Nutty No-Bake Keto Cookies

A plate of freshly baked cookies is a delightful, heartwarming treat that will remind many of their childhood days. But owing to today’s busy, fast-paced lifestyle, not many people have enough time to make their own pastry. To satisfy their cookie cravings, they turn to ready-to-eat varieties found on supermarket shelves.

However, processed cookies, biscuits and other baked goods not only taste far inferior compared to homemade ones, but also come with pitfalls for your health. Case in point: In 2013, a small study from Connecticut College found that Oreos are just as addictive as cocaine for lab rats.¹ The black-and-white cookies were found to activate more neurons in the pleasure center of the animals’ brain compared to cocaine — showing just how potentially detrimental processed foods can be for your body.

So instead of loading up on processed sweets and pastries, why not make your own at home? If you want something quick and easy, this Keto Cookies recipe from Megan Olson of PaleoHacks is perfect for you. The best part: No need to turn on your oven!

Healthy Raw Nuts and Coconut Are the Stars of This Recipe

Instead of flour and sugar, this keto-friendly cookie recipe makes use of raw nuts and coconut as the base ingredients. Raw organic nuts, in particular, are excellent because they offer healthy fats, antioxidants, vitamins and fiber, all of which are essential for your well-being. Eating nuts has been linked to a wide range of benefits, and people who include them in their diet are found to reap these effects (as compared to those who don’t):

• Better cardiovascular health
• Lower systolic blood pressure
• Fewer risk factors for metabolic syndrome
• Lower risk for diabetes
• Reduced mortality risk

L-arginine, an amino acid that offers numerous vascular benefits,² especially for people with heart disease, is also found in different types of nuts. This may be one particular reason why loading up on these foods can help improve your heart health.

Meanwhile, coconut (it’s technically a drupe, not a nut) is known for its high fiber content, minerals such as phosphorus, manganese and potassium, and naturally sterile electrolytes, all of which can be exceptionally good for your health. However, what makes it unique is its lauric acid — this converts to monolaurin, the same compound found in breast milk. Monolaurin is known for its antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties.

You Can’t Go Wrong With Grass Fed Butter

Butter, one of the essential ingredients used for baking, has been greatly vilified for decades. But it’s now making a comeback, which is great news. Raw butter is abundant in vitamins, trace minerals, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and beneficial fats. This is why it’s such a relief that people are now bringing butter back into their foods, while at the same time realizing that partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, margarine and shortening are the true enemies.

Remember, however, that for butter to be better, it must be made specifically from grass fed cows’ milk — and not from cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). CAFO butter is nutritionally inferior as the animals not only are given genetically engineered (GE) grain, but also are fed additional sugar from GE sugar beets and cottonseed to fatten them up.