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The Keto Diet: Why High Quality Meat Matters!

While it is in the nature of food fads to come and go, it is increasingly looking as though keto is here to stay. The impact this will have on how North Americans purchase and eat meat will likely be significant.


While it is in the nature of food fads to come and go, it is increasingly looking as though keto is here to stay. The impact this will have on how North Americans purchase and eat meat will likely be significant.

The keto diet rests on a fairly simple premise: the human body responds to the fuel it is given in particular ways, and if a radical change is made to type of energy it is taking in, the body will respond accordingly.

Most people eat a diet that includes a wide mix of different foods, where the main source of fuel is carbohydrates, or “carbs”. As the body burns carbohydrates first, any excess carbs will be turned into fat. The only way to lose that excess fat is to burn more energy than is being consumed.

If, however, carbohydrate intake is dramatically reduced and fat intake dramatically increased, the body will hit a tipping point and enter a state known as ketosis, in which the body switches to primarily burning fat, which can be a major driver of weight loss and lead to an overall leaner physique and healthier lifestyle.

One of the major changes involved in reducing carbs and increasing fat intake is adjusting your diet to include a higher quantity of fattier meats and fish. At truLOCAL, we understand how important good, healthy meat is to overall wellness, and for this reason, we have decided to provide a few tips for how meat delivery makes switching to a keto diet easier.

The Challenge of Switching to Keto

For those who want to get started on a keto diet today, switching over isn’t always easy. Cutting out carbs takes a lot of work, and for those who subscribe to a traditional Western diet, the number of changes required can be overwhelming.

This is where fresh meat delivery services like truLOCAL can help. There is plenty of evidence to show that simply cutting foods out of your diet is generally unsustainable: rather, what is needed is a strategy whereby desirable foods are substituted for undesirable ones. This approach puts the emphasis less on self-denial, and more on the cultivation of new habits, which in turn makes you more likely to stick with your new, healthier lifestyle once you’ve hit your dietary goals.

Because truLOCAL specializes in delicious, high-quality meat, it makes it easy to substitute carb-heavy foods like grains, beans, and chickpeas for protein and fat-heavy foods like wild-caught fish, mail order steak, and chicken. 

If you have been toying with the idea of going keto for some time but haven’t figured out how to take the plunge, here are four ways that truLOCAL’s fresh meat delivery service can help you hit your health and weight loss goals while serving you up a delicious and nutritious range of protein and fat-rich foods.  

Make Your Main a Meat

Carbs are an essential building block for cuisines around the world. Whether you grew up eating Chinese food and curries or shepherd’s pie and pasta, the biggest challenge you will face in going keto is finding a substitute for easy-to-store, hunger-satisfying carbs.

The best way to this is to switch toward a meat and vegetable approach, one where you increase your meat intake to reduce hunger pangs while bulking up on healthy fats found in low-carb foods like avocado, olives, spinach, asparagus, and nuts.

But switching over to keto isn’t just about increasing your meat intake, and not all meats are equally good for you.

In fact, a common complaint from people who have just started the keto diet is that they are not meeting their weight loss goals, or even noticing any weight loss at all. This is usually because, while they are watching their carb intake, they are not replacing carbs with healthy meat rich in nutrients and good fats, but are eating large quantities of heavily processed poor-quality meat.

The importance of quality meats for those on a keto diet cannot be overstated, and if you are considering a switch to keto you need to have a plan for how you are going to secure a regular supply of premium, nutritious meats that will fuel your body without unnecessary and unhealthy additives. truLOCAL’s fresh meat delivery service is the single easiest way to ensure that you are eating meat that is good for you and good for the planet. 

Eat Better Fat with Grass-Fed Beef

When it comes to fatty meats, beef is generally listed as one of the best options for keto eaters. Beef tends to be much richer in natural fats, so eating a thick and juicy steak is one of the best ways to ensure that you are getting your fats and your protein at the same time. Beef is also absolutely delicious!

As you explore your different beef options, however, it is important to bear in mind the significant difference that exists between grass-fed and grain-fed beef. While there is no real variance in quality between the best grass-fed and grain-fed beef, the composition of the meat does change depending on how the cattle has been raised. All cows start their lives eating mostly grass, but grass-fed cows stay on this diet until they are slaughtered, whereas grain-fed cows are switched over the grain feed later in their lives.

Grain fed or grain-finished meat, as it is sometimes called, tends to be fattier and show more marbling, whereas grass-fed beef is darker in colour and earthier in taste. For most people, whether you prefer one or the other is a matter of taste, but for keto eaters, the matter of fat profile bears greater scrutiny.

Grain-fed beef has a higher overall fat content, but it is a different kind of fat than what is found in grass-fed beef. Grass-fed beef has been shown time and time again to contain fewer calories and more omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). These healthy fats are an essential part of any diet, and the fact that they are found in such high quantities makes grass-fed beef a smart choice for keto eaters.

At truLOCAL, we are proud to provide a lot of grass-fed beef options. You can learn about our high quality grass-fed beef here, and if you want to experience the grass-fed difference for yourself, why not include some grass-fed beef delivery in your next truLOCAL order? With plenty of mouth-watering choices, including grass-fed steaks, grass-fed ground beef, and grass-fed roasts, you’ll be bound to find something you like!

When it Comes to Keto, Delivery Makes a Difference

Let’s face it: shopping for healthy food isn’t easy at the best of times, and when you’re trying to make a radical change to your diet it can be a nightmare.

One of the main reasons why people fall back onto old eating patterns is not because they lack the will, but because they lack time -- unfortunately, in the Western world, eating unhealthy food is all too available. In many places, it is the default, and when you are struggling to find the time to manage everything in your life as it is, health is often sacrificed to expediency.  

One of the biggest ways truLOCAL makes a difference is simply by making healthy meat more readily available. Our delivery service is available anywhere in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, and we deliver to houses, apartments, offices, gyms, and even cottages.

We understand that organizing your schedule around receiving a food delivery can be an even bigger pain that picking up the groceries yourself, which is why our meat boxes come refrigerated, so there is no need for you to be home to receive your order in person.

Setting up an order is easy, and can be done with a few clicks on our website. We offer two delivery sizes, and our innovative points-based system allows you to fill your box with whatever meats you want without needing to worry about going over your order limit. Our subscription feature lets you choose whether you want a monthly delivery, a bi-weekly delivery, or a tri-weekly delivery, and we make it easy to change your selections between deliveries should you wish to explore new options.

If you want to learn more about our meat delivery service, why not put together a meal box of your own? Unlike other food delivery companies, we don’t have contracts -- you can order a one-time box or pause a repeating order anytime you please.

Eating Local Makes Going Keto an Environmental Choice

As awareness about the devastating impact of climate change enters the mainstream consciousness of North American society, many people are starting to understand that the way we eat has a profound impact on the world around us. Food choices are environmental choices, and no one should switch to a new diet without carefully considering the impact it will have on our fragile world.

This has typically been a source of some concern for keto eaters. There is plenty of evidence that industrial food systems are playing a significant role in adding more carbon to the atmosphere, and many conscientious keto eaters are concerned that their love of beef, pork, chicken, and dairy is contributing to climate change. Those whose keto diet features a heavy dose of seafood may be worried that, through their consumption, they are participating in unsustainable fishing practices.

While these are all valid concerns, eating in an environmentally friendly way does not have to mean giving up your keto diet or going vegan. It does mean you need to be more careful about what meat you choose to eat, and more attentive to issues of sourcing.

One of the reasons why truLOCAL’s fresh meat delivery service is ideal for environmentally conscious keto eaters is that we work closely with our suppliers to ensure that all of our meat is locally sourced in-province. Whether you are living in Ontario, British Columbia, or Alberta, when you sign up for truLOCAL, all of the products you order will come from small farming operations that raise their livestock in sustainable ways.

For example, we provide detailed information on our website about the sourcing for all our meats and wild-caught fish in every province, which lets you follow up with the producers themselves to find out how they raise their animals.

We are proud to say that all of our partners share the basic values that have fuelled truLOCAL since the beginning -- a commitment to environmentally friendly farming practices, a humane approach to raising animals, and a firm belief that when we eat good meat that has been carefully and sustainably raised, our diet and our wellbeing benefit.

The keto diet has gone from being a relatively niche lifestyle choice to a well-known and well-documented phenomenon, and one of the reasons for its success is that fact that, unlike other diets, the keto diet is meant to be a lifestyle change. Instead of emphasizing short-term self-denial for short-term gain, eating keto is a holistic approach that is about re-balancing the body and making long-term, sustainable changes.

Going keto isn’t necessarily going to be easy — giving up heart-warming, culturally significant foods like spaghetti, sticky rice, and potatoes is certainly going to require some careful strategizing — but the gains to be had are undeniable. And with fresh meat delivery from truLOCAL, making sure you have plenty of delicious cuts of high-quality meat and fish to turn to when the cravings come is easy.

Get in touch with truLOCAL today and order your very own refrigerated meat box and find out how truLOCAL can help you kick start your keto diet this year. You won’t regret it!  


Posted on November 26th, 2020