Creating keto-friendly meals which taste great and look appealing can be challenging.  Since food is the primary means of the therapy, increasing the palatability and appearance of meals can greatly enhance a child’s compliance.  However, when making common childhood favorites such as pizza or cookies, finding a recipe that works with high fat and low carbohydrate can be challenging! For example, think of a meal that is typical of a normal diet.  Meals usually consist of a substantial amount of carbohydrate in the form of bread, pasta, or vegetables, while typical snacks contain carbohydrates such as flour and sugar. The amount of carbohydrate allowed in ketogenic meals is comparatively very low. Bread, pasta, flour and sugar cannot be the primary ingredients in keto recipes and oftentimes, must be eliminated completely in patients with high ratios.  The following diagrams compare the ratio of macronutrients in a normal meal to the ratio of macronutrients in a ketogenic meal at a 3:1 ratio.

Although making ketogenic meals may call for a little creativity, it can definitely be done. With much help from the countless caregivers who have provided helpful hints and imaginative recipe ideas, the KetoGators hold Meal Equivalent Day to test various recipes to find the combination of ingredients which maximize palatability and appeal.

Some of our most successful recipes include Vanilla Custard.  Our recipe calls for eggs, whipping cream, Equal, salt, and vanilla extract, and was one of our first custard recipes with a great consistency and great taste! While we wish we could say all of our recipes have been this successful, we often encounter the same obstacles which caregivers face each day.

First of all, we would like to commend all of the caregivers out there for the amount of time and effort given to making their child’s therapy a success. We understand the commitment and hard work that goes into the therapy each and every day.

If you have any great recipe ideas, or would like to submit a helpful hint for making meals, please email us at if-svc-investigators@ifas.ufl.edu (Any advice that we can get for other parents would be greatly appreciated)