It's super healthy and super sustainable.
First thing's first: at GLAMOUR, we absolutely do not advocate dieting. It's your body and your rules but if you're looking to enhance your wellness regime and look and feel better as a result, we're here to do the hard work for you by rounding up the pros and cons of all the latest wellness plans.
If you're into nutrition, chances are you'll be familiar with the keto diet. In fact, according to a new survey, which analysed the diet terms people search for the most on Google, the most popular wellness plans is the keto diet - with a collective 623,050 searches - but whilst it's the most intriguing, unfortunately it's not exactly the easiest to understand. Essentially, it involves cutting down on carbohydrates and replacing them with fats. The idea behind this is that the lack of carbs puts the body into a metabolic state of ketosis, where it becomes incredibly efficient at using fats for energy. Advocates believe that when the body reaches this state, fats are also turned into ketones in the liver, which supplies energy to the brain.
According to Healthline, a healthy ketogenic diet should consist of about 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% or less than 50 grams of carbs per day.
If like Kourtney Kardashian, you've tried it and love it, there's a new iteration of the wellness plan designed with vegetarians and sustainability trailblazers in mind: the veto diet.
The veto diet, which is the brainchild of health meal delivery service, Love Yourself, is based on a combination of keto and vegetarian.
"The simplest definition of the Veto Diet is: a diet high in fat and very low in carbohydrates," explains Love Yourself's Chef Director, Michal Snela, who has designed a veto meal delivery service based on the wellness plan. "Typically keto dieters have been very reliant on animal proteins fats. With our veto diet, we have turned this around and rely on plant-based proteins as the main element of this diet. The only animal proteins we use are from eggs and dairy (no meat of any kind is included in this diet)."
What are the main rules of the veto diet?
- Limited carbohydrate intake of 20g, or less, per day (based on 1700kcal)
- Almost all animal protein is eliminated with the exception of eggs and cheese
- Plant-based proteins such as nuts, tofu, tempeh, and dairy are used to help meet your protein and natural fat needs
- Added MCT oil to enhance the ketogenic effect
- Made up of around 70% fats, 25% Protein, 5% Carbs
What will I be eating on the veto diet?
Fortunately, you won't be eating sticks of butter and dozens of eggs everyday. The wellness plan is packed with plenty of healthy plant-based food products as well as MCT oil. A typical day on the wellness plan could see you enjoying carrot cake chia pudding for breakfast, creamy broccoli salad for lunch, egg fried 'rice' for dinner and snacks of chocolate and vanilla pralines.
"These foods will help you meet your fat, vitamin, mineral, and fibre needs simultaneously, making them a vegetarian keto dieters’ best friend," he said.
So what are the supposed benefits of the veto diet?
According to Michal Snela, you can expect the following from the veto diet...
- Efficient fat burn & increased metabolism
- Increased physical and mental energy levels
- Weight loss
- Shown to treat and reduce inflammation as well as some health conditions such as epilepsy and arthritis
- Reducing carbon footprint
- Improved appetite control
- Better cognitive function
If you are thinking of embarking on the veto diet, Michal notes that during the diet transition you will experience uncomfortable side effects from significantly cutting carbs. "We like to refer to this as the 'veto flu', he said. "These may last a few days but, will pass once your body has entered ketosis. These symptoms include (to name a few): headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability, constipation and brain 'fog'.
"It is important to keep hydrated – with water and herbal teas – supplement with probiotics, and/or partake in light exercise to ease the symptoms."
This originally appeared on GLAMOUR UK | Bianca London
