What to eat on keto

On keto your plate fills up with meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables and good oil. With carbs below 20 to 50 grams a day, your supermarket basket needs some thought.

Next to each food are its net carbs per 100 grams, as listed in Ola Keto’s food database. There each category also has its own full list, from the fewest carbs to the most: vegetables, meat and poultry, fish and seafood, eggs and dairy, nuts and seeds, fruit. If you are only just starting, it is best to read the guide The keto diet for beginners first.

How to read the list

Every food in the database has a label. With up to 5 grams of net carbs per 100 it says “Keto: yes”, from 5 to 15 “Keto: in moderation” and from 15 upwards “Keto: no”.

Of course, the label does not know how much you will eat. Almonds, say, are “in moderation”, yet a 30-gram handful gives about 3 grams; on the other hand, even a food marked “yes” adds up to plenty of grams in a big portion.

Vegetables

Leafy vegetables and members of the cabbage family have the fewest carbs. You can pile your plate with them without a second thought.

Onions and carrots are heavier going: raw onions reach 7.6 grams per 100 and boiled carrots 5.2. They are not banned; you just use a little, for flavour. Garlic has 31 grams per 100, except that a clove weighs only 3 to 5 grams.

Meat and poultry

Fresh meat has no carbs; in the database they all come out at 0 grams per 100: roast chicken leg, pork loin, leg of lamb, veal sirloin, turkey breast and pork mince.

Pick whichever cut you like. Fattier ones, such as chicken leg with the skin on, suit keto fine, since it gets its energy mainly from fat; lean cuts such as the breast give more protein per portion.

Processed meat needs a closer look. Sausages, cold cuts and ready-made burgers often contain starch, breadcrumbs or sugar, so check the “Carbohydrate” line on the label before you buy.

Fish and seafood

Fish have 0 grams too: sardine, mackerel, salmon, tuna. The oily ones, such as sardines and mackerel, give you omega-3 fats as well.

Among seafood, shrimp also have 0. Molluscs have a few carbs (octopus 2.2 grams per 100, squid 3.1, mussels 3.7) and fit in easily as long as you count them.

Eggs and dairy

One of the handiest foods on keto is the egg. A whole egg has 0.7 grams per 100, which is less than half a gram apiece.

Cheese has few carbs, while milk has quite a lot, because of its lactose.

A glass of milk (250 ml) has about 12 grams. A little in your coffee is fine, but a whole glass needs thinking about. Strained yoghurt has fewer carbs than plain, because straining takes out part of the lactose.

Fats and oils

Fats have almost no carbs and on keto they provide most of the energy. Olive oil has 0 grams per 100, butter almost 0, green olives 0.5 and avocado 1.8.

If cholesterol worries you, look at which fat you choose as well. Olive oil, olives, avocado and nuts are low in saturated fat; butter and cream are high in it, so better not to build your diet around them.

Nuts and seeds

Nuts give you good fats and fibre, but they differ a lot from one another. Since they are easy to eat by the handful, they need measuring too.

The best choices are pecans, macadamias and walnuts. Pistachios and cashews have a lot of carbs: a 30-gram handful of cashews gives about 8.

Fruit

Most fruit is high in sugar and hard to fit in. The exceptions are berries in small portions and lemon, which brings flavour to food.

A handful of blackberries or strawberries, about 80 grams, gives 3 to 5 grams; an apple or an orange easily reaches 15 to 20.

Drinks

Water, filter coffee and unsweetened tea have zero carbs, and so does sparkling water.

With alcohol it all depends on what you drink. Dry wine, red or white, has about 2.6 grams per 100, so a 150 ml glass gives about 4. Beer has 3.6 per 100 and a 330 ml bottle reaches 12. Straight spirits such as vodka have no carbs, though they do have plenty of calories.

Juices and sugary soft drinks stay out. A 250 ml glass of fresh orange juice has about 25 grams.

Sweeteners

Sugar and honey are almost pure carbohydrate. On keto you sweeten with stevia or erythritol, which has 0 in the database.

“Sugar-free” products are worth a second look: they often contain maltitol, a polyol that counts as normal carbohydrate on the label.

What you leave out

Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, sugar and sweets take you over the day’s limit quickly. Their figures are in the main keto diet guide.

Shopping list

For a first shop, this is enough:

Frequently asked questions

Can you eat pulses on keto?

Hardly any. Boiled lentils have 11.6 grams per 100, so a 250-gram plate gives about 29. A spoonful in a salad fits; a plate of lentils does not.

Can I eat as much meat as I like?

Meat has no carbs, but keto is not a high-protein diet; protein stays moderate. The Macro calculator gives you a first idea of your own amounts.

Is everything labelled “Keto: yes” good for keto?

The label only looks at net carbs per 100 grams. It does not tell you how healthy something is or how much to eat; a cold cut can say “yes” and still be very salty.