What Fruit Can You Eat On Keto Diet

Best Fruits To Eat On Keto

Very few fruits can actually be considered low carb when you take into account a typical serving size. However, if you enjoy them in smaller quantities, they can fit into your daily macro goals and still provide meaningful nutrition.

Here are the best keto friendly fruits with less than 15 grams of net carb per standard serving.

Can You Eat Fruits On Keto

While fruits are generally rich in carbohydrates, certain options are allowed. As long as you plan your fruit intake carefully, yes you can definitely eat fruits and still maintain ketosis. After all, including fruit is one way to diversify your diet and help meet your nutritional needs. Plus, low-carb fruits can serve as healthy desserts.

Good Examples Of Carb Keto Diet Foods:

• Approximate grams of carbs per day based on a 2,000-calorie diet: 70

Protein is essential to build muscle cells and burn calories. As a result, if you eat too little protein on the keto diet , then your body will turn to muscle tissue as fuel. This, in turn, will lower your overall muscle mass and the number of calories you burn at rest. Likewise, eating too much protein puts undue strain on your kidneys. Plus, your body will convert the excess protein to carbohydrates for fuel, and that’s the exact opposite goal of the keto diet.

Experts say to shoot for around 15% of calories from high-fat protein sources like those below. Some protein sources also provide important vitamins to keep your hair, eyes, and immune system strong, while others should only be consumed in small doses. “While processed meats like sausage and bacon are technically permitted on the keto diet, I’d recommend limiting them since they’re high in sodium,” Hyman says. Instead, opt for organic, pasture-raised, and grass-fed meat and poultry, if possible.

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Fruit Is Easy To Overeat

Weve read a few keto resources that recommend eating 2-3 berries at a time on keto. Can we ask when have you ever eaten just 2 raspberries?

We havent either.

One reason this happens is the fructose in fruit doesnt trigger the hormones in your brain that tell your body its full. And suddenly the whole package is gone…

A simple solution to this problem? Eat snacks with fruit pre-portioned to support balanced overall macros, like our Sweet Strawberry Crunchy Cheese Mixes.

Can You Eat Fruit On Keto

Wait… no fruit?? No way can I do this diet!

Maybe you thought this when first starting out on keto. Or surely youve heard others say it. Fruit is a controversial topic for those living a keto friendly lifestyle.

You can see why were told our whole lives to eat our fruits and vegetables. An apple a day, after all, keeps the doctor away.

How then could a diet that tells us to cut out fruit and replace it with fatty foods be good for us?

The simple answer is that its all in the net carbs and most fruits just have too many.

So the question we all ask: can you have fruit on keto? is often answered with a resounding no.

But maybe thats the wrong question to be asking

Maybe the better question is what keto friendly fruit can we enjoy.

And maybe in the quest to avoid carbs at all costs, weve thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

Today well show you how fruit can fit into a ketogenic diet and why cutting it out completely might be a bad idea for your health and well being.

Ready? Lets do it.

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Antioxidants: What Are They

Antioxidants are one of the most beneficial parts of consuming fruit, and for good reason. These molecules help to protect against free radicals which damage your cells. You can simply think of every food you eat causing a bad or good reaction inside your body. Too many low-quality foods produce a negative reaction, but foods with antioxidants help to protect your body from the damage.

The key is to maintain balance, as there are actually some functions inside your body which require free radicals. But on the other hand, if you have too many free radicals and not enough antioxidants, your body will shift into a state known as oxidative stress. This leads to many issues, and should be avoided at all costs.

Fruits contain antioxidants, but so do many vegetables which we recommend when following a keto meal plan. Low-carb vegetables like broccoli and spinach contain no sugar, but have the same amounts of beneficial antioxidants.

Starchy Vegetables And Sugary Fruit

Since carbohydrates and sugar must be restricted, both of these naturally occurring sources must be limited in tight moderation to maintain ketosis. Starchy vegetables contain more carbohydrates than others, namely corn, potatoes, beets and yams, among others. On the other hand, some fruits are inherently sweet and can impede your progress towards ketosis you’ll need to cut bananas, mangos, pears, and raisins altogether.

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One Note Before We Start

Our list doesnt include foods that we normally call vegetables but are really fruits, like avocados and tomatoes. Theyre both great for keto dieters, though.

You may read that an avocado contains nearly 13 grams of carbs, but it only contains about three grams of net carbs the rest is insoluable fiber . The ten grams of fiber in an avocado dont figure into the net carb count, which is what matters when youre on keto.

Its a similar story for tomatoes subtract their nearly two grams of fiber content from their five grams of total carbs, and youve got about three net carbs.

Whether you call them veggies or fruits, both are fine to eat on keto. And avocado is a key player in many keto recipes.

Nuts Seeds And Healthy Oils

Nuts and seeds are full of healthy polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, fiber and protein. They also are very low in net carbs. Olive oil and coconut oil are the two oils recommended on the keto diet. Olive oil is high in oleic acid and is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. Coconut oil is high in saturated fat but contains medium-chain triglycerides , which can increase ketone production. MCTs may increase metabolic rate and promote the loss of weight and belly fat too. Measure portion sizes when consuming any type of healthy fat.

Carb counts for 1 oz. of nuts and seeds :

• Almonds: 3 g net carbs
• Brazil nuts: 1 g net carbs
• Cashews: 8 g net carbs
• Macadamia nuts: 2 g net carbs
• Pecans: 1 g net carbs
• Pistachios: 5 g net carbs
• Walnuts: 2 g net carbs
• Chia seeds: 2 g net carbs
• Flaxseeds: 0 g net carbs
• Pumpkin seeds: 2 g net carbs
• Sesame seeds: 4 g net carbs

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Starchy Vegetables And High

Starchy vegetables contain more digestible carbohydrates than fiber and should be limited on the ketogenic diet. These include corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and beets. Limit high-sugar fruits too, which spike your blood sugar more quickly than berries and have more carbohydrates .

Carb counts for high-sugar fruits:

• Banana : 24 g net carbs
• Raisins : 21 g net carbs, 22 g total carbs)
• Dates : 32 g net carbs
• Mango : 22 g net carbs
• Pear : 21 g net carbs

Carb counts for starchy vegetables:

• Corn : 32 g net carbs
• Potato : 33 g net carbs
• Sweet potato : 20 g net carbs
• Beets : 14 g net carbs

How Much Fruit Can You Eat On The Keto Diet

It is best to think of fruit as a supplement to your keto diet, not as a significant component. Most of your carbs, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals should be coming from meat, seafood, high-fat dairy, low-carb vegetables, and some nuts/seeds.

By eating in this way, youll likely have 5-10 grams of net carbs to spare on a 100-gram serving of the lower carb sweet fruits, such as raspberries, strawberries, starfruit, and watermelon, without preventing ketosis.

That being said, the two lowest carb fruits, avocado and tomato, can be eaten a bit more liberally on keto. Many keto dieters, for example, have added a whole avocado into their daily diet without any issues.

To learn exactly how much fruit you can eat without slowing your keto progress, use our keto macro calculator. This way, you can customize the serving sizes based on your specific carb limit.

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List Of Foods You Can’t Eat On The Keto Diet:

• Starchy vegetables and high-sugar fruits
• Sweetened yogurt
• Honey, syrup or sugar in any form
• Chips and crackers
• Baked goods including gluten-free baked goods

Don’t get too discouraged. Dietitians Stone and Laura Dority, M.S., RD, LD, with Keto Knowledge LLC, say that no foods are really off-limits on the keto diet. It’s about total carbohydrate intake and how you choose to “spend” your carbs. Generally, you should stay under 20 to 40 grams of carbohydrates per day. “The exact amount needed to achieve ketosis can vary on the individual, though, with carb prescriptions ranging from 10 to 60 grams per day. This total is for net carbohydrates ,” says Stone.

Dority adds, “Individuals who are really active can eat more carbs than someone who is sedentary.”

Complete Keto Diet Food List: What You Can And Cannot Eat If You’re On A Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, moderate-protein and very-low-carbohydrate diet. Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy, but on a strict ketogenic diet, less than 5% of energy intake is from carbohydrates . The reduction of carbohydrates puts the body into a metabolic state called ketosis. Ketosis is when the body starts breaking down stored fat into molecules called ketone bodies to use for energy, in the absence of circulating blood sugar from food. Once the body reaches ketosis, most cells will use ketone bodies to generate energy until you start eating carbohydrates again.

Traditionally, the ketogenic diet was only used in clinical settings to reduce seizures in children with epilepsy. “Now there is a lot of interest in the diet’s effectiveness in helping with other neurological conditions, cancer, diabetes, PCOS , obesity, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease,” says Emily Stone, M.S., RD. People also eat keto to lose weight .

Even if you know that you need to eat a very-low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein diet, it can be confusing to know which foods to eat. Here’s our guide to foods you can eat, foods you should avoid and foods you can sometimes have when you’re following a ketogenic diet.

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Why Can’t I Drink Milk On Keto

Milk but especially evaporated and dry milk are not healthy keto foods. This is because they are high in lactose. Milk has around 5% lactose, evaporated milk has around 10% lactose, and dry milk has 50% lactose. Lactose is a milk sugar that does affect blood glucose levels the same way regular sugar does.

Fruit Makes Keto More Sustainable

People love fruit for a reason. Its delicious!

And the more you can effectively bring fruit into your diet, the less limited you will feel. Feel less limited, and your low-carb or keto diet becomes more sustainable.

Which means more time to enjoy the many health benefits that brought you to the diet in the first place.

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What Fruits And Berries Are Absolutely Forbidden On The Keto Diet

Fruits and berries that are categorically prohibited on the keto diet– Ackee apples, also known as ankye, achee, akee. – Belladonna, aka deadly nightshade. – Mezereon berries – Beach apple . – Poison nut.Why do we skip fruit altogether on the keto diet?From one apple, we get, for example, 8.4 mg of vitamin C, about 10% of the daily value. For comparison, a cup of broccoli contains 81 mg of vitamin C.Fruit juicescounted the amountMoreover, the juice increases the appetite. in one studyDried fruitsJam without sugarIt will be much easier for the body to extract sugar from crushed and boiled berries. The studyKeep in mind that we eat whole, natural foods on the LCHF diet, and we follow the principle “All you need to Google, don’t eat”. Total:

Considerations Before You Buy

Now that you know which keto fruits you can and cannot eat on the diet, what are some things you should be conscious of when shopping for your keto-friendly fruit in the store?

Choose Organic: While there may be some debate about organic vs. non-organic fruits and vegetables, make no mistake that choosing organic fruits is extremely important. Organic fruits are free from pesticides, eliminating your risk of developing pesticide-related illnesses and cancers.

Choose Real Fruit, Not Juice: In regard to how you consume your keto friendly fruit, make sure youre consuming raw, organic fruit rather than going for juices. In most cases, the process of making juice gets rid of most the essential vitamins and fibers of the fruit. In this case, the juice is more like sugar water, which is a sure-fire way to rapidly increase your blood sugar levels and kick you out of ketosis.

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How Fruit Fits Into Keto

The reason youd cut fruit out is to avoid carbs. To stay in ketosis, you need to limit your carb intake to 5-10% of your daily calories. For a standard 2,000 calorie diet, thats 25-50g of carbs per day.

And when a single apple has 25g of carbs… see how fruit can be troublesome?

Now to be clear, were talking about net carbs, which is defined as:

Net carbs = total carbs – fiber

This is good news for many fruits especially berries which are high in fiber and thus lower in the net carbs.

So to fit fruit in, you just need to understand your carb tolerance and find fruits that work in that.

Simple enough right?

To help with that, lets look at some common fruits ranked lowest net carb to highest:

As you can see there are BIG differences across the category. The highest carb fruits have 5 times the carbs as the lowest carb fruits.

In general, the sweeter the fruit, the more carbs it has. But not always strawberries have a bright, sweet flavor, yet rank among the best fruits on the list.

You easily can see which fruits to avoid . Now lets look closer at the 3 best keto friendly fruits.

Fruit Carbs And Nutrition

Your parents and health teachers werent exaggerating when they kept telling you how good fruits and vegetables are for you. They provide many important health benefits.

• Theyre terrific sources of key vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, folate and potassium.
• They provide dietary fiber, which helps to keep the gut biome healthy and in balance, prevents constipation, and lowers the risk of bowel cancer.
• Theyre also high in antioxidants, making them valuable weapons in the fight against heart disease, inflammatory diseases, type 2 diabetes and other types of cancer.

Oh, and they taste great, too.

But there are many low-carb vegetables that are terrific for a keto diet. Sadly, we cant list the best low-carb fruits. There are no low-carb fruits just lower carb ones.

Thats because of the sugar thats naturally present in fruit.

Sweeter fruits like watermelon contain a lot more sugar than lemons and limes, of course, but no ones going to sit down and devour a lemon as a keto snack. The tasty fruits all contain a large amount of sugar.

Almost all fruits contain generous amounts of glucose and/or sucrose, two simple forms of sugar that are very high in carb content.

So even keto-friendly fruits cant be eaten by the bowlful, the way you can chow down on lettuce or spinach. You have to choose carefully and limit the amount of fruit you eat when youre on keto.

Heres how to do it.

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Track Your Ketones: A Path To Success

If you are looking to track your progress on a keto diet, we also have a great solution for you. To allow for an effortless, accurate, and non-invasive way to measure ketosis, we invented the first and only clinically-backed ketone breath monitor.

Our device is accurate enough to replace invasive blood measurements. By simply breathing into our device, you will have a reliable measurement of your current ketone levels in seconds.

No more urine strips, no more pricking your finger just a fast, easy and reliable breath test. You can bring our device with you to the office, take it to the gym you can truly check your ketones anywhere.

Unlike previous devices, which were often poorly made, unreliable, and not backed by clinical research our ketone breath monitor is patented. This means no other device is legally allowed to use our exclusive technology. Whether you are brand new to keto and want a convenient and reliable way to check your ketone levels, or youre an elite level biohacker we are the perfect way to measure your ketones.

What Fruits Can You Eat On Keto Our Keto Fruit List:

We know that fructose can easily kick you out of ketosis. But when it comes to this fruit sugar, not all fruits are created equal. Some fruits are jam-packed with nutritional value without the sugar. Often, the micronutrient profile of low-carb fruit far outweighs any possible downside of the sugar found in them. So, what fruits can you eat on the ketogenic diet?

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