at 4g net carbs, but if we count total grams, he stands at 44g carbs — double the daily target for weight loss. Ouch!

• He is still triggering inflammation and worse through the gluten and gliadin in the wheat.

• The pièce de résistance? He will be jonesing for that popcorn in just a couple of hours because the wheat triggers hunger.

My dear sis would later admit that the mister’s blood sugar did spike unexpectedly (?!) after eating the “keto-friendly” bread.

Stop kidding yourself.

Do not be suckered by the keto-friendly labels on UPFs.

You will be delighted for a moment, but miserable the next because you will be craving more. The weight will not fall off as quickly as you might hope. And, worst of all, the underlying health issues stemming from a lifetime of eating the Standard American Diet will persist as you continue to eat the foods that cause damage.

You’re just paying more for them.

Trust me, you can do hard things. You can give up bread.

Until then, you can do easy things.

Take five minutes to make a mug bread or a chaffle. There are lots of free recipes online; hit the Google. They are a little more effort, but they will contain no wheat, no seed oil, and no unnatural additives. Plus, they will provide a nice little dose of protein and healthy fat.

Reject the packaged foods.

Be your own keto hero!

Stay strong, wise, kind, and good.

Note: This story was first published September 11, 2024 in Long. Sweet. Valuable. on Medium: https://medium.com/@strongwisegood

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, not a scientist, not a nutritionist. I am just a late boomer sharing what I’ve learned on my journey to good health through good food.