Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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I do not eat raw honey every day but sometimes I will have two cups of coffee in the morning (only once or twice a week, normally I only have water or plain green tea) and I will sweeten it with raw honey (one teaspoon each cup) together with heavy cream. Will the honey ruin my ketosis, will that little damage my weightloss results?

Note: I also have not been eating anything but meat lately and will reintroduce vegetables closer to my goal weight.

flag	asked May 30 2011 at 6:24 Uggla 1,774●4●16

	I'm also interested in the answer. – Daniyal Nawaz May 30 2011 at 6:44
	if youre eating nothing but meat you may not be in ketosis. how many grams of protein you think youre eating per day? If its high enough, and since you say youre eating only meat it could be pretty high, gluconeogeneis will keep you out of ketosis. – ben61820 May 30 2011 at 22:35
	Hi Ben, I eat two to 3 boiled eggs in the morning, 2 pork chops or 1 chicken breast for lunch cooked in coconut oil, salmon or tuna or beef for dinner. I was eating vegetables mainly mushrooms, cauliflower, cucumber, broccoli, and red peppers. I also was eating feta every now and then – Uggla May 31 2011 at 6:16
	What do you suggest I add to my diet? – Uggla May 31 2011 at 6:26
	Uggla, how is your honey experiment going? I like to sweeten my coffee also, but not more than two tsp per day ~ 12 grams of carbs per day. But besides pure carbs the fact that we are using RAW honey should be taken into consideration, it has minerals, vitamins and enzymes, so maybe does not influence blood sugar the same way as sucrose does? – Eugene K Jul 13 at 2:47

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Roger L. Cauvin · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-30 21:30:21Z UTC

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That amount of sugar may not kick you out of ketosis, but you can and should kick the sugar habit. If you simply go cold turkey on sugar, your sensitivity to sweetness will heighten. Having gone over a year without intentionally eating refined sugar, tomatoes now taste sweet to me. I tried a little 2% lowfat milk today, and it tasted very sweet to me.

And fat is the new sugar. If you put enough of that heavy cream in your coffee (I use at least 20% cream in my coffee), I don't see why you would need any sugar to have a very satisfying experience.

answered May 30 2011 at 21:30

Roger L. Cauvin
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I agree with your observation that everything tastes sweeter without sugar. It's an interesting phenomenon. Even water tastes slightly sweet to me (I don't eat any sugar/starch/carbs at all, not even vegetables). If someone doesn't have a sugar addiction, though -- and some people don't -- then I don't see what harm a small amount of sugar once or twice a week will do. I couldn't do it without going on a binge, but I'm pretty sure many people can. – Rose May 30 2011 at 21:38

Agreed. If you put heavy cream or even coconut cream into coffee/tea why bother with adding honey at all? On a side-note, I like a little dash of cinnamon to help bring out the "sweetness". – FED at LiveCaveman.com May 30 2011 at 22:50

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There are trace carbs in cream (lactose and the like), although the concentrations are lower that 0.5g per Tbsp cream. That's just the cutoff value for Nutrition Facts data. It's not like you'll be ingesting enough carbs from cream to kick you out of keto. And coconut cream definitely has sugars in it, so it wouldn't be surprising for it to taste sweet. For keto people, coconut cream/dried coconut should be watched due to the ~10g carbs per serving. Just something to think about. – Bristlebeard May 31 2011 at 3:00

Thank you everyone for the comments! I know the dangers of sugar and I am well aware that it is naughty, honey is one of my only naughty devices, I just love coffee but can't stand it unsweetened if that makes any sense. I am well aware how silly and weak that sounds but it's the truth. So in this case maybe it's best to avoid coffee all together? Treat it like ice-cream or a snickers bar. – Uggla May 31 2011 at 6:22

Bristlebeard thank you for the coconut comment! – Uggla May 31 2011 at 6:23

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Rhubarb · Answer 2 · 2011-05-30 10:02:10Z UTC

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If you're not eating any starchy vegetables then I wouldn't expect that amount of honey to knock you out of ketosis.

Try it and see :) If it does knock you out it shouldn't take very long to get back in.

answered May 30 2011 at 10:02

Rhubarb
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Yes, no starchy vegetables. No vegetables at all at the moment. – Uggla May 30 2011 at 12:59

Bristlebeard · Answer 3 · 2011-05-31 02:55:50Z UTC

Usually, to be knocked out of ketosis, you need around 60g or carbs or more. So if you are only eating protein and fat, and having a teaspoon of Honey, you won't be kicked out of ketosis.

Using the data provided here, one tablespoon (28g) has 17g of carbs. So you could actually sweeten your coffee with a tablespoon, if you wanted. I'm keto, and I often eat spinach and cream together seasoned with some pepper, tastes kinda good, and I'm getting some greens in my diet. You might want to try to add some broccoli, lettuce, or other very low carb vegetables. Or not, whatever works for you.

Another thing, is that if you are inducing ketosis, as in transitioning from a carb-containing diet, the honey might keep you from entering it.

Also, as ben61820 mentioned, a high protein intake can actually prevent you from being in ketosis, due to the body using the high supply of amino acids from the proteins for gluconeogenesis.A high amount would be 1.5x(Body weight in pounds). I was eating upwards of 300g per day (I'm 210 lbs), and I noticed when I brought my protein down to around 200g a day, and my fats up to roughly 190g, I felt a lot better, and I started testing more positive for ketosis (I'm using Ketostix, they test for ketone concentration in urine).

Moral of the Story: They honey is fine. If you're not in ketosis, then you might have to adjust your macros.

Ketosis and Raw Honey.

3 Answers