Even if you’ve always followed a standard Western diet, you have probably heard of both the vegan and keto diet. Though these two diets are touted as being a healthier way to eat, what are the similarities and differences when you look at keto vs vegan?

What can you eat as a vegan? What can you eat on a keto diet? Are they similar? Take a look at how these diets differ and where they overlap.

Differences

Veganism is a lifestyle not a diet. Keto advocates may argue that keto is also a lifestyle rather than a diet. But, there’s a larger all-encompassing belief system behind veganism. To make this article easier to read, the terms vegan diet and keto diet will be used to describe the typical eating patterns of these two lifestyles.

It only takes a general overview of both diets to see how they differ. Veganism excludes all animal products and focuses on a fully plant-based diet. This means that vegans don’t eat meat, seafood, dairy, eggs or honey.

So what can you eat as a vegan? Vegans can eat anything that hasn’t derived from an animal. Things like fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes. While veganism is about more than what you eat, it’s often the biggest part of making the change to a vegan lifestyle.

Many vegans are health-focused but you don’t have to be. A lot of people following a vegan diet are doing it solely for the animals and therefore still enjoy vegan junk food and more processed products.

Veganism argues that things like meat and dairy shouldn’t be eaten on moral and ethical grounds and to a lesser extent because they aren’t part of a natural human diet due to physiological differences with natural carnivores and omnivores, from the way human teeth are formed to the human digestive system.

Keto, on the other hand, is solely health-focused and what someone on this diet can eat differs from veganism quite a bit. 

What can you eat on a keto diet? Firstly, the keto diet is based on the idea of severely limiting your carbohydrate intake (often below 50g per day). This is said to put your body into a state of ketosis, where your body uses fat as its main source for energy rather than carbohydrates.

A keto diet also excludes processed foods and foods high in sugar or carbohydrates. This naturally means no fast food or things like beer but also often excludes other foods often seen as part of a healthy diet, like bananas and sweet potatoes.

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Similarities

Despite their differences, the keto and vegan diet overlap quite a bit. They both focus on the elimination of certain products from one’s diet and eating more of what that diet deems should be eaten (although keto is clearer on the ‘should’ than veganism). 

Many of these restrictions are found in both diets. For example, both diets exclude dairy milk for different reasons and both focus on eating more whole foods.

Perhaps the biggest similarity though, is the individual’s approach to each diet. Both keto dieters and vegans are often seen as very passionate about the diets they follow and are often thought of as wanting to ‘convert’ others to that way of living.

Which is better?

Everyone has different lifestyle and health circumstances and though both diets argue that they are the way people should be eating, it can vary from person to person.

Interestingly a whole food plant-based diet or keto diet can both help regulate blood sugar. They each have their considerations, like the requirement for a B12 supplement in a vegan diet and the well known keto flu experience by many keto dieters.

Where veganism trumps keto though, is with its environmental and animal welfare benefits. Going vegan is the best diet for reducing carbon emissions and reducing animal suffering whereas keto is similar to any other omnivorous diet.

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Best of both worlds?

For those interested in following a vegan keto diet, there are tons of resources online for following this very specific way of eating, including this comprehensive guide to the vegan ketogenic diet. It may be the perfect answer for you if you like the idea of both, or could be a great way for you to try either and see what works for you.

A vegan and keto diet have varying similarities and differences but where they both meet is in a focus on the individual living a healthier lifestyle and thinking about what goes in their body more and this can only be a positive.

Interested in the health side of veganism? Take a look at our health & wellbeing section.