Keto, LowCarb, HighCarb, LowFat? – High Green!

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After many years living on a raw vegan diet based on fruit and greens, lowfat, i switched to keto raw vegan almost one year ago. My diet still containing lots of greens, yet no (or almost no) sweet fruit. Much more fat, though.

So today, i want to share what i learned this last year. Asking what is “better” – low carb or high carb – i will tell you, what works for me and what does not. And, of course, how my diet looks like now.

I love experiments and trying out something new, so i had a lot of fun, starting a ketogenic raw vegan diet. Besides, keto is mainly associated with eating lots of meat, eggs, butter – hardly anyone is doing it raw AND vegan! I took the challenge, i found my ways, and i had lots of fun creating many many nice and yummy new recipes. Check out my keto raw vegan recipe ebook to learn more!

Once my body switched to ketosis, i felt amazing. I had lots of energy, felt grounded and more focussed than for quite a while. I had a challenging time, those days, and i think, this kind of grounding diet was what i needed.
Yet, i did not feel happy with these high amounts of fat, so i reduced it soon. To stay in ketosis, a low intake of carbs is much more important than eating tremendous amounts of fat.

Over the months, i finetuned my diet. Reduced fat even more, stopped preparing that many recipes. Cut down on avocados (they are quite addictive). Tried to add more carbs again. It took me a while to find out how to best do this.
Some people on the keto diet do carb refeeds once or twice a week. I tried this, but i don’t really like to calculate and plan my meals all the time.
I ate sweet fruit again while travelling, but found it much too sweet.

So the answer is, like before: GREENS!

I added even more greens, and vegetables, to my every day diet. Tons of chlorophyll! Plus moderate amounts of fat. And some sweet fruit every now and then. Small amounts, though. My staples are all kinds of greens: lettuce, kale, spinach, wild edibles, herbs, rocket, radicchio (well, not really green 😉 ), seaweed, microgreens, sprouts, zucchini, broccoli. Some green superfoods like spirulina, chlorella, barley grass, too.

I think, greens and vegetables should make for the biggest part of our food!

What i learned from my experiences in 13 years on a raw vegan diet:
– i am fine on low carb, meaning eating few sweet fruit.
– lots of sweet fruit, without greens, does not work on the long run. It worked for me, for short periods of time, some months or so, while staying in warm climate and getting lots of sun on my skin. Even then, though, my body craved greens after a while.
– lots of greens and lots of sweet and non-sweet fruit, low fat, was what made me happy for years. Only that my body needed less and less sweet fruit over the years.
– high fat, does not work well for me. Eating very few carbs, it’s okay to eat more fat than with sweet fruit, though.
– again: GREENS are what my body needs!

And just in case you think something like “how boring” or feel you would not be satisfied by eating a high green diet: have a look at some of my meals (and think again 😉 ):