We previously wrote about ketogenic diet and how more people are eating less carbs (less than 50g in terms of total carbs or 30g in net carbs) to lose weight. Not just losing weight, it is reported that you feel more alert and focused throughout the day!
However, there are times where salad just does not satisfy you, or you are feeling peckish during rainy and exercise days and you just need to snack. Times where you are enjoying on a beach, reading or watching show, snacks are part and parcel of our life. Not to worry, there are also ketogenic snacks and they are abundant in our every day lives!
What are considered low carb snacks?
Low carb snacks are considered to have less than 5 net grams of carbs per serving. Net carbs are different from total carbs, where you subtract the amount of dietary fibre as the fiber content in the total carbs do not contribute to weight gain.
Here are some of these healthy snacks that you can have everywhere and best of all, you don't have to cook or prepare beforehand:
1) Fruits - Avocados
Avocados are one fruit that contain very little sugar content. With 13g total carbs, 10g dietary fiber and 3g net carbs, it's excellent as a healthy snack. Not only that, with 23g of healthy dietary fat content, the oleic content inside helps to reduce inflammation and enhance protection to the heart. Besides avocados, blackberries, starfruits and strawberries are some examples of fruits with low sugar content.
Net carbs per 100g avocado: 1.5g
2) Olives
Olives are healthy snacks and not to be confused with preserved plums or cured meats. The latter are all preserved and cured using salt or sugar but olives are fermented in alkali or salt brine. Olives make olive oil, which is well known to have antioxidants properties and low in cholesterol. Olives play a primary role in Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes on healthy saturated fat.
Net carbs per 10 pieces: 0g
3) Kimchi
Kimchi, like olives and sauerkraut brings lots of probiotics during fermentation. These napa cabbages, which make up kimchi, are rich in Vitamin B and C and helps to improve our digestion system. Being low in calories and carbs, it's a popular choice for snacking, especially with its spicy and sourish taste. Be sure to keep a lookout on the nutritional information as different brands have different amount of carbs content!
Total carbs per 50g: 1g
4) Seaweed
The classic roasted Japanese/Korean snack is salty and crunchy and doesn't satisfy an empty stomach but it works great for a snacking mouth. These dehydrated seaweed that comes in trays are wonderful as it gives low amount of carbs and high amount of alginate - a suppressor on the digestion of fats. This stop the body from absorbing fats and not just in snacks, the cooked version is also a great ingredient to consume daily.
Net carbs per 10 pieces: 1.8g
5) Nuts
Not all snacks are created equal, but some of the top nuts like pecans, brazil nuts, walnuts and macadamias are great to your ketogenic diet. You can also try our Supreme Ketogenic Medley, which consists of all keto baked nuts so that you won't get bored consuming just one kind of nuts.
6) Seeds
Surprisingly, all seeds seem to be healthy and keto-friendly. The most popular are pumpkin and sunflower seeds, but we also have baked pumpkin seeds, which are more crunchy and tasty and favoured by more people. Needless to say, chia seeds and flax seeds are both super foods that are great if it can be incorporated in your diet.
7) Fruits
Fruits are wholesome food that are naturally nutritious but some have higher natural sugar content that is not preferred in keto diet. As fruits have high dietary fiber, it's usually more worth while to count the net carbs. Some low-carbs fruits and mixes are listed here:
8) Chocolates
You may be familiar of reducing sugar in your life when you plan to reduce weight so this snack may come as a surprise. Sweet snacks will be high on the carbohydrates scale but dark chocolate can actually be considered a healthy, keto snack! Most importantly, you need to focus on chocolates that have high cocoa content of at least 50% and less sugar. Some of our healthy chocolates include the following:
Instead of eating snacks that are not beneficial to our health and which keep contributing to our waist lines, change out your pantry and you will be surprised to find that healthy snacks can help to curb your hunger pangs. Weight loss is a long term, sustainable project so don't get too calculative about the calories and carbs, just stay happy, sleep well and choose wisely!
