Nutrition

In a previous version, Keto Chow utilized Psyllium Husk powder for fiber. I'm very happy that we switched over to Acacia Gum. It's water soluble so it has no texture and has some great benefits for ketosis and general gut health. Notably, it's fermented by gut bacteria into short chain fatty acids that make keto happy.

What you won't find in Keto Chow is the FDA recommended 28g of dietary fiber per day. I had considered adding additional acacia gum but was reminded about some fun fiber facts on the HighSteaks site:

The simple idea that we should be filling our digestive systems with something indigestible is utter madness.

Seek out the evidence for yourself – here's a hint, there's none whatsoever that fiber is something you should be consuming much of (if any), and almost certainly should NOT be supplementing.

Sure, eat some foods which happen to be rich in fiber if you like them and can tolerate them well, but it's not the fiber that makes them worth eating.

The go-to line about it all: “Fiber is great – if you live on junk food.”

Most flavors of Keto Chow use sucralose. You can read all the details about why we chose sucralose here.

However, our Natural Strawberry uses monk fruit as a sweetener instead of sucralose, and our CORE line offers unsweetened options, as well as some sweetened by stevia.

Our primary manufacturing facility has an employee that's allergic to peanuts – producing the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor (which contains actual peanut flour, not just peanut flavor) at that facility was not an option. Instead, the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor is mixed and packaged at a different location. The result is that all of our flavors, except chocolate peanut butter, are completely peanut free.

Depending on your taste and how long you let Keto Chow “rest” in the fridge after mixing (30 minutes minimum, overnight preferred), you may find Keto Chow rather salty at first. This isn't by accident, it's an essential feature.

When you do keto, your body will burn through electrolytes rather quickly. There are several mechanisms at work that cause this but the end result is that you need higher than normal electrolyte amounts. If you don't get enough you may experience nausea, cramping, fatigue and other flu-like symptoms. This is why the condition is commonly referred to as “Keto Flu”. The fix is easy: get some sodium, potassium, and/or magnesium. Keto Chow, by design, should allow you to completely avoid the Keto Flu, so long as your other meals (if you're eating other keto food) contain sufficient electrolytes.

Most people find that the saltiness goes away after letting it refrigerate overnight (or longer). You may also actually start to crave the saltiness as your body adjusts to ketosis and the higher electrolyte requirements.

Soy is a funny thing. There's a lot of “well I heard it from a dude at the gym that soy gives you cancer” information running around. There is very, very little scientific information based on studies to back up the concerns about phytoestrogens in soy protein causing problems in vivo with humans. Regardless: Keto Chow does not use any soy protein (which is the problem-child and what people can be allergic to) or soy ANYTHING.

Here are the official United States Food and Drug Administration RDI and DRV amounts. By law, these are the amounts that must be used to calculate Daily Value percentages and recommendations on product labels. Some are an improvement over the previous numbers but I feel they are still influenced too much by lobbying groups (like the sugar industry).

You can also calculate your RDI amounts using the calculator here.

Strangely enough, Norway seems to have better-documented science behind their dietary recommendations. You can peruse the full PDF for detailed information about each nutrient. Want to know the upper tolerable limit for Iron and why that's the limit? It's all in the PDF. They do still have some rather silly stuff about saturated fats and carbohydrates but they're moving in a good direction. We'll see what the 2020 report says =)

Info about the 2012 recommendations in this PDF.