Last Updated on January 15, 2024
Maria Emmerich is one of the people in the wellness and nutrition space whose passion for helping others achieve healthy lives we greatly admire here at ButcherBox.
Emmerich is the best-selling author of The Ketogenic Cookbook, and eight other books on health and wellness including Keto-Adapted and the soon-to-be-published Keto Restaurant Favorites. She also runs the popular blog Maria Mind Body Health, which features unique recipes that use alternative ingredients and information on how eating better can improve one’s health in a wide array of unexpected ways.
We interviewed Maria to find out more about her, ketogenic nutrition, and how grass-fed meat is a vital part of a healthy diet.
ButcherBox: What does it mean to live a ketogenic lifestyle?
Maria Emmerich: Almost every cell in our bodies can run on two fuels, glucose or fat (free fatty acids or ketones). Living a ketogenic lifestyle means you restrict carbs enough (less than 20 grams or so a day) so that you use fat as your primary fuel for your body.
BB: When did you realize the importance of being selective about the foods you consume? And how did you discover a ketogenic diet?
Maria Emmerich: I have always tried to “eat the right food” since I was in high school. Back then, I followed the low-fat, whole grains thinking and it didn’t work. I got into running marathons, but I was overweight and suffered from IBS, acid reflux, and more. I knew there had to be some way to avoid these issues, so I spent ten years researching the ketogenic lifestyle and writing books about it. Changing my diet ended my IBS and acid reflux. I also shed the extra pounds, and now I feel amazing.
BB: What has been most surprising, looking back, about the response to your books and blog posts?
Maria Emmerich: I am always amazed at the support from our followers. I think the amount of time and heart that we put into helping people makes people want to support us and creates an amazing group of people all helping each other get healthy!
BB: What is your take on grass-fed meats?
Maria Emmerich: In addition to a ketogenic lifestyle we also emphasize quality whole foods and chemical-free ingredients. It is important to have grass-fed meats as part of your diet because it gives you much more nutrient-dense protein without antibiotics or other chemicals in your food.
BB: What were some of the realizations that made you feel that way about grass-fed?
Maria Emmerich: There are so many things wrong with cattle feedlots. The over-use of antibiotics is one, but there are also problems with cattle being fed corn because it is often GMO corn that likely contains glyphosate which can then get into the animal. I believe that some of the leaky gut that is so common today is due to these small amounts of glyphosate getting into the food supply.
BB: What differences have you noticed between eating grass-fed meat versus grain-fed?
Maria Emmerich: I just love the flavor. There is nothing like a grass-fed hamburger full of rich beef flavor.
BB: What is your take on the meat industry as a whole?
Maria Emmerich: Animal proteins are one of the most nutritious foods we can eat. For some reason, this is lost in the popular understanding of food. In our soon-to-be-released book Keto Restaurant Favorites, we outline how animal proteins are some of the most nutrient-dense foods you can eat. When you think of superfoods, everyone thinks of fruits and veggies. But animal proteins, especially offal (organ meats), are the real superfoods. This chart from Keto Restaurant Favorites shows the comparisons:
BB: What are your views about the dieting space in general?
Maria Emmerich: There is a ton of bad information out there. Some of the food studies that exist are very flawed, and quite a few studies are actually the result of corruption. Take, for example, the focus on saturated fats and their connections to heart disease. That idea arose in large part due to studies funded by the sugar industry to take the focus off of sugar according to a recent story by the New York Times.
BB: How important is it to you to maintain authenticity while making food recommendations to others?
Maria Emmerich: That is of absolute importance to us. I believe it is why we have such a strong following. People know they can trust us. We get tons of offers to promote products that contain ingredients or methods that don’t meet our standards. We could make a lot of money off of these products, but it would compromise what we stand for. Our followers know that if we approve of a food or product that we trust it enough to feed it to our sons.
BB: What has been most surprising, looking back, about the response to your books and blog posts?
Maria Emmerich: I am always amazed at the support from our followers. I think the amount of time and heart that we put into helping people makes people want to support us and creates an amazing group of people all helping each other get healthy!
BB: Thank you, Maria!
