Keto Fast Food: Sensible or Silly?
The mention of “keto” and “fast food” in the same sentence sounds silly because keto is often related to being on a diet, and most dieters are encouraged to avoid fast foods.
But, just maybe, keto fast food is a sensible idea for the dieters — fast foods contain high amounts of fat, increasing the likelihood of meeting your daily fat requirement.
A ketogenic diet is a moderate-protein, low-carb, and high-fat eating style that aims at pushing your body into ketosis.
Ketosis occurs when your body utilizes stored body fat to give you energy instead of carbs or proteins. As a result, ketosis helps you to:
- Burn Fat
- Retain muscle
- Feel less hungry
Your meal will need to include 85–90% fat, 5–10% protein, and <5% carbs to enter you into ketosis.
Limiting the net carbs intake allows your body to continue burning fat, leading to the production of ketones that supply the kidney, heart, muscles, and brain with energy.
And what better way to keep your fat intake levels high than to sensibly consider keto fast foods?
For example, without the bun, Burger King's hamburgers will give you 30 grams of fat and 27 grams of protein. Or for another option, Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets contain 9 grams of carbs, 28 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fat.
The Sensible Rise in Keto Popularity
In 2020, “keto diet” was the most searched diet, at 25.4 million, with intermittent fasting in the far 2nd position at 11.7 million.
This growing popularity of the ketogenic diet has forced fast food restaurants to include keto-friendly foods in their menu.
Keto-friendly snack companies like Mission Meats have also come in to supply healthy keto snacks with limited-to-no grams of carbs at favorable prices.
Research carried out by Kerry from 2016 to 2019 also showed a growth in interest in the keto diet compared to other diets.
Source: kerry.com
Why Being on Keto Fast Food Is Sensible
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Fast foods are the easiest way to hit your daily nutritional keto goals. If a keto dieter's daily calorie consumption is 2000, the meal should contain 170 grams of fat, 75 grams of protein, and 35g net carbs.
Fast foods are rich in calories, and you can effortlessly attain those 170 grams of fat.
Keto fast foods reduce your chances of getting acne, heart diseases, cancers, brain injuries, epilepsy, and metabolic disorders. The use of ketones as an energy source decreases blood sugar and insulin levels, offering protection against these diseases. Plus, they reduce inflammatory markers in the brain, leading to improved brain function.
Keto fast foods are also easier to make at home or order from your favorite fast food restaurant. The ingredients are readily available in the market and are relatively cheaper than diets advocating for fruits and vegetables.
Keto Fast Food Options at Home vs. Fast Food Restaurants
You’ve heard it said — you shouldn't buy what you can make at home.
The time it would take for you to drive to Carl's Jr, Burger King, Jimmy John's, Taco Bell, El Pollo Loco, or Buffalo Wild Wings is time you could have worked on your meal with simple keto recipes.
The idea of having a home-cooked meal is sensible, but the thought of preparing it with your busy schedule can sound silly. This makes ordering from your favourite fast-food chain a better option.
Wellio made a cost comparison of homemade meals, buying meal kits, and ordering take out. They found that it costs only $15 more to order from a restaurant than cooking at home.
Source: getwellio.com
Here are other sensible benefits of homemade keto foods over fast food places:
| Home-Made Keto Food | Fast Food Joints Keto Food |
| Healthier ingredients — you can measure the total net carbs or grams of protein you require. | You settle for what's available and deal with the extra net carbs you get. |
| Control over the portions of food you eat and the choice of a variety of low carb options. Plus, you get more than 20g fat needed for a ketogenic diet. | You get too little or too much food that is high in carbs and may throw you off balance in your keto diet plan. |
| Saves time — there’s no need to prepare, and it is not always in and out within minutes at the grocery store. | It takes time to prepare, drive there, and order for everyone. |
Why Cook Low Carb Keto Food Over Non-Keto Food?
Source: drskinhealth.com
When you look at the restrictions in the table above that the keto diet calls for, you may be quick to conclude that it’s silly to consider keto fast food.
You may be wondering, how are you to make a homemade meal without wheat, legumes, sugar, flour, and potatoes?
There are over 500 keto recipes for you to try out, and each involves using readily available ingredients. You can also come up with your own keto food list from the recipes you like.
It is more sensible to cook keto fast foods over non-keto foods as you spend less time, energy, and resources to do so. There's also room to use more fat.
You increase the good HDL cholesterol levels in your body while reducing the bad LDL cholesterol found in non-keto diets.
Keto Recipes Allow You to Use More Fat
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Fats enable you to enjoy the taste of food and also aid in evenly distributing salt and seasonings in your meals. The unique texture of fat as it melts in your mouth creates a smooth, pleasant feel that satisfies your cravings.
You get to enjoy these benefits by cooking keto fast food, which gives you room to use plenty of fat — unlike non-keto foods that limit your intake. The most favourable fats to use are the monounsaturated and the polyunsaturated fats found in vegetables, nuts, and fish.
Cooking foods with high-fat content — like fried chicken, a cheese breakfast sandwich, and a grilled chicken club — will give you 90% of your fat requirement.
Saves You Time, Energy, and Resources
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Cooking foods high in carbs takes time, energy, and more resources. A keto diet limits your carb intake to 5%, which saves you all of these that you would have spent to bake a cake, make pancakes, or work on the potatoes.
Foods high in carbs also pose a health risk for heart diseases and Type 2 Diabetes. Adopting a keto diet long-term will save you resources that you would have used to manage these diseases.
Keto fast foods cause you to feel full for longer due to the high amount of fats. When you feel full, your brain releases hormones — like amylin and cholecystokinin — that make you feel relaxed. Keto fast foods allow you to enjoy this feeling for longer.
Natural and whole foods found in non-keto diets spoil quickly, and this means several trips to the grocery store. Keto snacks like nuts, jerky, hard cheese, and dark chocolate have a longer shelf life. Plus, home-made keto foods stay longer in the fridge.
If you are pressed for time, you can include low-carb fast food options in your meal plan that don't require cooking. Mission Meats also have the best keto-friendly ready-to-eat protein keto sampler pack to add to your meal.
Increases Good HDL Cholesterol and Reduces Bad Triglycerides
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High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is regarded as good cholesterol because it attaches itself to excess cholesterol in your body and takes it to the liver for elimination. The higher your HDL cholesterol, the better your blood cholesterol levels and the lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.
The best way to increase HDL cholesterol is to eat fat. And keto-friendly fast food contains the needed amount.
Not all fats increase HDL cholesterol — trans and saturated fats mainly found in non-keto foods produce the opposite effect. The best fats to use come from healthy oils like olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, and sun-flower oil.
High triglyceride levels are a by-product of a diet high in carbs.
When you are on a non-keto diet and your body requires energy, it breaks down stored fats from carbs. Doing so increases triglycerides levels which cause hardening of the blood vessels leading to a heart attack, stroke, or pancreatitis.
Low carb fast food from the keto diet ensures the calories you eat comes from fat, preventing the production of bad triglycerides.
Keto Fast Food: Sensible All the Way
The facts have it: Keto fast food is not only sensible, it’s an excellent way of meeting the 85–90% fat requirement for keto dieters.
But eating fast food doesn’t mean throwing all discretion to the wind.
Luckily, you can still have your fast food and be healthy with Mission Meats snacks.
Our products give you the healthier option of keto-friendly protein snacks that do not contain gluten, nitrates or nitrites, dextrose fillers, hormones, MSG, antibiotics, or fake ingredients.
Not forgetting the most important quality: They’re scrumptious too!
Healthy, tasty, fast food snacking? It’s possible. Shop your snacks to try them out today.
Featured Image from:Unsplash by Paula Vermeulen
