There Are No Essential Carbohydrates... So Why Eat Them?

Our focus is on a clean, ketogenic diet. So getting the carbohydrate level down is important in order to produce ketones, but you're never going to get rid of all of them, nor do I necessarily want you to. I am actually a big vegetable fan, so keep that in mind as we dive, and I’ll explain it all.

First, this is a list of the essential carbohydrates:

I know there's nothing there. You're not crazy. There's no misprint. Unlike certain fats and amino acids, there is no recognized category of essential carbohydrates because the body can manufacture glucose when needed.

Let that sink in a little bit. I was a little flabbergasted at it, too. There are essential fatty acids (fats), and there are essential amino acids (proteins). There's nothing essential in the carbohydrates, meaning that your body can actually produce glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis. That will not be on a spelling test later. The gluconeogenesis process is where your body actually creates glucose so that it will always have a fuel source ready to go. Your body is always shifting things around to keep itself in this state of balance or homeostasis, and it is crucial for it to have that blood sugar stay regulated. Which is why it has a way to actually make it itself to use to raise the blood sugar when needed.

The World's Longest Fast

But make no mistake, there's nothing essential about it. That means you don't have to eat it. And I just think this is kind of a fun fact to prove this point… guess how long the world's record is for not eating… 382 days by a Scottish man named Angus Barbieri back in 1965–1966. Now he was almost 500 lbs when he started. But it's kind of crazy because you can just live off your fat stores using gluconeogenesis. His body relied heavily on stored fat for energy while producing the glucose it still needed through processes such as gluconeogenesis. You don't actually have to eat any carbohydrates in order to live.

So why in the world would we eat carbohydrates at all?

Fiber: Fuel for Your Microbiome

One is for the fiber. The fiber, whether soluble or insoluble, is actually going to be the food for our gut bacteria, our microbiome. Keep that in mind because it is really important. You're not eating but not digesting the fiber and when it gets down into your colon (aka large intestine), it is the food for the good bacteria there that make all sorts of things in return for you - B vitamins, K vitamin, short chain fatty acids, etc. Most people take probiotics for them but the research is showing that the best way to improve your microbiome is by eating diverse fibers. And I’ll show you how to do that in the Green Shot section in chapter tk.

Fiber also is going to help regulate your blood sugar, so it's going to keep things more balanced and avoid those blood sugar spikes. After all we have discussed on this channel about blood sugar, I am sure I don’t need to let you know again how important this is to creating blood sugar stability when we’re talking about cancer.

Did you notice that I didn’t mention fiber preventing constipation? This isn’t where the gold is at in terms of fiber’s jobs. Usually, hydration and fiber consumption are the first things that people talk about if someone is constipated. In my clinical experience, thyroid function is often an overlooked contributor to gut motility issues. If the thyroid is sluggish (hypothyroid) then it is not producing enough energy to create the electric impulses that squeeze the stool along through the colon (called peristalsis). And you may remember that the thyroid was mentioned in the root cause drivers of cancer, which is why I see it so commonly with my clients.

Some functional medicine practitioners believe thyroid dysfunction is underrecognized when relying solely on conventional reference ranges.

So if you have had yours checked and were told it was fine, it may not be functionally.

Phytonutrients: The Hidden Benefits of Plants

Now, the other great thing you can get from carbohydrates, and you hear about this all the time, especially in cancer circles, is those phytonutrients. So these are different compounds that have benefits to our bodies, although they are not essential to life. Benefits can include:

Antioxidant activity
Inflammation regulation
Detoxification support
Immune signaling
Hormone modulation
Cellular protection

These phytonutrients are often what give plants their color, which is why you hear people say things like “eat the rainbow” to encourage getting an array of phytonutrients. Now, many of these phytonutrients you have heard of, such as curcumin and resveratrol. These compounds, which are being talked about all the time in cancer circles, are super sexy, super foods. However, many practitioners use concentrated extracts in order to attain levels that may be difficult to obtain from food alone.

We’re working to turn the Titanic around, and it doesn’t happen from food alone, although that has to be the foundation.

The Best Carbohydrates for a Ketogenic Diet

So what carbs do you eat? Eat the low-carb veggies and low-carb fruits. The fascinating thing is that the low-carb versions are the most phytonutrient-dense. Super convenient. Most fruits you’ll want to avoid or eat in moderation with fats and proteins, never on an empty stomach. But the berries are low-carb, nutrient-dense, and delicious.

In terms of veggies, avoid the ones that grow in the ground, as most of them tend to have more carbs. Although garlic and onions are particularly good to consume therapeutically, most people do not consume huge quantities, so the carb level is not an issue. So focus on eating the above-ground lower-carb vegetables, such as dark leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage - these are going to be nutrient-dense, have lots of fiber for your microbiome, and they're not going to have the higher-carb content.

Now, a couple things I want to mention, things like carrots and beets have a lot of nutrition and a lot of benefits, but they are higher carbohydrates, so I would recommend using them in moderation, so they can be like a garnish, so you can, like, grate some carrots or beets on top of a salad, but you're not eating the whole carrot or the whole beet. Sugar beets are one of the sources used for commercial sugar production, which reflects their relatively high carbohydrate content. They're pretty carb-bloated, so keep these two in moderation, and we discuss juicing in my video, Why I will never juice again.

Eat these lovely veggies organic, ideally as much as possible, because then they'll have less glyphosate, pesticides, herbicides, all the stuff. Here is the list for 2026 from the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen) where they list the cleanest and dirtiest fruits and veggies in terms of the chemicals. This is a great example of Good / Better / Best concept we discussed earlier. If you can’t afford or aren’t able to source everything organic, here is a fantastic way to pick your battles.

The Dirty Dozen

Spinach
Kale, Collard, and Mustard Greens
Strawberries
Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Cherries
Apples
Blackberries
Pears
Potatoes
Blueberries

Clean Fifteen

Pineapples
Sweet Corn (fresh and frozen)
Avocados
Papaya
Onion
Sweet Peas (frozen)
Asparagus
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Watermelon
Mangoes
Bananas
Carrots
Mushrooms
Kiwi

If you have to pick for budget reasons, which things you're not going to get organic, you want to pick off the Clean Fifteen and then prioritize getting the organic from the Dirty Dozen list. So with a keto diet, berries and greens get prioritized to organic, and avocados, cabbage, cauliflower, and onions get de-prioritized, and if there’s a pinch, they go to non-organic.

The other aspect I want to mention is GMOs, which stand for genetically modified organisms. Many people choose to avoid GMOs. The ones that are often GMO in the US currently are sweet corn, zucchini / summer squash, and papaya. For keto, the pertinent one is the zucchini and yellow summer squash - always get that organic.

Don't Let Perfection Become a Source of Stress

Keep in mind that the stress of making it perfect could be creating stress and doing more harm than the organic choice is doing good. So Good / Better / Best and keep your perspective.

Let's Recap

In general, you want that beautiful plate of veggies - just make sure to enter them into Cronometer and see how it affects you with your Keto Mojo. The most important function that they serve is to give you something to serve all that fat on. Spoil those beautiful veggies with decadent sauces like Hollandaise and Béarnaise, and even just melted butter. They will shine, and it will actually make the nutrients more absorbable by your body.