I've read about low carb/high fat diets (keto) as a treatment for children with seizures for many years, but frankly never considered it an option for Ellie. It seemed way too hard to do and I worried that it wasn't all that healthy either.
Then our friends, the Spigarellis, started doing it to help with blood sugar control for their daughter's Type 1 diabetes. I watched them closely and asked Rachel a gazillion questions as they figured out what worked for them, and then eventually as they ended up shifting their whole family to that way of eating. Suddenly it seemed like something we could try...someday.
Then we had a weird glitch with Glen's COBRA insurance and ended up completely uninsured for several months. We ended up joining a Christian Healthshare so we didn't have to pay a penalty, but basically it was just major medical and didn't cover anything. We learned firsthand very quickly how expensive Ellie's medication is without insurance ($300+ per month) and we did not like paying that outrageous amount. So we decided it was time to try low carb/high fat for ourselves!
That was August.
We muddled our way through a lot of mediocre food and some crazy cravings at first, but we ended up totally changing our tune before long. The food is very satisfying and combined with lots and lots of veggies, is actually very healthy. Glen's lost a bunch of weight, Ellie and I have maintained ours, and our cholesterol (and other blood numbers) have never looked better.
And it's helped Ellie's seizures so much that we've been able to do reduce her medication to less than half of what she had been taking!
So after six months of eating this way, I am calling it a success and the plan is to keep going with it until Ellie's seizures go away completely, or it completely stops being effective for them. And even then I will probably always eat a lower carb diet, because I frankly feel much better eating this way.
So what do we eat on this diet?
Here's a glimpse:
Then our friends, the Spigarellis, started doing it to help with blood sugar control for their daughter's Type 1 diabetes. I watched them closely and asked Rachel a gazillion questions as they figured out what worked for them, and then eventually as they ended up shifting their whole family to that way of eating. Suddenly it seemed like something we could try...someday.
Then we had a weird glitch with Glen's COBRA insurance and ended up completely uninsured for several months. We ended up joining a Christian Healthshare so we didn't have to pay a penalty, but basically it was just major medical and didn't cover anything. We learned firsthand very quickly how expensive Ellie's medication is without insurance ($300+ per month) and we did not like paying that outrageous amount. So we decided it was time to try low carb/high fat for ourselves!
That was August.
We muddled our way through a lot of mediocre food and some crazy cravings at first, but we ended up totally changing our tune before long. The food is very satisfying and combined with lots and lots of veggies, is actually very healthy. Glen's lost a bunch of weight, Ellie and I have maintained ours, and our cholesterol (and other blood numbers) have never looked better.
And it's helped Ellie's seizures so much that we've been able to do reduce her medication to less than half of what she had been taking!
So after six months of eating this way, I am calling it a success and the plan is to keep going with it until Ellie's seizures go away completely, or it completely stops being effective for them. And even then I will probably always eat a lower carb diet, because I frankly feel much better eating this way.
So what do we eat on this diet?
Here's a glimpse:
This was a our lemon-herbed chicken served over cauliflower rice for dinner and over a salad for lunch the next day. It encapsulates everything that eating Keto is for us....healthy, full of veggies, delicious, and pretty quick and easy to make.
Friday has always been pizza night at our house and we weren't about to let a low-carb diet get in the way of that! This "fat-head" pizza crust is easy to make (NO cauliflower at all), and is good enough to serve to friends who never even notice a difference!
My creamy Mexican chowder (without the beans and corn), along with sautéed cabbage, and a keto roll.
Spaghetti with zucchini noodles and low carb marinara sauce (from Trader Joes), along with some keto bread with melted cheese.
Sweet and sour chicken, sautéed cabbage, with roasted broccoli.
Grilled salmon with salsa, roasted brussels sprouts, and seasoned avocado.
Pesto chicken over zucchini noodles with stuffed peppers.
Jalapeno Popper Casserole with mashed cauliflower and roasted broccoli and butternut squash. (Butternut squash is a little higher in carb than we normally do, but it's so healthy we have it occasionally)
Chicken cordon bleu casserole with cauliflower rice and roasted broccoli.
Keto Lasagna (this is another one to serve to other people...it's so good you can't tell the difference). We went through two whole pans of this in three days!
Faux Baked "Potato" Soup with Keto Breadsticks (made with this dough)
Oven roasted chicken and broccoli with homemade Alfredo sauce drizzled over the top.
Oven cooked chicken legs with herb-roasted veggies (brussels sprouts, onions, and mushrooms seasoned with fresh rosemary and sage).
And what do we eat for breakfast?
Well, most people on keto eat a lot of eggs for breakfast. We do go through a lot of eggs now, but I really really love breakfast, so we have a rotation of some fun breakfasts that we have every week. It's literally one of my favorite parts about eating keto. Before eating this way, I'd always be hungry by 11am or so. Now I'm filled until 1:00pm most days.
This is probably my favorite....hemp seed porridge. It's like a keto version of oatmeal and we top it with stevia sweetened whipping cream, unsweetened coconut, raspberries, and unsweetened cacao nibs. It feels incredibly indulgent and fills me up for hours!
It took trying a lot of keto pancake/waffle recipes before we finally found one we like (we don't add the butter to this recipe). We serve it with unsweetened greek yogurt (5% Fage is the brand with the lowest carbs), homemade stevia/erythritol syrup, and some fresh raspberries. Again, it's delicious and filling!
Stay tuned and I'll share a list of my favorite Keto resources soon! In the meantime, feel free to shoot me a question if you're interested in learning more about this way of eating.
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