What Do You Actually Need to Start Keto? (MCT Oil, Grass-Fed Butter, Ketone Strips)

2017-08-01

Seventeen minutes, partly filmed walking around the house to get away from my barking dog. It opens with me holding up MCT oil, two kinds of premium butter and a box of ketone strips, calling it the complete keto kit, and then spending the rest of the video taking the kit apart.

In this video

[0:00] The "keto kit": MCT oil, Kerrygold, a pastured butter, ketone strips.
[0:30] I know about omega-3 vs omega-6, and I said the American Heart Association's margarine-era advice on fats was wrong (video DWI8qQl5BbY).
[1:00] Grass-fed is better if you can afford it. But is it keto? MCT oil isn't necessary.
[1:30] The strips were the one item I called useful: biofeedback to see which foods cause you problems.
[2:00] My dog was having seizures that day and eats a food high in MCT oil. MCT may matter for epilepsy, but ketosis doesn't need it.
[3:30] I said I administer a forum of 1,700-plus members, many of them in a Midwest organic dairy co-op, and I've talked to the farmers.
[4:00] Ketosis "doesn't come with a sales campaign" (from the video), so what gets pushed is products: exogenous ketones, MCT oil, Kerrygold.
[5:00] Ketosis doesn't need perfection, and strictness talk makes other people feel bad.
[5:30] A viewer abroad going store to store for an acceptable "keto oil." My answer: canola and vegetable oils aren't ideal, but they're acceptable.
[7:00] Food spending: I cited Americans spending about 8% of income on food against about 21% in France.
[8:00] People come to keto for different reasons: coeliac, weight loss, Crohn's, bloating, epilepsy.
[8:30] MCT oil is tasteless, doesn't hold up to heat, and works only as an add-on.
[9:00] Avoid carbohydrates, and everything else is window dressing.
[10:00] Bone broth is good, but not everyone has hours to make stock.
[11:30] In 35 days I'd had one dose of MCT oil. I got into ketosis with real food.
[12:00] I want more talk about cooking chuck roast, pork shoulder, chicken thighs and whole cuts.
[13:30] "You can be keto at Walmart" (from the video).
[15:00] My three picks at the time: keto sticks, almond flour, erythritol (or stevia).
[16:30] Keto isn't a diet where you have to get things. It's one where you have to not get things.

The line that holds up: "you have to not get things"

If I could keep one sentence from 2017, it's the last one in this video. Keto is a carbohydrate restriction. It's defined by what you leave out (video DWI8qQl5BbY).

The biology agrees with the short version. Ketogenesis happens in the liver, regulated by insulin and glucagon (StatPearls, Ketogenesis). Lower carbs, lower insulin, and the liver starts making ketones from fat. No oil, butter or supplement is on that list.

That's why the viewer story hit me. She was on her third or fourth store, stretching her budget, because someone told her vegetable oil "isn't keto" (video DWI8qQl5BbY). I said then that the oil question is a separate health question from the carb question, and I'd say it the same way now. Whether canola oil is a good choice for your heart is worth asking. Whether it stops ketosis isn't a question at all.

I'll flag one thing: the 8% vs 21% food-spending figures are mine from the video. None of this site's evidence pages covers them, so treat them as my recollection, not a checked number.

Then vs now: ketone strips

This is where I changed my mind the most. Here, strips were the one useful thing in the kit, and I listed keto sticks first among my three picks (video DWI8qQl5BbY). A few days later I made a whole video on three ways to test (video 8wOheKcBEd8) and another on dark strips (video GojQvo_2GS0).

By 2019 I was saying you don't need to check your levels with a device; ketone monitors are optional (video 1JbK1_ClDmY).

Both positions have a point. For a beginner in month one, a cheap strip can confirm the carb cut is working. Later, strips show less as your body uses ketones better, which I explained in the dark-strips video (video GojQvo_2GS0). See do you need to test?.

The other two picks

Almond flour and erythritol were about having a keto-friendly flour and a sweetener, because so many people need some kind of sweets (video DWI8qQl5BbY). I called erythritol controversial even then. The evidence pages don't cover sweeteners, so I'm leaving that for sugar alcohols. What I'd say now: you don't need either to start. They're conveniences, same as the oil.

Key points

Keto is a carb restriction, not a shopping list (video DWI8qQl5BbY).
MCT oil, grass-fed butter and Kerrygold may have their own health stories, but ketosis doesn't need them.
Canola and vegetable oils are acceptable if that's what you can get or afford. See cooking oils.
Cheap, fatty whole cuts (chuck roast, pork shoulder, thighs) do more for you than specialty products. See cheap fatty cuts.
I once called ketone strips the one useful item in the kit; by 2019 I said ketone monitors are optional.
Don't accept strictness that makes other people feel they can't afford to start.