Can you do Keto in Laos? Well the goods news for strict adherents to this diet, as well as lazy part-timers such as myself is that doing keto in both Vientiane and Laos in general is pretty easy.
I found this out on my third visit to the country where I traveled overland from Bangkok to Vientiane and Vientiane to Kunming.
Whats the deal with Laotian cuisine?
Laotian cuisine or rather the food eaten by the vast majority of people in Laos tends to be relatively simple and particularly for poorer people vegetable heavy. Typical vegetable used are things such as the green papaya salad. This and other salads are very common.
Rice, or rather sticky rice is also eaten everywhere and pretty much all of the time.
Other than that you will find heavy influences from all neighbors such as Cambodia, Thailand, China and even Myanmar.
The country is also really famous for its beer! Now you may notice that very little of this is keto friendly, but I have yet to mention their street food.
Keto in Laos and Street Food
To do Keto in Laos you will need to be hotting up either restaurants, or the board street food scene. This is meat heaven with dishes such as larb (a meat salad) having at least the meat element. Then there are the Laos sausages which come either as meat only, or mixed with a small amount of rice (not enough to worry about).
Laos is also heavy on ceviches and raw fish and meat dishes, such as raw shrimp Again this comes with salad meaning you merely have to take on your salad dodging persona.
I have covered the street food of the capital in depth, but to put things in perspective while there are soups, rice and noodle dishes the lions share are meat, meat on a stick, meat in a bag and well yogurt the point. Laos BBQ is particularly good and one could very happily live just on that.
Eggs are also great with Laos not just offering its own take on balut, but also pong man ang a really good open and peppered egg in the shell that is a big deal in Battambang. They also have their own take on Egg Proma among other egg extravaganzas.
Keto in Laos – How to drink…….
The people of Laos like to drink, which is a good thing, but alas when it comes to keto in Laos there is not all that much to choose from. The main drink here of course is Beer Lao which is great, but are like drinking a loaf of bread each bottle.
That puts your booze options for doing keto into the realms of Laotian moonshine and whisky, but without any form of mixer. This though can be dangerous with Lao offering up some truly strong moonshine.
Conclusion on Keto In Lao
That is the story of keto in Lao, not the best, but far from the worst country in the world to try and pull off this diet. And while I base this primarily on Vientiane the same rings true of major spots like Luang Prabang.
One outlier of course here is Vang Vieng home to tubing, drugs and everything that seems to be anti everything that the rest of Laos seems to stand for (at least in my mind). This means that you will struggle to get Laotian food here with there instead being lots of (bad) western food for you to try and get your Lao keto fix from.
You can check out via the link my extensive page on our tours to Lao.