Testimony of the Day
“Hi Maria, You have been helping me get my life back by getting healthy. My main request was to help me get pregnant. Since starting your way less than 3 months ago I have lost 31 pounds and am off all my autoimmune disease medications. And today, I can tell you that I found out I am expecting. I am only a few weeks along and so I can’t share with everyone yet but I owe you my gratitude. After a year long emotional journey, your way restored my body back to health.” Carrie
Get started on your path to health today with the recently improved 30 day accelerated package! Now every day has calculations for percent of fat/protein/carbs. It has never been easier to follow the keto-adapted lifestyle.
Dawn looks amazing too!
What new habits are you starting today?
Why not take the planning out and let me handle it? I’ll even make the grocery list for you and walk you through a “virtual” grocery store visit! Click HERE to get started.
ARE YOU PREGNANT? IS KETOSIS FOR YOU?
The lean human body is 74% fat and 26% protein (broken down by calories).
Fats are a structural part of every human cell and are the preferred fuel source of the mitochondria, the energy-burning units of each cell. A fetus naturally uses ketones before and immediately after birth. Many studies done on pregnant pigs that are placed on ketogenic diets show fetuses with increased fetal brain weight, cell size, and protein content. In the early stages of pregnancy, there is an upsurge in body fat accumulation, which is connected to hyperphagia and increased lipogenesis. In the later stages of pregnancy, there is an accelerated breakdown of fat depots, which plays an important role in fetal development. The fetus uses fatty acids from the placenta as well as two other products, glycerol and ketone bodies. Even though glycerol goes through the placenta in small proportions, it is a superior substrate for “maternal gluconeogenesis.” Heightened ketogenesis in fasting conditions, or with the addition of MCT oils, create an easy transference of ketones to the fetus. This transfer allows maternal ketone bodies to reach the fetus, where the ketones can be used as fuels for oxidative metabolism as well as lipogenic substrates.
During pregnancy, women become even more sensitive to carbohydrates due to an evolutionary adaption in which they become slightly insulin resistant; their bodies do this in order to allow a positive flow of nutrients to the developing fetus through the placenta. If the mom was more insulin sensitive than the fetus, there could be a nutrient shortage. Biology fixes this problem by making mom a little insulin resistant, effectively “pushing” nutrients to the fetus. This demonstrates just how important it is to feed you and your fetus a nutrient-dense ketogenic diet.
HEALTH TIP from KETO-ADAPTED: I do not recommend losing weight while pregnant or breastfeeding. You store toxins in your fat cells. When eating a keto-adapted diet, you lose weight by burning body fat rather than lean mass, like you do with low-fat diets. For example, if you are losing one pound of body fat every four days, that is 3500 calories worth of toxins in your blood. Your bloodstream becomes very high in toxins since toxins are getting released from your fat cells. Passing them to your fetus or baby is definitely undesired.
GESTATIONAL DIABETES IF EATING LOW CARB???
When eating a ketogenic diet, the most exposure to carbohydrates is overnight especially towards morning as the liver produces glucose to keep your brain fueled and to prepare you for getting up. Therefore, if you are eating a very ketogenic diet, the blood ketones go up during the day as you burn more fat for fuel (as apposed to a high carb diet where the opposite happens).
Also, something to consider, a ketogenic diet rapidly induces insulin resistance. This is a normal physiological response to carb restriction. Carb restriction drops insulin levels. Low insulin levels activate hormone sensitive lipase. This breaks down fatty tissue into ketone bodies (blood ketones). Your muscles prefer to run on ketones and so they become insulin resistant leaving the glucose in your blood for other cells (like the brain).
However, while muscles are in “refusal mode” for glucose any glucose put into your bloodstream, from food or gluconeogenesis (blood glucose made from protein or other tissues), will rapidly spike blood glucose. This is fine if you stick to LC in your eating. It also means that if you take an oral glucose tolerance test you will fail and be labelled diabetic. In fact, even a single high fat meal can do this, extending insulin resistance in to the next day.
So if you are getting a blood glucose test, you can increase your carbs to 150 grams a day for 3 days prior and your blood glucose levels will show normal according to the standards. Otherwise, you can look at a better marker for metabolic syndrome which is you HbA1c levels. If these are low (5.5 or less is what a doctor will define as low diabetes risk, 5 or less is ideal), it doesn’t matter what your fasting blood glucose levels are.
Also an interesting note, when mice in a recent study by Ortman, Prinzler and Klause were allowed to select their own diet, lo and behold, the mice chose (by calories, not weight!) 82% fat and 5.6% carbohydrate. Sensible mice. 🙂
To read more, check out my book Keto-Adapted.
Click HERE to get a limited edition of the Hard Cover.
Click HERE to get a soft cover.
Thank you all for your love and support!
Frost Bite Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
- 1 3/4 cup Natural Sweetener
- 1 tsp stevia glycerite omit if using Swerve
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp Redmond Real Salt
- 2 tsp vanilla or other extract like Cherry!
- <g class="gr_ gr_161 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="161" data-gr-id="161">FROST BITE</g> DIP:
- 4 oz edible cocoa butter
- 2/3 cup Natural Sweetener
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract or other extract like Cherry!
- 1/4 tsp Redmond Real Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, cream the butter/oil and natural sweetener together.
- Add in the eggs, stir until well combined.
- Finally mix in the cocoa powder, salt <g class="gr_ gr_185 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="185" data-gr-id="185">and</g> extracts. Form 2 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow <g class="gr_ gr_184 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="184" data-gr-id="184">to cool</g> on the cookie sheet before removing.
- <g class="gr_ gr_162 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="162" data-gr-id="162">Meanwhile</g> make the chocolate coating.
- Place cocoa butter in a double boiler and heat on medium high until fully melted (or <g class="gr_ gr_156 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="156" data-gr-id="156">microwave safe</g> bowl and heat on high for one minute, check and heat for 30 seconds until melted). Melting cocoa butter takes longer than traditional fats.
- Stir in natural sweetener.
- Stir in extracts and salt.
- Allow the white chocolate to cool a little (if it is too hot, it separates). Once a spreading consistency, use a knife to spread enough on the bottom of each cookie to cover it completely and allow to cool by placing the cookies with the melted chocolate side up on the counter or baking sheet. Allow to cool and enjoy! If you choose to put in <g class="gr_ gr_175 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="175" data-gr-id="175">freezer</g> for 2 minutes, they will set up faster.
Notes
Traditional Cookie =
"Healthified" Cookie = 91 calories, 9.4g fat, 1.2g protein, 2g carbs, 1.2g fiber (89% fat, 3% protein, 8% carbs)
Testimonial from a client who was having problems with a shortened cervix:
“I actually went to the doctor’s yesterday for a checkup, and you won’t believe it. My cervix is back to normal! Thanks be to God! I’m still on bed rest, but I wouldn’t do anything differently now anyway. This [diet] is obviously working for me. Thanks again for your suggestions. I bought the prenatal vitamin you suggested and really like it so far.”—Dianne
If you are looking for more help with fertility or a healthy pregnancy, click HERE. I’d be honored to help!
If you would like to help out a small family, rather than large business, I am happy to announce that you can now get my books as a high quality ebook that works on any platform.
This is an ebook format that works on any computer or mobile device. It is a beautiful pdf that has all the full color pages and layouts as the printed books with click-able table of contents and searching capabilities. This is extremely useful when trying to find a recipe. These books are much higher quality than the ebook platforms (kindle, apple). Plus, most of the profits don’t go to Amazon or apple!
Click HERE or select “My Books” above to get your copy now!
Thank you so much for your love and support!
Where can we buy edible cocoa butter???
I bought mine from Amazon:
http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/B009XEANGU
Making them heart shaped for Valentine’s Day and ooo a touch of red coloring for the coating! Yum
@Stephanie, I knowe they sell it on Amazon. We also have it, here in Ontario, in all the health food stores
I’m almost finished reading your PDF version of Keto-Adapted. While I love the content in the book, and I like the look of it, it’s not possible to highlight important sections or make notes while reading this on a Kindle or Kindle Fire. It would have been helpful to know that I couldn’t do this with the PDF version; now, I really wish I’d bought the Kindle version directly from Amazon so I could have taken notes and highlighted passages. Instead, I’ve had to tote around a laptop or paper/pen to write things down that I want to remember. In all honesty, it’s been a pain. 🙁 Maybe you could just mention that if people are note-takers while they read, or they enjoy highlighting information, they might do better buying the actual eBook version from Amazon. 🙂 Just a thought. I do love your book so far!
Of course you can make notes and highlight things on a Kindle or Fire. Just Google for tutorials…although the device is fairly intuitive to learn on.
Can we use just like sugar “brown” version? I’m all out of Swerve and my shipment doesn’t come until Friday night and I want to make these for my daughters party Friday! If not, is there any other suggestion other than Erithyol (or however you spell that :)) How do you feel about Xylitol? Thank you for another great option! You rock!!!
Just when you think that you have all the *special* ingredients in your pantry-there comes another one (cocoa butter)! Is there no end? LOL. worn out from getting it all together. Maria you are keeping me on the run!
This is so interesting to me… I have to do the glucose tolerance test in 4 weeks. I have been really feeling gross since I got pregnant (and I can attribute a lot of it to my increased carb intake–I was eating fewer than 50g on most days before). I get headaches and rot gut if I eat fruit or carb-y stuff (but I started adding carbs when I first got preg because otherwise I would literally crash and burn and be super ill). I am the first person to ditch conventional nutrition advice, but I think twice (or more) while pregnant because if I do something “dumb” it’s going to affect my baby. I saw a couple studies saying that having a really high fat intake during pregnancy was shown to lead to obese kids—that it changed something in their DNA to adapt to the high fat intake. I just don’t really know what to do—I’m more than halfway through, and it feels like it’s too late to go back to keto now. I really don’t enjoy the way I feel right now–and I’ve never been overweight so that’s annoying me too (not the belly, I kinda like that). I really just want to say how frustrating it is that the pregnancy “experts” are so off on their nutrition advice… but even as a nutrition “rule-breaker” I’m afraid to go too rogue on this one. There’s just a lot at stake.
Keto is very healthy for breastfeeding. It is great for the baby (babies are at about 5.4 mmol ketones while breastfeeding, even if mother isn’t in ketosis). Breast milk is 60% fat. I don’t believe that higher fat leads to more obese kids at all.
I want to make these tomorrow, where else can I purchase the cocoa butter? I was feeling so good about my pantry filled with “Maria” ingredients! Now to find edible cocoa butter! I love all your recipes. I made lobster risotto tonight for the first time… For company …and everyone loved it!!!
You can check with your grocery store and see if they stock it. 🙂
I can certainly understand and support any expectant mother’s desire to provide her child with the healthiest lifestyle from the earliest point of nutrition.
For anyone else who is reading and is concerned that a ketogenic diet, consumed properly during pregnancy with appropriate levels of micronutrient from vegetables and minerals, could flip a switch in the neonatal brain and cause obesity, I’ll give a few more details of the ONE study done on six obese mice who were nursing their mice pups while on a high fat diet: http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(14)00018-X
The study was conducted jointly by Yale and the Max Planck Institute in Cologne and it specifically stated the maternal mice in question were in a negatively altered state of metabolism: ” impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in response to maternal overnutrition…”
Overnutrition is a fancy word for “we stuffed those mice full of lard pellets until they couldn’t waddle.” If you look at the graphical abstract, you’ll see that in their maternal model, insulin, leptin, glucose, and fatty acids are all elevated – the opposite effect of the healthy ketogenic diet.
Haven’t a multitude of studies demonstrated that dietary fat intake alone doesn’t raise glucose levels? Insulin levels? How many carbohydrate were these mice consuming along with their high fat diet to raise their leptin and triglyceride levels? Were they from the batch of mice at the Planck Institute who have been genetically altered for a predisposition to diet-induced obesity?
Please understand that Horvath et al are NOT pregnancy experts – they are immunobiologists. Their study addresses lactation and attempts to establish that there is a physical mechanism caused by high-fat intake wherein an obese mother’s milk kills her baby’s appetite reduction brain signals.
They are not giving anyone nutrition advice – they are trying to establish a cause for abnormal brain function based on maternal feeding habits. If you are a mouse mother with incredibly poor health, and you are nursing while eating the equivalent of junk food, you are potentially passing poor health to your babies. Were your mouse babies dysfunctional prior to nursing? If you are a lab mouse who has been obese throughout your pregnancy, that is entirely possible.
If you are a mother who is eating a diet that is healthy for you, with an appropriate balance of macro and micro nutrients, and your health is monitored by a specialist in human reproduction, your situation is much different.
Now I’m off to buy some cocoa butter. Best regards to all.
I would like to purchase the Keto-adapted book but I live in Canada and Amazon.com does not deliver here. Where can I get this book without paying $30 for shipping?
You can get my books here. 🙂
https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=maria+emmerich&sitesearch_type=STORE
Hi Maria I love your blog and have lost almost 30 lbs with you! I was wondering if you have any thought or info on high testosterone levels in women? I have PCOS and a very high testosterone level. I’ve read that eating more red meat will make this higher, any ideas?
Thanks for all your hard work!
Candy
I write about pcos in my book keto-adapted.
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/my-books/
Add Estrofactors. Evening primrose.
Make sure it is organic meat with no hormones added.
I am reading your book Keto Adapted and you mention an ALA supplement which you believe should be German made. Can you provide the name of a source? Thank you.
It is this one. 🙂
http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/B00CFBD71G
maria hello, my name is aline I’m from Portugal, I love your blog and I have done several of your recipes the only thing I feel sorry is that I do not encounter in europe some products that you use in recipes.
but I’m very very sad right now, I bought 3 of his book in pdf format, and I had them in my personal computer, but an accident happened my son dropped water on it and it already does not work, I did not do any copies, so I completely lost books.
I am contacting you with to know if it is possible you send me copies I can send to you by email the proof of payment I made via paypal.
if it’s not possible I’ll understand.
my email is alinasecco@hotmail.com
thank you.
Hi, I just reactivated your links so you can download them again. Thanks! 🙂
Please suggest an edible cooca butter that I can buy from amazon; I cannot find it in any health food store. Trader Joes and Whole Foods do not sell it either. Thanks!
Click on the ingredient above and it will take you to the one I used. 🙂
For people asking about ordering food grade cocoa butter… I have bought a LOT of health foods and supplements from http://www.swansonvitamins.com over the years because they are quick, reliable and have good pricing (with frequent free shipping and sales codes). I notice now that they have a NOW Foods Cocoa Butter that is food grade. I also like to get a psyllium husk powder (Source Naturals) from them. My psyllium bread products are a bit on the dark side, but I used to make freshly-ground whole wheat baked goods before so my family’s fine with the color.
Or you can click the ingredient in the recipe above. 🙂
http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/B004I8G6JE
DUH! I really need to read EVERY comment… Sometimes I rush through them and think, “Oh, oh, oh! I think I know an answer for that!”
Thank you so much for what you do! I am getting an incredible health and nutrition education! I bought two of your Universal e-books so far (Keto-Adapted & Slow Cooker) and am reading through a paperback (Secrets of… Metabolism) from the library… I wish I could assimilate everything instantly! For Valentine’s Day my husband put money in an envelope with a note saying he didn’t know what program I wanted since I already had some books… Do the ebooks that come in the Nutritional Packages come in the Universal format, too?
Thanks again for the valuable tools for healthy living! I finally feel like I understand what to do to pursue restored health. It reminds me of the 60-year-old woman who applied for college. Someone told her, “But you’ll be 64 when you graduate.” “Yes,” she replied, “But I’ll be 64 and have a bachelors degree.” Time is going to pass, anyway… Now that I understand what to do — and WHY! — time will pass and improved levels of health will become inevitable!
Awe, thank you! Yes, the ebooks in my plans are all universal. 🙂
Hi Maria, I have purchased your complete program and I have a couple questions. I have been eating low carb for a while and I am now feeding my 12 year old low carb as well. My family really likes Great Low Carb Bread Company bread products. Do you know anything about this brand? If so, are they healthy? I would love to bake my own bread but I haven’t found anything with a similar taste that my son will eat. Any suggestions? Also, I can’t figure out how to save your books and your other downloads on my iPad. Is this possible? Thanks in advance for the help!
Well, they will still have gluten (vital wheat gluten) so the effect of gluten will still be there. I am not a fan of gluten (or any grains) due to their inflammatory and autoimmune effects. Here is the process to get my ebooks on your ipad:
Download to a computer and email the PDF files to yourself and open that email on the ipad. Then click on the PDF files on your ipad. Then click the little rectangle with an arrow on the top right and click “open in iBooks”. It will be in ibooks from then on.
Yum. I made these cookies today. I used JLS for the cookie and the frosting. I did not have Swerve for the frosting so I used JLS and it was a little runny. I put the cookies in the freezer to set and they were delicious. good. I think I will add cherry flavoring next time. Thanks for the recipe.
I don’t know… about Swerve… the first time I used it was for your Tiramisu Ice Cream bars. I ate all the bars in one sitting. So I’ve been a little hesitant to use Swerve again for me. I seem to not go overboard when I use JLS. I am thinking maybe I am still healing from all those years of eating poorly.
In the cookie part should the swerve had been confectioners? I made these with the cherry flavor in the frosting and they were delicious! Thank you
Yes, you can use confectioners if you like.
I just made these and they were tall, not flat. Was I supposed to flatten the dough? My dough was really Stiff and didn’t spread at all. I made mint chocolate and they taste yummy but don’t ‘look’ right.
Yes, sorry. I added that note above. 🙂
Hi Maria,
Could you recommend an infant formula? I did read your blog on how to make it, however I would like a recommendation on a brand to purchase. Also, regarding ingredients – what should I be looking for?
Sorry. All brands are so disappointing. I recommend making your own. I had a friend pump.
What was wrong with the ones in the book?
They changed because recipe testers preferred the book recipe.
Maybe I did something wrong, but the dough was more of a batter consistency so when they cooked they flattened out to be extremely thin and crispy/brittle.
Sounds like you used melted butter instead of softened.
Thank you so much for you replies–I will try making them again!