My NK Experiment

During February I will be undertaking a nutritional ketosis (NK) experiment, I will be chronicling my journey on a separate blog. Link: http://depawnk.blogspot.co.uk/

Carnivore RDA Version 2

Menu:

• 7oz beef/lamb, 30% fat
• 2oz mackerel
• 110g beef/lamb tallow
• 2 eggs, whole
• 2oz pork kidneys
• 1/4oz pork liver
• 2tbsp gelatin powder
• 1/2tsp losalt
• 1/2tsp Himalayan pink salt
• 1tsp/1g kelp/kombu, dry
• 16floz tea
• 400mg magnesium citrate
• 2 egg shell calcium / month (1/2 per week)

Why?
Over my continuing research I've found out a few things since the first carnivore RDA post:

• We need less retinol/vitamin A: 1200ug (~4000IU) is ideal, with >600ug (~2000IU) being minimum, but vitamin A is found in all animal fats so liver/yolks/dairy is less critical.
• We need less calcium: 200mg a day is fine, and possibly even better than higher amounts; as long as there's plenty of vitamin D, K2, magnesium, and other co-factors, calcium intake is a non-issue. Still less than 100-150mg probably isn't very good, stick to around 200mg a day.
• We need more magnesium per calcium: reading some books on holistic health care, it said that the ideal ratio of magnesium:calcium in the tissues is 3-4:1, so intake should be similar. I'm not increasing the recommendation for magnesium supplementation, but rather decreasing calcium as per last bullet point, and putting focus on using a salt like Himalyan pink salt which is naturally rich in magnesium.
• We need more kidneys: selenium needs to be ~200ug a day ideally, and the decrease in the other foods decreased the selenium intake, so kidneys were boosted to 2oz per day to maintain selenium intake.
• We don't need quite as much zinc: in the first carnivore RDA I used 12:1 as the zinc:copper ratio, but 10:1 is fine.
• We need less protein: my first dietary recommendation, to match the USDA RDA was very high in protein, I decreased it in the first carnivore RDA, and I'm decreasing it again. Excessive protein simply isn't needed, there's no point to eating more protein than we need, it just inhibits ketosis and can stall you. 15% of calories is ample protein. I also decreased the gelatin slightly, but it's still >15% of the total protein, so fine.

Nutrition:

Macro-nutrient	Grams	%kcal
Protein	74g	15.5%
Carbs	2g	0.4%
Fat	188g	84.1%

Vitamin	Unit	cRDAv2	In Menu Above
Vitamin A (retinol)	ug/IU	600-1,200ug (~2,000-4,000IU)	683ug (2,273IU)
Vitamin B1 (thiamine)	mg	0.4	0.44
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)	mg	N/A	2.18
Vitamin B3 (niacin)	mg	N/A	17.60
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)	mg	N/A	5.13
Vitamin B6 (pyroxine)	mg	0.016mg/g protein	1.24 (0.0167mg/g protein)
Vitamin B9 (folate)	ug	100-200	130
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin)	ug	12+	16.54
Biotin	ug	50+	No data, sufficient
Choline	mg	500	516
Vitamin C	mg	0	9.56
Vitamin D	IU	Use blood levels	477
Vitamin E	mg	0.65mg/g PUFA	5/87 (0.66mg/g PUFA)
Vitamin K1	ug	0	15.05
Vitamin K2	ug	80	No data, sufficient

Mineral	Unit	cRDAv2	In Menu Above
Calcium	mg	150-200	186
Phosphorus	mg	~700	726
Magnesium	mg	450-800 (3-4x calcium)	583 (3.1x calcium)
Potassium	mg	~2,000	2008
Sodium	mg	3,000-7,000	2878
Copper	mg	1-3	0.98
Zinc	mg	10-30 (~10x copper)	10.74 (11x copper)
Selenium	ug	~200	209
Manganese	mg	1	1.66
Iron	mg	8 (16 for females)	10.81
Iodine	ug	1,500-3,500	3492
Molybdenum	ug	45+	No data, sufficient
Chromium	ug	25-35	No data, sufficient

Tweaks:

• Supplement 100ug selenium instead of 2oz kidneys
• Supplement ~2000IU retinol instead of 1/4oz liver
• Supplement 1 drop 7% Lugol's solution instead of seaweed.
• Use no losalt and only 3/8tsp sea salt to keep sodium to potassium ratio the same, this is probably fine after keto-adaptation.

Bachelor Chow (A Soylent Recipe)

Soylent is all the rage these days, so I decided to make my own version, which follows these parameters:

• Nutritionally complete. I will be following my own RDAs not the USDA's though.
• Low carb / ketogenic. As low in net carbs as possible.

Here's my recipe:

• 70g whey protein powder
• 400g coconut milk (canned, not light)
• 180g cream
• 23g almonds
• 14g flax seeds
• 10g brazil nuts
• 3/4tsp pink salt
• 1 multivitamin
• 500mg choline
• 315mg magnesium citrate
• 1,500IU vit D3
• 150ug vit K2 (D3+K2=3 drops Thorne D3/K2 drops)
• 3.5mg iodine (1 drop lugol's 7%)
• 500mg vit C

A total of 14-15 ingredients. Total weight ~930g.

Why each ingredient?

• Whey protein: protein, duh.
• Coconut milk: keto-power activate!
• Cream: liquid gold.
• Almond milk: flavour and some omega-6.
• Flax seeds: omega-3s. You could omit and use cod liver oil (replacing retinol too) or fish oil, but this recipe uses flax seeds as default for taste reasons.
• Brazil nuts: selenium.
• Salt: sodium, chloride.
• Multivitamin+specific nutrients: the MV provides most nutrients except the fat soluble ones in enough quantity, magnesium, iodine, choline, and vitamin C (vit C is included as this recipe as it has some carbs, just as a safe guard (though best to not cook it and take it separately)).

Nutrition:

2050 calories, 65g protein, 31g carbs (26g net), 194g fat (omega ratio = 1.9).

Instructions:

1. Weigh out almonds/flax.
2. Soak them overnight in salty water, then drain.
3. Weigh out rest of ingredients.
4. Set the nuts grinding with water then strain to make nut milk. Discard solids.
5. Mix all ingredients together into paste.
6. Store in 3-6 small containers.
7. When ready to eat mix one container with water to desired thickness.
8. Drink water as desired also.

One example is 3 'meals', each made up with 750ml of water, for a total of 2ltrs of water consumed over the day. Weigh out 310g each meal for 3 meals, 233g each for 4 meals, 186g for 5 meals, 155g for 6 meals.

I did a basic cost check using mostly Tesco, Holland & Barret's, and a couple of items on Amazon.co.uk, the cost is about £3.15 per day, that's £22.05 per week, not too shabby.

If you're eating other nutritious food and want to just make this for snacks/emergencies, then leave out all the supplements (use first 7 ingredients). It will come out to £2.75 per recipe.

How does it taste? Probably like coconutty whey protein shake (whatever flavour you bought). I may make up a batch soon and post pictures of the process and give you my reaction to the taste. [Edit: I originally made a solid version (using coconut oil and coconut meat instead of coconut milk and cream) but the texture was really weird, I didn't like it, so made a liquid version.]


Name inspired by Futurama's Bachelor Chow (now with flavour!):