This weekend I baked a paleo key lime pie and I have also made keto macadamia bread. You have probably heard these words, paleo and keto, around people’s choice of diets/lifestyle, so let’s dive into what they mean, and the similarities and differences between both ways of eating.

Keto

Keto, short for ketogenic, aims to induce ketosis in the body. Ketosis is the metabolic state in which your body uses calories from fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. It shifts the body’s dependence from carbs to fat, using ketones rather than glucose, so the body starts breaking down fat for energy. This supports weight loss and maintains blood sugar levels. Levels of insulin are reduced and fatty acids are released from body fat stores. The breakdown of the diet is 65-90% fats, 10-30% protein, and less than 5% carbohydrates. It’s a strict, disciplined way of eating. Any shift away from fats takes the body out of ketosis. No grains, candy, soda, legumes, potatoes, and fruit. It helps with weight loss, and is also used to control epilepsy and seizures. The Netflix documentary, The Magic Pill, features the diet and shows how it helps with autism symptoms among other disorders.

Paleo

Also called “the caveman's diet” is based on the foods available to early humans as optimal. Choosing foods the Paleolithic hunter/gatherers would well, hunt and gather, that supports natural digestion and biological ancestry. Paleo avoids food production and processing of foods, including cultivated foods such as grains, legumes, rice, alcohol, processed sugar/oils, and dairy. They believe these foods were introduced much later in our history, and the human digestive system is not well equipped to break them down, leading to allergies, food sensitivities, and inflammation. Paleo also focuses on exercise, environmental impact of food choices (organic, wild caught, grass fed, free/pasture range), in season produce, and wellness as part of it’s philosophy.

Similarities

• Both eliminate grains and legumes for different reasons. For keto, it adds no-no carbs, but for paleo, grains and legumes were not a part of the early humans’ diet. They also contain anti nutrients called lectins and phytates, which is deeply explored in Dr Gundry’s work.

• Both emphasize whole foods with minimal processing, including processed fats, oils, and sweeteners.

• Both eliminate added sugar. Paleo is more flexible on this point only allowing unrefined sugar such as honey or maple syrup, but Keto eliminates it completely based on its carbohydrate content.

• Both emphasize unrefined healthy fats, such as nuts, seeds, avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and fish. Fats are the heart and soul of keto, while paleo recommends these fats as part of it’s diet structure. No canola up in here!

Differences

• Keto allows dairy which paleo does not.

• Paleo allows for fruits and starchy vegetables which Keto does not.

• You will find more of a cross fit/athletic type of person on paleo as it enhances athletic performance.

• Keto you have to count macros and might need to be supervised to make sure you are eating the right ratios of fats, proteins, and carbs for the body to stay in ketosis.

• Paleo is less restrictive

• Paleo is a more sustainable, long term diet lifestyle, while keto is short term, used primarily for weight loss, unless it supports the body for seizures and autism.

The paleo key lime pie uses coconut cream, key limes (of course), pecans, eggs, dates, unsweetened coconut, honey, tapioca flour, and maple syrup. The Keto macadamia bread was made out of eggs, coconut butter, and macadamia nuts. Included are links to both recipes, and hopefully a good understanding of how the ingredients earn their forenames. You could have the keto bread on a paleo diet, but you can’t have the key lime pie on keto. But a paleo practicing person might still refuse the paleo desserts to avoid too much sugar. So I hope there is more of an understanding of both ways of eating. Maybe it might inspire you to experiment with your diet to eliminate/add any of the components of paleo and keto to see how your body best responds.