Carrots Can Be Keto-Friendly, But There's a Catch (2024)

FAQs

Can carrots be keto-friendly? ›

The bottom line. Carrots can be eaten on keto, but it may be difficult to include them regularly or in large quantities, as they contain a fair amount of carbs. Some less starchy alternatives to enjoy raw or cooked include celery, broccoli, and cauliflower.

They may be packed with vision-friendly vitamin A, as the National Institutes of Health points out, but one medium carrot has 4.1 g of net carbs, per the USDA. If you eat more than a single carrot in one sitting, that small number of carbs can easily tip you over the edge of your keto limit.

No! Carrot juice is not keto-friendly because the fiber is removed. Without fiber, carrot juice is mostly sugar and has a much higher glycemic index. Carrot juice will spike insulin and kick you out of ketosis.

Eating Vegetables on the Keto Diet

To eat vegetables in a keto diet, limit those that contain a lot of carbs, like potatoes, corn, and peas. 4 Instead, up your intake of non-starchy vegetables.

- Starchy Vegetables: Potatoes, peas, sweet potatoes, yams, corn, cassava, artichoke, etc. - Refined Carbs: Bread, pasta, pastries, tortilla, sandwich, etc. Due to the high-carb content of these food items, they are not keto-friendly.

Vegetables form a large part of a ketogenic, or keto, diet. Healthful options include celery, tomatoes, spinach, and mushrooms. A person may wish to avoid starchy vegetables. Keto diets restrict the amount of carbohydrates a person can eat.

While cottage cheese is known for its high protein content, it also contains a relatively high amount of carbs and not that much fat, making it a less-than-ideal choice for keto. A ½-cup serving of cottage cheese contains 88 calories, 2.4 g of fat, 4.5 g of carbs, and 11.6 g of protein, per the USDA.

Since they also pack an incredible nutritional punch, walnuts are a snack-worthy food for those on keto or not. Of course, many nuts and seeds are keto-friendly, but walnuts are particularly so. They're high-fat, low-carb, and vitamin-rich.

What junk food is keto friendly? ›

Red Cabbage

Cabbage is delicious when stuffed into keto fajitas, used in soups, or made into coleslaw with a rich, creamy high-fat dressing that's keto-friendly. It has 2 grams of net carbs per cup shredded, so you can eat a lot in one sitting without falling out of ketosis, says Dixon.

Can you eat tomatoes on the keto diet? "Tomatoes are keto," says Abby Langer, R.D., author of Good Food, Bad Diet. "They're low in carbs, so they fit perfectly into keto." One whole medium tomato contains roughly 5 grams of carbohydrates, of which 1.5 grams are fiber and 3 grams are sugar.

Cucumbers are made of 90% water and are almost calorie-free. One cup of cucumbers contains only 16 calories and 3 grams of net carbs, making it a sure fit for a keto plan.

Is Corn Keto? It shouldn't be a surprise to you, based on the amount of carbs in corn, that corn is not keto. But remember, Boehmer says, keto dieters are allowed roughly 3o to 40 grams of carbs per day. A half-cup of corn contains about 15 grams of carbs, which makes it a tasty salad topper or egg scramble mix-in.

Olives are a great source of fat whilst remaining incredibly low in carbohydrates, in every 100g of olives there is only around 3 net carbs. They are the perfect way to fill yourself up whilst on a keto diet, either as a light snack or even on top of salads.