Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup spinach
- ½ cup strawberries, sliced (fresh or frozen)
Directions
- Blend all ingredients together until smooth.
- Drink up!
| NUTRITIONAL INFO | PER SERVING |
|---|---|
| Calories | 860 (800 from fat) |
| Total fat | 89g |
| Saturated fat | 55g |
| Cholesterol | 330mg |
| Sodium | 115mg |
| Carbohydrate | 14g (2g dietary fiber, 11g sugar) |
| Protein | 6g |
If you’ve never heard of keto, it’s essentially a low-carb, low-protein, high-fat diet. It puts your body in a state of ketosis, where you produce ketones (from fat) to give you energy, instead of blood sugar or glucose. Basically, the diet tries to mimic being in a fasted state without actually fasting, by eating mainly fats and a few carbs.
The idea is that if your body becomes “fat-adapted” and runs off of fat (or ketones) so you can avoid low and high blood sugar levels, burn body fat faster and more easily, and even improve your athletic performance. While you have a limited amount of stored glucose, your fat stores are abundant, however, there is inconclusive research on these hypothesized benefits and many of the studies have small sample sizes, high dropout rates, mixed results, or know very little about the long-term effects.
The ketogenic diet closely resembles the Atkins diet, and has gathered a following of firm believers. Some love the idea of losing weight while eating bacon and butter, whereas others like the idea of improving athletic endurance. Whatever peaks your curiosity with Keto, make sure that you are planning and tracking. The hardest thing with this diet is trying to get the nutrients you need while maintaining the appropriate fat to carbohydrate/protein ratio. A clinical keto diet is a 3:1 or 4:1 fat to carbohydrate/protein ratio. Many mistakenly think this is based on calories, but it’s actually food grams. So for a 3:1 ratio, 75% of food grams should come from fat, which translates to 87% of calories from fat. A 4:1 ratio would equate to 90% calories from fat.
This means that getting in nutrients is hard and has to be well-planned. The little carbohydrates and protein that you are consuming must be high-quality and pack in the most micronutrients.
This Keto Strawberry Spinach Smoothie allows us to get in some of the micronutrients that we often missed while on the keto diet and it still offers you 89 grams of fat per serving. Spinach is packed with micronutrients and low in calories, offering our bodies vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, folate, iron, vitamin K, and others. Strawberries are a great source of vitamin C, magnesium, folate, potassium, and are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect your cells from harmful free radicals that can accumulate in the body and may reduce your risk of chronic diseases. This smoothie isn’t particularly sweet, but it grows on you as you sip away. It is a little easier on the stomach than other, high-fat dishes. If you are following a keto diet, this is a great breakfast or snack option!
WARNING: This post is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional. The above information should not be used to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, sleep methods, daily activity, or fitness routine. iFit assumes no responsibility for any personal injury or damage sustained by any recommendations, opinions, or advice given in this article.
