Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD] - Watch This Before You Shop!

Are you starting the keto diet and wondering which groceries to buy? Stop, pause, and watch this video first. Many of my patients have wasted their time and money without thinking this through first. If you're planning to do keto for more than just a flash in the frying pan, don't run to the grocery store. I insist that my patients push reset inside their home and remove food before buying food. Go to your cupboard, go to your fridge, and start tossing. Throw out the foods before you shop. I mean it: empty your previous life before you begin. Carbs are addicting, and life without them is sobering. You need a sanctuary without temptation. When I started keto, I did this and found some processed food that was over a decade old, which was super embarrassing. Throw out the stale items. In fact, throw out anything with seven or more ingredients in it. Don't skip making the cupboards bare. It's really important.

Before you listen to any more of my advice, you should be warned about two things about me. Number one, I was raised by a beef and pork farmer from the Midwest. Everyone in the county had a deep freeze filled with quality meats from the neighbors in the county that had raised it, so having good meat seems like an obvious part of the ketogenic diet. Number two, I'm super stingy. I hate throwing away food, and I really hate it when food goes bad, so this list is going to reflect that. But I still insist that you empty your cupboards, freezer, and fridge before you start.

First on the item list is salt. One of the key issues with the ketogenic diet is the dramatic shift in fluid, especially the first week. This fluid shifts because of the salt and minerals. Before you start keto, you won't think that you're missing any of these salts in your body, and then the shocking shift of body chemistry called ketosis really makes a mess of things. Ketosis drops your salt in the first few days. The key thing is to start with quality salts and then add the flavors that you like. Onion salt and garlic salt are other favorites. Other seasonings I would recommend include dried onions, black pepper, and some oregano. I'm kind of a nut about basil. I love the flavor, but I think it's disgusting tasting when it's been dried out, so I buy the plant. Yes, a real live plant. It's the only plant I insist on in my kitchen. The final two seasonings I'd throw in are some ginger paste, and then grab one of those plastic limes or lemons and put it in for the juice. So far, nothing on our list goes bad except maybe the basil plant.

Vegetables: before we take on vegetables, another stop sign. Do not walk over to the produce aisle. This section is filled with a landmine of temptation called fruit, so stay away from that for now. Head over to the freezer section, and while you're walking there, honestly ask yourself this question: do you like vegetables, actually like them? If so, great. Pick the green ones. The purpose of vegetables on the keto diet is to add fat to your gut. It's the carrying agent for fats to your gut without adding too many carbs. Remember, this diet is 75 percent fat with a sprinkle of carbs. My favorite frozen keto vegetables are Brussels sprouts and spinach. If you wrinkle your nose at that, follow my lead by ordering the spinach dip off the appetizer menu the next time you eat out. I ask for celery instead of bread. It's great. I soak Brussels sprouts in butter or bacon grease and then I broil them to a crisp. They're great. Remember, vegetables are the carrying agent to take fat to your gut. If you sneak over to the produce aisle, grab a head of cabbage. It lasts for months and doesn't go bad, and when you don't know what to cook and you're tired of frozen vegetables, it's a great way to have something fresh. I also like it crisped up, like I did the Brussels sprouts under the broiler. The great thing is, if you don't like vegetables, this diet has all the yummy additions that make them taste wonderful, like butter, salt, cream cheese, and bacon. If you are in the habit of eating vegetables, buy the vegetables you like, but be careful to look at the carb count. Your daily total limit is 20 total carbohydrates. I don't eat that many vegetables on the keto diet now, but when I started I had frozen broccoli, cauliflower, onions, peppers, and kale. Honestly, I never ate the kale. It's awful. Don't waste your money on vegetables if you didn't like them before going keto. You've already thrown away a bunch of food, your cupboards are empty, right? Trust me, don't waste your dollars on vegetables you don't like. Start with one vegetable and spend your money on the salt and fat to make it taste good.

Next we have dairy and fats. Let's head over to the dairy aisle. I want to remind you that this is a high-fat diet, so everything we're talking about is filled with fat. You need to eat fat. It's what makes us feel full. It's also the source of the missing endocrine and hormonal messes that most of my patients are suffering with. They are chronically inflamed, and fat is the antidote. I know it goes against what you've all grown up believing, but saturated fat is actually an anti-inflammatory and not a villain. Saturated fats are those fats that are hard at room temperature, like butter, coconut oil, and lard. Add salt to the fat, even if you add it to water, swish it around your mouth, and then swallow it. The salt will cut through that fatty lining and it will stimulate your parotid gland to wake up and do its job. That gland, along with several others, is supposed to help your body emulsify the fats and get them into circulation. If you've been on a low-fat diet, it's going to take a week or two to wake up those organs and let them do their job. Keep eating fat and use salt. Next, buy lots of eggs, but every keto list tells you that. Let me tell you my favorite way after years of eating eggs is actually the pickled egg. You take a boiled egg and soak it in brine for four to six weeks. It is delicious. Butter and heavy whipping cream are the staples of this diet. For those of you who are lactose intolerant, remember that lactose is a sugar, and when you buy the fattiest cream, there should be no sugar or lactose in it. Add some full-fat cream cheese, full-fat sour cream, and some mayonnaise. I like the mayonnaise made out of avocado oil. Grab some block cheese. I recommend the harder ones, and I tell folks to stay away from the shredded cheese. There's a fine dusting of powder on each shred of cheese that keeps it from clumping, and often that powder is flour or starch, which are carbs. Then there's the meat, which seems like the easiest one, but maybe it's because of where I grew up. You can add bacon, brisket, ribs, salmon, pepperoni, hard salami, and poultry, and then you can cook it in fat. The best advice I can give is to keep it simple. Keto can be a hard transition, so don't complicate it any more than it is.

Carbs are addicting, and they're addictive for a reason: they comfort us. As I've said, I grew up on a farm, and for my whole childhood we ate ice cream every night, delivered to the farm by the Schwann's man. It took me over a year and a half to break that habit. Something that really helped me was freezing avocados that were starting to go bad, because I wouldn't want to throw them away. Then I mixed those frozen avocados with stevia, cacao powder, and either heavy whipping cream or cream of coconut milk. It was a lifesaver when I was stressed out. It brought me back to my childhood and gave me some easy comfort and a feeling of safety. Let's help each other out by sharing some of your comfort foods in the comments below. Share what you use to comfort yourself, and I better see some keto foods down there.

You might have come across this video because you are researching keto and how to slim down, but did you know that keto is so much more than that? I use keto in my practice to help people reverse their medical problems. I started researching it because of my mom's cancer, and I use it in my practice today. It's crazy to see just how much keto can help people with inflammatory problems, autoimmune problems, and people struggling with mental health. If you want me to walk you through keto step by step, I teach an online course on how to do keto right. I use the course to teach others how to do keto, and you should use the course to teach the people in your world. That's how everyone wins. Click here for those lessons.