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When starting on a keto diet, knowing what food you should avoid is very important.
Obviously, some high-carb foods must be avoided altogether, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, cake and candy.
However, finding out which foods categorizes as low carb are more challenging. Some of these foods mentioned in this list are even relatively healthy, it’s just unfit for low-carb diet due to their high carbs.
Also, your total daily carb target determines whether to limit or avoid some of these foods altogether. Low-carb diets usually contain 20–100 grams of carbs daily, based on personal tolerance.
Foods to avoid in Keto Diet
When it comes to ketogenic diet, there’s always going to be foods that are sneaky. So you have to be very careful and avoid such foods. Some of them include:
- Fruit, Because of their high sugar content, most of the fruits are off the list. People still manage to eat berries, but you need to check your portioning with these.
- Spices, as already mentioned before, spices do have carbs – but you need to be careful with cinnamon, onion powder, garlic powder, bay leaves, allspice, ginger, and cardamom.
- Diet Soda, some people have been reported being knocked out of ketosis by consuming large amounts of diet soda because they’re artificial sweeteners. So be careful about how much you take.
- Tomato-Based Products, a lot of people use tomato sauces and canned diced tomatoes in their normal diet. Tomatoes are also high in carbs, so you need to keep track of your consumption of this fruit too.
- Peppers, be careful in adding these in your diet because they also have sugar. You should choose green peppers instead of red and yellow peppers due to higher carb counts.
- Medicine, cough syrups, cold medications and flu remedies usually contain carbs. So be careful while using them and also opt for low-sugar/sugar-free alternatives, as you can get them easily on the market.
Here’s 144 foods to avoid or limit low-carb diet cheatsheet list
Sugars:
- White sugar
- Brown sugar
- Powdered sugar
- Any food with added sugar
- Processed food with added sugar
- Junk food with added sugar
- Jams and Preserves
- Some Sauces (check nutritional label and ingredients)
- Fructose (sugar in fruit)
- Some Salad Dressings (check nutritional label and ingredients)
- Cocoa mix
- Molasses
- Honey
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Syrups
Baked Goods and Sweets:
- Cookies
- Cake
- Pie
- Brownies
- Donuts
- Pastries
- Muffins
- And others
Candy:
- Chocolate Bars
- Hard Candy
- Chocolate
- Cotton Candy
- And All others made with sugar
Packaged/Processed Snacks:
- Flavored Nuts
- Pretzels
- Rice Cakes
- Breakfast Bars
- Cheese and Crackers Snacks
- Raisins
- Potato Chips
- Tortilla Chips
- Popcorn
- Pop-tarts
- Granola Bars
- Twinkies
- Cupcakes
- And other boxed snacks and products
Dairy:
- Flavored Dairy
- Added Sugar Dairy
- Fruit At The Bottom or Sugar Added Yogurt
- Whole and Skim Milk
- Soy Milk
- Ice Cream
- Margarine
- Pudding
- Cottage Cheese
Sugary Fruit And Starchy Fruit:
Medium Sugar Fruit:
- Blueberries
- Coconut Meat
- Cantaloupes
- Watermelons
- Nectarines
- Papaya
- Peaches
- Apples
- Grapefruit
- Honeydew Melons
- Guavas
- Apricots
High Sugar Fruit:
- Oranges
- Kiwifruit
- Pears
- Pineapple
- Plums
- Cherries
- Grapes
- Figs (Also Starchy)
- Bananas (Also Starchy)
- Mangos
- Tangerines
- Pomegranates
- Dates
- Applesauce
- Dried fruit (worst)
Starchy Vegetables:
- White Potatoes (French fries and potato chips)
- Sweet Potatoes or Yams
- Corn
- Peas
- Squash
- Root vegetables not advised for very low carb diets (beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, turnips, butternut squash, and winter squash)
Grains and Starches:
- Any Fried Food
- White Rice
- Bread, Bagels and English Muffins
- Croissants
- Tortillas
- Pasta
- Cold Breakfast Cereals
- Oatmeal
- Cream of Wheat
- Porridge
- Barley
- Amaranth
- Millet
- Quinoa
- Spelt
- Couscous
- Bulgur
- Rye
- Muesli
- Crackers
- Pizza
- Corn Starch
- Pancakes
- Waffles
- French Toast
- White Flour
- Whole-Wheat Flour
- Rice Flour
- Corn Flour
- Wholegrain starches are only less bad
Legumes:
- Pinto Beans
- Black Beans
- Kidney Beans
- Chickpeas
- Navy Beans
- Lima Beans
- Baked Beans
- All Lentils
Drinks:
- Soda
- Juice
- All Sweetened Drinks
- Sweetened Or Flavored Tea
- Sweetened Or Flavored Coffee
- Frappuccino Coffee Drinks
- Milk Shakes
- Root Beer Floats
- Malts
- Frozen Coffee Drinks
- Sports Drinks
- Beer
- Sweet cocktails – (Pina colada, daiquiri, mai tai, bloody Mary, margaritas, screwdriver, white Russian, rum drinks etc.)
- Wine coolers and alcopops
Conclusion
Well, that was fun. The key to a successful keto diet is very simple, limit your carb intake and get your calories from fat, good fat that is. Now that you know which foods you should avoid on keto, make the adjustments to continue living your low carb lifestyle!
