Keto Bagels Are Now Available in Austin

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Austin is fortunate to have options for just about any sort of alternative diet: We've got a booming vegan community, gluten-free substitutes are available almost everywhere, and even the lesser-known food lifestyles, like keto, are becoming more visible and accommodated. Jacqui Pruet, owner of Deceptive Decadence in Pflugerville, is a fierce advocate for living that high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate life, and she's working hard to ensure other adherents have tasty resources. It is, after all, not always a choice to eat keto – it's often medically essential.

Keto was originally designed to treat difficult-to-control epilepsy in children because the diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates, which – and we're certainly not medically trained so insert pre-emptive mea culpa here – puts the body into a metabolic state called ketosis. This drastically improves the body's fat-burning efficiency, which increases energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which affects the brain, and ketogenic diets are linked to huge reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. There are several different versions of the diet, and because everybody is different, it's important to speak with a doctor or nutritionist before embarking on a new diet.

Pruet swears by keto – she does medical grade – and credits the lifestyle change with her significant weight loss and maintaining the symptoms of her illness, polycystic ovarian syndrome, a painful condition that affects 1 in 10 women. Pruet says her "aha" moment came while working as a bank's assistant vice president: She realized she was stress-eating from a big, glass bowl of chocolates on her desk, a habit that was contributing to her host of health issues. In a sort of perfect storm, Pruet's doctor recommended keto, and her close friend who was suffering traumatic brain injury-induced seizures found relief with the same diet. Even more, her cousin Misty Mitchell, the wildly popular Mind Your Macros maven, was inspiring many people to hop aboard the keto boat after People magazine featured her impressive journey. And so Pruet's keto journey began. She proudly reports that her symptoms are held at bay and she's lost almost 100 pounds to date.

Still, a strict dietary regimen comes with cravings, and when Pruet couldn't find any reasonably priced, diet-appropriate treats, she decided to fill the gap: "I wanted to feel normal, to be able to walk into a food place and buy keto-friendly food. And with Yom Kippur coming up, I wanted to have my favorite thing to break the fast – a bagel. So I went from banker to baker, and that's how Deceptive Decadence was born."

Working out of a commercial kitchen in Pflugerville, Deceptive Decadence creates four styles of handmade bagels: gluten-free onion sesame, gluten-free jalapeño cheddar (our favorite), bagel bits, and most recently, garlic Parmesan. All of the products are around 5.5 grams of total carbs, 2.5 grams net carbs, and about 190 calories each. Which – aside from being important to those who have celiac disease and other gluten-intolerant people, diabetics, and paleo and keto adherents – is pretty remarkable because they're very delicious. They also make a mean keto cheesecake (original and raspberry), cheddar biscuits, and have plans to launch flatbreads in two flavors – pesto and sun-dried tomato and mushroom sage.

Pruet is in the process of teaming up with a co-baker to increase production, and she currently sells her carby-without-the-carbs treats wholesale at Cherrywood Coffeehouse, Three Legged Goat, Nelo's Cycles & Coffee, and West Pecan Coffee + Beer in Pflugerville. Thanks to their high fat content, the treats freeze beautifully, which means you can totally stock up on these tasty, versatile little beauts, whether or not you're all about keto.

Check the Deceptive Decadence social media feeds for video recipes (bagel stuffing! breakfast sandwiches!) and availability. www.instagram.com/deceptivedecadence.