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This is the story of our founder. Scroll down to meet our new team member.
A Food Love Affair
Born in 1963, Antya grew up surrounded by Italian food and beautiful, fresh, organic produce. After moving to the UK as a traumatised child following a double family tragedy, her love for Italian cuisine continued. As soon as she was old enough to cope in the kitchen on her own, she taught herself how to make beautiful and tasty meals from scratch. Her favourite dishes always featured plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. They also included home made pasta, pizza, bread, gnocchi, risottos and carbohydrate rich sauces. Not to mention cakes, biscuits and all sorts of sweet delights loaded with refined flour and bucket loads of sugar. Baking was by far her favourite activity.
It is safe to say that she was a true carbo-holic. She couldn’t even eat a salad without an entire box of breadsticks to go with it! Yet she was convinced that her mostly home-cooked diet was the healthiest and best. Even her medical student text books said so, after all. When her children came along, she focussed even more on home cooking with fresh, unadulterated produce. She wanted them to grow up in a healthy way, on the high carb and low fat diet, in accordance with standard nutritional recommendations.
The Cholesterol Conundrum
As the years passed, she looked and felt healthy. Her only medical issue was Familial Hypercholesterolaemia. Her mum had had a heart attack at an early age and had died suddenly at the age of 37. This led to her being tested and diagnosed with FH. Her cholesterol levels increased year after year. Relentlessly. To way off the scales. She was given a very short life expectancy (mid thirties, maybe 40s with a bit of luck) unless she took statins forever. The thought of dying so young scared the hell out of her. Thinking of her two small children she started taking prescription statins and the cholesterol levels plummeted to ‘normal’ range. Phew! Or so she thought… Unfortunately, she began suffering with muscular pains, aches and fatigue almost immediately. And it got progressively worse.
The Dark Side of Statins
Her GP refused time and time again to acknowledge any link between the pains and the statin drugs she was taking. He merely insisted that she “take them or die“. So she continued to endure the pain that apparently was ‘all in her head’. Until a few years later, when statin side effects started to be recognised. She became curious after reading that the cholesterol link to heart disease was a total myth. That led her to read more and more on the subject. The more she read, the more she became convinced that the whole theory of fat, cholesterol and heart disease was utter rubbish. But she also found out a worse truth: that statins inhibit the mevalonate pathway, with potentially dreadful consequences. In the end, she made the ultimate decision to stop taking the drugs, much against medical advice.
As if by pure magic… all the debilitating symptoms, including myalgia, disappeared almost immediately. She was pleasantly surprised and convinced she had made the right choice. But still a concern for her health kept niggling her. What if the doctors were right and she was a “ticking time bomb”? What if she died suddenly and left her children without their mother when still so young? She didn’t want them to go through the hell that she had experienced in her own childhood. She kept banishing those thoughts to the back of her mind, though they kept creeping back to the forefront from time to time. So she continued to ‘watch’ her fats intake. Just in case.
The Keto Awakening
Then, a few years later, she had an epiphany: while reading about carbs, sugar, fat and metabolism, she discovered ketosis and its too-numerous-to-mention health benefits. It seemed impossible and inconceivable. Fat is good for you? No way!!!! But the more she read about it, the more it made sense. It dawned on her that she had got it completely wrong. Now it was time to reverse the damage.
She started the switch by firstly cutting out added sugar – and boy did she see the benefits immediately! Then she cut out her carbohydrate-loaded favourites and found yet more benefits – less cravings, more energy, better hair and skin, to name but a few. Then she started being selective about the fruit and vegetables she was eating, avoiding the starchy, higher carb ones.
Well! It was never her intention, but as a ‘side effect’ she lost a lot of weight in just 6 weeks. 5 whole kg to be precise, and since she started at only 56 kg, it did surprise her!
The biggest benefit, the one she had been aiming for all along, didn’t disappoint: HDL cholesterol increased and triglycerides took a dive into normal range, for the first time, ever. Mission accomplished. Oh, and serum CRP (C reactive protein) level dropped too, which indicated no inflammation. Extra bonus point!
Yet despite the excellent lipid results, GPs kept pushing her to take statins. It wasn’t until more recently that a new “specialist” conceded that her stats (BP, heart rate, serum lipids, kidney and liver functions) were perfect and not a CVD risk. Basically confirming that she was just like any person who doesn’ thave FH. A medical miracle, no less.
Gone from a ticking heart attack explosive to zero risk. ALL THANKS TO KETO!!!!!
In all honesty, switching to a completely ketogenic lifestyle wasn’t easy for someone who got easily bored of meat-and-two-veg type dishes and loved bread, pasta and rice more than anything in the world. Learning to cook with ingredients she didn’t even know existed before, was a massive task. Erythritol, Lupin flour, Allulose, MCT oil, Guar Gum, Agar Agar, Locust Bean Gum, Whey Protein Isolate. Whaaat????? Never mind her determination to re-create (well, attempting to) what she was used to, i.e. Italian classics and desserts that didn’t look or taste like cardboard!
Coping With Carb Cravings
There have been – and still are – occasions when the aroma of freshly baked pastries or the sight of a gorgeous pasta dish take her back in time and she reminisces fondly. But there is never temptation. Those thoughts disappear in a flash and all she can think about is how she might be able to recreate whatever she saw or smelled – the keto way.
Nowadays she continues to be inventive, and her methods and choice of ingredients can be a little maverick at times… until other bloggers copy and follow.
Take Lupin flour, for example, Antya was the first keto blogger to use it within a keto context, and she was vilified, criticised and rebuked by many fellow bloggers, worldwide, for using something that “wasn’t keto”. Fast forward to 2026 and you will find that many, many low carb and keto bloggers are now using lupin flour for all sorts of dishes.
Variety is Key to Keto Success
Understanding what ‘ketogenic’ means, why ketosis is healthy, and which ingredients to use in every day meals, is a huge task in itself, never mind finding enough variety in home cooking to make this lifestyle sustainable! It’s no surprise that many people who find the ketogenic ‘diet‘ alluring end up going back to eating ‘normal‘ food. They either get tired of eating the same foods, or they can’t figure out what to take to work for lunch, or their busy lives don’t allow much spare time to cook. And let’s face facts: we are surrounded by tasty, attractive, convenience food that is highly addictive, so temptation is always looming!
The aim of this blog is to make keto life easier by providing easy recipe ideas for every situation. Whether it’s breakfast, a packed lunch, a picnic, dinner for 1+ or a full-on Christmas family meal.
And because desserts are what ketoers miss the most, sweet recipes very much prevail 🙂
A New Queen Keto Era has Begun
We are thrilled to welcome a new member to our team:
Roos de Leeuw
A Diagnosis and a Diet
For Roos (pronounced as Rose), the journey into the ketogenic lifestyle didn’t begin with a desire to lose weight or a sudden curiosity about nutrition. It started with a diagnosis that shook her family: her husband was diagnosed with ADPKD (Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease) after hurting himself while snowboarding.
While researching ways to support her husband’s kidney health, Roos discovered the emerging science suggesting that a ketogenic diet could be highly beneficial for managing ADPKD. Without hesitation, she decided to overhaul their kitchen. But taking on a strict medical diet is daunting. Initially, it felt like a massive mountain to climb. She began cooking keto strictly out of love and necessity for her husband, fully expecting it to be a restrictive and joyless chore of endless meat and sad, plain vegetables.
The Unexpected Joy of Keto
But then, something entirely unexpected happened. Roos didn’t just tolerate this new way of cooking. She absolutely fell in love with it.
She quickly discovered that ketogenic meals weren’t just diet food; they were rich, satisfying, and incredibly flavourful. By eating the same meals alongside her husband, she realised she was reaping the health benefits too. The boundless energy, the mental clarity, and the simple joy of eating delicious and wholesome food made her a total keto convert. What had started as a necessity for her husband had blossomed into a lifestyle that they both genuinely enjoyed.
From Inspiration to Creation
Like anyone starting out on keto, Roos needed inspiration to keep their daily menu varied, especially when craving the comforts of their old diet. That is when she found the Queen Keto website. The highly creative recipes and the dedication to truly delicious food resonated with her immediately. The blog became her trusted guide for navigating the sometimes bewildering world of keto ingredients.
Armed with Queen Keto’s inspiration and her newfound passion for the kitchen, Roos began to experiment. She started tweaking formulas, inventing new flavour profiles, and developing her very own keto masterpieces. She was determined to prove that eating for your health never has to mean compromising on taste.
The Travel Challenge
As any seasoned keto dieter knows, the hardest part about this lifestyle is often eating outdoors. For Roos, who has an absolute passion for travel, this could have been a major roadblock. Instead, she views eating ketogenic abroad as a fun and thrilling challenge. Navigating foreign menus, asking the right questions, and finding hidden low carb gems in different countries has become a favourite part of her trips. She has gathered so much knowledge on the road that she plans to write about her keto travel adventures separately from her recipes, sharing her top tips for staying on track while exploring the globe.
Today, she is absolutely thrilled to join Queen Keto as the newest team member. Ready to bring fresh ideas, a passion for healing through food, and an incredible talent for creating mouthwatering dishes. The Queen Keto legacy of exceptional and high quality recipes continues to thrive with her in the kitchen.
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