The ketogenic diet has risen from obscurity to become one of the most popular weight loss programs overnight.
And, while keto can help you lose weight, the advantages to general health likely keep keto in the news.
However, something new has evolved, and “keto 2.0” appears to be cropping up everywhere. But what’s the deal with this new approach to keto? Is keto 2.0 a factual enhancement or a diversion from the tried-and-true classic keto diet?
Let’s look at what keto 2.0 is all about and whether you should try this new diet.
What Is Keto 2.0?
Keto 2.0 expands on the standard low-carbohydrate, high-fat ketogenic diet by introducing a few new criteria.
What Foods Can You Eat On Keto 2.0?
Keto 2.0, like classic keto, focuses on low-carb eating, specifically on ingesting fat from plant-based meals while lowering animal intake. To compensate for the protein loss, keto 2.0 recommends consuming more protein from fish.
Proponents of the keto 2.0 diet believe it is more adaptable and straightforward. Furthermore, including more plant-based fats reduces saturated fat consumption.
Green leafy vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, avocados, salmon, nuts, seeds, and eggs are staples in the keto 2.0 diet. While red meat, poultry, and dairy are on the decline.
Sugar, whole grains, root vegetables, and other high-carbohydrate foods are prohibited.
Furthermore, keto 2.0 adherents have greater freedom with their macronutrient ratio (a notion we’ll go over in more depth later). Traditional keto adheres to a macronutrient ratio of:
- Fat: 55-60%
- Protein: 30-35%
- Carbs: 5-10%
This ratio is shifted in Keto 2.0 to allow for additional carbs, with a balance of:
- Fat: 50%
- Protein: 30%
- Carbs: 20%
Is Keto 2.0 Healthy?
Keto 2.0, like conventional keto, necessitates a reduction in carbohydrate intake compared to a regular diet. By lowering your carbohydrate intake, you may naturally support your blood sugar and avoid complications like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease that can result from high-carb diets [1].
Because keto 2.0 emphasizes fatty fish, you’ll get the anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fatty acids [2]. Salmon, mackerel, sardines, and herring are among omega-3-rich fatty fish [3].
According to research, high doses of omega-3s in your diet can enhance blood lipid levels, ease arthritic symptoms, and even slow the formation of malignancies in your body [4].
Keto 2.0 emphasizes plant-based unsaturated fats from avocado, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. These foods are high in monounsaturated fat, which has been shown in studies to support [5][6][7]:
- Healthy cholesterol levels (lowered LDL and increased HDL)
- Weight management
- Blood pressure
- Blood sugar
- Heart health
- Triglycerides
Finally, by emphasizing green leaves and other low-carb vegetables, keto 2.0 provides a diet rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals [8].
How Is Keto 2.0 Different From Traditional Keto?
Now that you’ve seen some of the advantages of keto 2.0, the question is, how is this new version different from regular keto?
The Traditional Keto Diet
Let’s start with the typical keto diet in its most basic form:
As far as we know, people had always had the potential to enter a ketosis state when carbohydrate dietary supplies were limited. This is how many of your ancestors survived the long, bitter winters of the hunter-gatherer era. When the cold months arrived, people probably survived primarily on game meat from whatever the tribe’s hunters could locate.
The result? A diet vital in fat and protein but low in carbs. As a result, it’s possible that hunter-gatherers were in ketosis for months at a time merely to survive.
Fast forward thousands of years to the 1920s, when a doctor called Russell Wilder found that drastically restricting carbs might significantly reduce the number of seizures experienced by children with epilepsy. He dubbed this low-carb diet “the ketogenic diet,” so the keto diet was born [9].
Differing Dietary Guidelines
The first point to remember about the keto diet is that your hunter-gatherer ancestors and epileptic children were not merely lowering carb consumption. Carbohydrates must be severely reduced to enter ketosis (a condition in which your body produces ketones).
Ketone synthesis will not occur if enough glucose is in your blood to give your body energy [10].
As a result, the typical ketogenic diet gives macronutrient (fat, protein, and carbohydrate) intake requirements rather than food consumption guidelines.
Many people associate the ketogenic diet with bacon, cheese, and fatty burgers. As a result, many believe the ketogenic diet must be high in animal items and low in vegetables.
The keto 2.0 diet, on the other hand, specifies the sorts of foods that should be consumed. The benefit of these rules is that they highlight some of the lesser-known keto-friendly meals, such as nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and seafood.
Shifting Macronutrient Guidelines
The macronutrient requirements are another significant distinction between classic keto and keto 2.0. While traditional keto provides recommendations to assist most individuals in achieving ketosis, keto 2.0 loosens the reins a little – especially regarding carbohydrates.
It may not appear to be a significant change, but increasing carb consumption from 5-10% to 20% of total daily calories is. Following a 2000-calorie diet would entail increasing daily carbohydrate intake from 25-50 grams to 100 grams.
As previously stated, the goal of a ketogenic diet (regardless of what foods you eat) is to maintain carbs low enough to achieve ketosis. Most people would only achieve ketosis while taking 100 grams of carbohydrates per day if they exercise excessively and time their carbohydrate intake around their exercises.
The Real Deal With Keto 2.0
While keto 2.0 may appear to be an improvement over the classic keto diet, the truth is that it is not a “keto” diet at all. It resembles a low-carb variation of the Mediterranean diet.
Furthermore, the notion that we need to modify the keto diet in the first place stems from the misperception that keto dieters must pile cheese and meat on their plates.
People have often compared the keto diet to the Atkins diet of the 1990s, which consisted of fatty burgers topped with bacon and cheese wrapped in lettuce. However, eating a lot of meat and dairy is no longer associated with being in ketosis.
This results from industry leaders pushing a ketogenic lifestyle with healthy fats, low-carb vegetables, and sustainably produced protein.
While the meals on keto 2.0 are unquestionably nutritious, the macronutrient ratio is a significant concern. Unless you’re working out and carefully eating carbs around your workout, consuming 20% of your calories from carbs won’t get you into ketosis.
This variant of the keto diet is also said to be more adaptable. However, when comparing the dietary rules of keto 2.0 to classic keto, you’ll see that only things are excluded (dairy, chicken, red meat, etc.), and nothing new is introduced.
If anything, keto 2.0 reinforces the phobia of saturated fat that many academics and low-carb health experts have worked tirelessly to disprove.
If you’re unaware, the current study has repeatedly demonstrated that saturated fat causes heart disease is false and that substituting saturated fat in your diet with omega-6 fatty acids may have negative consequences on your heart [11][12].
Get The Best Of Both Worlds
What if you wish to gain all the benefits of Mediterranean diet foods? Go ahead and include them.
Indeed, any well-balanced ketogenic diet should include a mix of protein and fat sources, such as omega-3-rich seafood, olive oil, and almonds.
You can have the best of both worlds by sticking to the classic keto diet (with the regular macros) but modifying it to include a broader range of keto-friendly items.
The Bottom Line
While the motivation behind keto 2.0 is noble, the fact is that this version of the diet will most certainly cause more harm than good.
If your keto diet is heavy on meat and cheese and you want to transition to a more plant and fish-based diet, changing your weekly meal plan to incorporate more of these items is a great way to start.
To put it bluntly, if you pair that change with increased tolerance toward carbohydrates, you’re missing the purpose.
Do you want to include more omega-3s and monounsaturated fats in your keto diet? Have fun with it. Just be careful not to confuse low-carb diets with the ketogenic diet.
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