What Can You Eat on a Vegetarian Keto Diet?

Do you want to combine a healthy vegetarian diet with the popular keto diet ? Take a look at the scientific explanations for this way.

Eating a plant-based diet, or even a complete vegetarian diet, is very healthy. Vegetarians tend to be slimmer than carnivores, have fewer chronic diseases, and live longer.

There’s also the ketogenic diet (a high-fat, ultra-low-carb diet), which is reminiscent of bacon, burgers, and butter. It can help you lose weight quickly, and it can also help you improve your cholesterol and blood pressure, and control your blood sugar levels (although the science supporting these claims is limited).

But can you combine these two “diets”? In other words, is a low-carb vegetarian keto diet feasible?

Vegetarian ketogenic is feasible. It requires more brain power and planning than a typical ketogenic diet, so we’ll take you through what you can eat and then outline some common pitfalls and places to watch out for.

So what foods can you eat on a vegetarian keto diet?

This list of what to eat will get you started. Think of a large number of vegetables – like the protein shown above mixed with some fruit.

Plant-based fats: Avocados and their oils, coconuts and their oils (but do not add sugar to coconuts), olives and their oils.

Low-carb vegetarian proteins: Tofu, gluten, and even tempeh – because although it’s higher in carbohydrates than tofu and gluten, it’s also rich in fiber, so net carbs are good for ketones. Be careful with faux meat burgers, bacon, etc., and read their ingredient lists and nutrition labels as they may contain sugar or an unexpected source of carbohydrates.

Low-carb veggies: Of course there are cauliflower, but there are also zucchini, Swiss beets, mushrooms, asparagus, celery, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cabbage, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts and lettuce (arugula, green and red leaves, chicory, longleaf, etc.).

Nuts: All nuts are a reliable choice when you eat vegetarian ketone, but some nuts are higher in fat and lower in carbohydrates, and these are pecans, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, and hazelnuts.

Seeds: You really can’t go wrong. The seeds are rich in fat, not high in carbohydrates, and are usually rich in fiber, which can reduce the net content of carbohydrates.

Dairy: Full-fat plain yogurt and plain cottage cheese (avoid flavored high-sugar varieties), hard cheese, butter.

Eggs: If you’re eating vegetarian keto, it’s arguably the easiest, healthiest, and most comprehensive way to get protein. Eggs also give you a lot of fat and contain almost no carbohydrates.

Berries: Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are all low-carb fruit choices — not because they’re low in carbs, but because they’re rich in fiber, so you’re low in net carbs. You may not want to eat blueberries, but a cup of blueberries will eat almost all of the carbohydrates you consume every day.

Also, it’s important to make a list of foods you can eat, and to successfully implement a vegetarian keto diet, you may also want to make a list of foods you can’t eat (i.e., foods that will get you rid of ketosis). They are: beans and lentils (aka legumes), grains, most fruits, and various potatoes.

Challenges with vegetarian keto

The main reason vegetarian keto diet are so challenging is that many of vegetarian staple foods are extremely high in carbohydrates, especially foods like beans, lentils, and whole grains, which vegetarians rely on for protein, but they are also rich in carbohydrates.

Another hurdle is that vegetarians already need to be aware of deficiencies in key nutrients such as vitamins B12 and D, iron, zinc, calcium, omega-3s, and even protein. Add to that another restrictive diet, like keto, that’s much more difficult because skipping breakfast cereal (B12-rich), legumes, and whole grains (containing zinc, iron, and protein) limits the main sources of these nutrients.

As with any ketogenic diet, a ketogenic diet can have unpleasant (and unhealthy) side effects such as constipation, bad breath, and ketogenic flu (learn more about the surprising side effects of taking ketogenic).

What does the science say?

Search for “vegan keto” in scientific research databases and you won’t find much. Your research is largely limited to studies of pregnant women with chronic kidney disease who adopt a diet similar to vegetarian ketones (in fact, a special low-protein diet) to get as close as possible to a full-term delivery.

However, several studies have looked at low-carb diets and analyzed whether protein and fat come primarily from animals or plant sources. Both studies (neither of which are recent) found that eating low carbs and getting most of the fat and protein from plant foods is healthier. (Studies of women show that it can reduce their risk of heart disease, and studies of men show that it can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.) But while these diets are low in carbohydrates, they’re not completely ketogenic.

Bottom line

If you’re a carbohydrate-loving vegetarian, trying vegetarian ketogenic can curb your tendency to overdo it in carbohydrates and help diversify your diet. But it’s a way of eating that requires pre-planning and due diligence so you don’t run out of nutrition. Finally, it’s best to eat a short-term diet rather than stick to it for the long term.