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Hello and welcome, this is Dr. Berry. In this video I want to talk to you about ketogenic diet approved vegetables. So many people think that a ketogenic diet means that you live on bacon, butter, and ribeye steak, and that is not necessarily the case. I have some friends who do that and who seem to be thriving and doing very well, but you can eat vegetables on a ketogenic diet. Here are seven, and then I've got you a bonus vegetable at the end that you may not even believe you can eat, that's healthy, but it's actually very healthy for you and you can eat as much as you want.
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Let's talk about ketogenic vegetables. I've got seven, and then I found this other one that I'm going to give you as a free bonus at the end, no extra charge for that, but you'll be surprised that you're able to eat it, and it's actually very, very healthy for you.
Number one is asparagus, one of my personal favorite ketogenic vegetables. It's very, very low carb, it has tons of vitamins and minerals in it, and it also has something called prebiotic fiber, which the bacteria in your gut feed on. You have billions and billions of them, and you want them to be there, you want them to be the right kind, and you want them to be very healthy and happy. That helps you in hundreds of other ways, but asparagus has all that and more. All of these vegetables have things in them called phytonutrients, which are microscopic little nutrients that aren't necessarily a vitamin or mineral, but which are exceedingly good for your health. Personally, my belief is that there are phytonutrients that haven't even been discovered yet, that vegetables contain, that medical and nutritional science doesn't even know about, that are benefiting your body and the bacteria in your gut. We haven't even discovered them yet, so eat your veggies. As I said in the other video, shut up and eat your vegetables.
Number two is cabbage. Cabbage is a vegetable straight from the Lord. You cannot eat too much asparagus, you cannot eat too much cabbage. Sometimes if I'm starving to death and I want to eat lunch, I'll go to a local buffet we have and I just eat so much cabbage, and whatever meat happens to be on the buffet, that people think I'm going to turn into a cabbage. But you cannot be cabbage. It's super low carb, it has a ton of good sulfur in it, which is something you need a lot of, and these vegetables have sulfur. It also has prebiotic fiber to feed your little bacteria and keep them very happy and healthy.
The next is, of course, broccoli. You knew that was going to be on this list. I tell people, dude, if you don't like veggies, you've got to learn to like veggies, unless you want to be a carnivore. You have to eat vegetables, because if you're eating the grains and the starches and the sugars, your health will not improve. Broccoli has omega-3, it's one of the few vegetables that actually is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. It also has a ton of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.
Next is kale. Just the word kale turns some people off, but I promise you, any of these vegetables, if you hate them, let me tell you what to do. Chop them up, get some bacon grease good and hot in the skillet, put some good sea salt in there, some good pepper, some good spices, because as you may or may not know, salt, pepper, and spices don't break your ketosis. They don't bother you in any way detrimental as far as your health is concerned, and you can use as much of them as you like. I personally love to eat up some bacon grease, put some salt in there, put a lot of curry powder and some pepper, and then throw in my broccoli, my kale, my cabbage, or my asparagus and stir-fry that in there, sometimes with some good meat, sometimes without. But I promise you, when you get your spices and your salt-to-pepper ratio correct, you'll eat kale and you'll love it. Kale is very, very low carb, it has omega-3s just like the broccoli, it has a ton of vitamins and minerals, and those yummy phytonutrients, some of which we may not have even discovered yet.
The next vegetable on the list is celery. Celery is super low carb. I tell my patients, you can eat 20 pounds of celery a day and you won't gain an ounce. People used to talk about negative calorie foods, which is not really a real thing, but effectively it takes your body so much effort to break down the fiber in the celery, and the celery is so full of vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients, that it effectively becomes almost a negative calorie food, even though I'm quite aware that's not a real thing.
Next on the list is cucumbers, one of my personal favorites. I love to eat these raw. They're super easy to grow in your garden, even if you live on the 87th floor of some high-rise apartment building, out on your balcony. If you face the south or the west or anywhere in between, you can grow cucumbers. They grow up on a vine, so you can grow them right up the wall and enjoy them right off the vine. I'll go out in the garden in the mornings, barefoot, and pick two or three cucumbers and eat them right off the vine, because I don't spray with anything, so they're organic. They might have a little bug poop on them, but I think that's good for me too.
Next on the list is my second personal favorite, Brussels sprouts. If you ever write the name of this vegetable down, make sure you put the S at the end of Brussels. It's not "Brussel sprouts," it's "Brussels sprouts." I don't know why, that's just how it is, and if you don't put that extra S on there, some grammar Nazis will snub their nose at you. Brussels sprouts are also a great source of omega-3. As a veggie they have tons of vitamins and minerals, and they're very, very low carb, so eat your Brussels sprouts. I do them the same way: I'll clean them, cut them in half, get some bacon grease really spiced up good and hot in the skillet, and lay them flat side down. Let them brown good, then flip them around and stir-fry them a little bit more. My wife and I freaking love those things. They're so good when you do them that way.
Any of these vegetables you can prepare badly, and they don't taste that great, but if you prepare them with the spices you love and enough salt and pepper, I promise you can get them down until your palate learns to like them. I was just reading a study recently that the adult human palate can be retrained. So if your husband or wife lives on chicken strips and ketchup because they hate everything else in the world, that's not a permanent condition. You can retrain their palate slowly and lovingly. You can return their palate. That is a thing.
The bonus vegetable is olives. When I was a kid I used to hate olives so much, and then one day I went to Whole Foods, and I'm sure other grocers are like this, but they had an olive bar. I thought there was just one kind of olive, the one with the pimento in it, in the little jar, and you ate one a week or something, like my grandfather did. But no, there are a ton of different varieties of olives in all different shapes, sizes, and flavors, and guess what, they're all full of healthy fats. That's where olive oil comes from. Olives are so delicious, and they're excellent for your health and your nutrition. They're full of vitamins, full of minerals, and full of olive oil.
Now, if you enjoyed this video, first of all, put some of what I said into practice, because you need your veggies. The human body is made to eat vegetables. The vegans are right about that. We're supposed to eat a lot of vegetables, but I think we're also supposed to eat some other stuff too. If you enjoyed this video, please share it on Facebook, on your Twitter, or even on your LinkedIn. That won't hurt my feelings a bit. If you really want to help me spread this message even further, I have a Patreon account, with links down in the notes of this episode, and if you can help me with a buck a month, that's all you have to do. That helps me have more free time to make more of these videos to help even more people. This is Doctor Berry, and I'll see you next time.