Keto Cuts Revisited

I have been really frustrated lately by the leanness of beef cuts everywhere and the difficulty in finding a suitable side fat when additional fat is needed. I'm trying to not think it is a huge conspiracy* to keep everyone fat, sick, on prescriptions, always hungry and buying junky carbs!

I thought it might help me to revisit the concept of "keto cuts", that is, cuts that are naturally fat enough on their own so that they don't need additional fat!

Most keto followers just add butter or ghee when additional fat is needed. This does not work for me because my gut does not tolerate dairy, and it aggravates my keratosis pilaris (bumpy skin) too. Coconut oil and cocoa butter also bother my gut and digestion, and they don't contain the necessary antioxidants either.

I've tried tallow as well, and it bothered my gut too. Tallow has a different fatty acid makeup than regular beef fat, and isn't very palatable as a side fat since it is so waxy. FYI, please see below for a table showing the difference between tallow and bone marrow in fatty acid content.

Roasted beef marrow or bison marrow works outstandingly for me and is really delicious hot or cold, but it is very expensive and hard to come by!

I don't recommend eating pork or poultry. I know that pork, especially bacon, is a go-to source of high fat for most keto followers. But I believe pork is inflammatory, at least I know it is for me! My triglycerides were very high when I ate pork, even though it was pasture-raised, heritage breeds. And poultry is bothersome to my gut as well. Generally, I follow the policy of: can you eat it raw? If so, then it's OK! If not (I wouldn't eat raw pork or raw poultry!), then I don't eat it cooked either.

Modern meat processors trim off basically all fat on roasts and briskets that used to be sold with a beautiful thick fat cap on them in our grandparents' day. So those cuts will no longer work either, unfortunately.

So, here I am revisiting my list of modern butcher keto cuts that don't need extra fat! The numbers to the right are the average fat percentage to protein percentage for each cut, and of course eating the fat! My ideal is 75/25.

Keto Cuts
Beef
Beef tongue - 71/29
Beef sweetbreads (thymus and pancreas) - 71/29
[Beef short ribs, if you can find them with fat on them 80/20]
[Beef back ribs, if you can find them with fat on them 76/24]
[Beef brisket, if you can find it with fat on it 70/30]

Lamb
Lamb roast (breast or rib) - 80/20
Lamb roast (crown) - 75/25
Lamb chops (breast) - 79/21
Lamb ribs - 76/24
Lamb tongue - 70/30

Sablefish - 71/29

[Chicken Egg Yolks (yolk only) - 80/18 (if you can tolerate egg)]

That's a pretty short list! However, here's a few more options:

Almost keto ratio:
Ground lamb - 65/35
Lamb chops (shoulder, arm, blade, loin, sirloin) - 65/35
Lamb roast (shoulder, sirloin, blade, but not shank) - 65/35
Lamb cubes - 65/35
[Chicken eggs - 67/29 (if you can tolerate egg)]
[Duck eggs - 67/30 (if you can tolerate egg)]

Other Options:
-Beef heart with fat: Beef heart usually comes with a nice amount of fat on it. Just leave that on when you roast it. If you concentrate on the fatty parts and don't eat as much of the meat, that works! Beef heart is really delicious, cheap, and high in CoQ10 which is good for your own heart!
-Oxtail with fat: Oxtail towards the bigger end of the tail usually comes with a nice bit of fat on it. If you concentrate on the fatty parts and don't eat as much of the lean, this will work too!

After a while, I started to learn by mouth feel what is the right proportion of meat to fat! It will be a delectable, melt in your mouth feeling. Your brain will power surge! And it's hard to come by! I do think that meat processors are making things a lot harder for us zero-carb keto followers, because they are cutting off all those nice fat caps everywhere!

However, it is worth it to me to search around for these fatty cuts. I feel so good when I eat zero carb keto! No hunger, can skip meals easily, excellent health parameters on all levels (such as blood glucose, triglycerides, complete blood count, blood pressure, heart scan, tri-vascular scan, HDL, etc.).
Effortless maintenance of very low bodyfat, excellent digestion, and caloric restriction wiith no feelings of hunger or deprivation at all!

I believe it is up to us to take responsibility for our own health. I believe that healthy humans should not need drugs, supplements, or surgeries, and are naturally very slim, focused, and level-headed.

It's worth the effort to find the fat!

Grassfed oxtail with sea salt flakes

*Actually, there really is a conspiracy:
http://www.beefnutrition.org/CMDocs/BeefNutrition/Updated%20Materials/Lean%20Beef/FINAL_Lean%20Matters.pdf

“The beef industry must begin a comprehensive effort to reduce fatness of retail beef cuts."
TAMU Scientists and Beef Checkoff Lead Industry to Action, 1986 Reciprocal Meat Conference Proceedings

"During the past four decades, changes in cattle breeding and management along with trimming practices of processors, retailers and foodservice operators resulted in an estimated 44% reduction in available total fat."

"Since the 1980 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were issued, external fat on retail beef cuts has decreased by 81%."

"The total fat content for a completely trimmed Sirloin Steak declined 34% from 1963 to 2010."

"At the time of the NCRBS [1986], most beef cuts in the retail meat case had 1.3 cm (0.5 inches) of external fat."

"The 2005 National Beef Market Basket Survey monitored the impact of these improvements. This analysis, which included more than 10,000 samples, found overall fat thickness for the cuts in individual store packages was reduced to 0.24 cm (0.09 inches), marking an 81% decrease in external fat on retail cuts compared to cuts sold 26 years ago."

Look at that difference! Think of all of that fat just going to waste now. That's really, really depressing. I need to raise my own beef and butcher it myself. There's really a lot more "keto cuts" on a cow! We're just being robbed of them!

Table of Fatty Acid Content Difference Between Bone Marrow and Beef Tallow:
http://www.cyberlipid.org/glycer/glyc0071.htm

"As phospholipids are present, bone fats are more unsaturated than the other animal fats."