Inevitably when it comes to the keto diet, people ask if they’re allowed to have fruit on their plan. The answer is that you don’t have to give up fruit completely just because you’re on this program.
Fruit is a natural part of a healthy diet and they offer many health benefits. But since the keto diet does focus on low carb eating, what you have to do in order for the fruit to fit into the limited carbs, is make smart choices.
You have to find the fruits that are as low in carbs as possible. That means that some fruits are going to be better for your carb count than others are. There seems to be some advice going around that if you want to stay in ketosis, you have to avoid all fruits, but that’s not the case.
You have to compare the fruits that you pick with the amount of carbs as well as natural sugar that they contain. Not all of them are high carb. You can choose to have tomatoes, which technically, though they’re often referred to as a vegetable, are really a fruit.
You can have an entire small tomato for around 3 grams of carbs. Or, you can choose the small bite size salad tomatoes and have about 2 grams for every half a cup. You may not think of eating a lemon as part of the fruit you can have on a keto diet.
Most people don’t consume the lemon that way. They add it to drinks to give it a sweet, citrusy flavor, but without the carbs. Avocados are another fruit that you can safely have on the keto diet.
An entire avocado only has 4 grams of carbs. So you can either eat half or a fourth of an avocado and still not go over your net carb limit. You can have fruit in the berry family when you’re on the keto diet.
Though they might seem high in carbs, they’re not. Just like with any fruit, though, you want to watch your portion size. You can have blackberries for less than 2 net carbs for ¼ cup.
If you prefer raspberries, you can eat those on a keto diet. The carb count and serving size is the same for raspberries as it is for blackberries. You can have strawberries, too – although the carb count comes in slightly higher at 2 net carbs per ¼ cup.
When consuming fruit, just remember that the keto diet isn’t so different from any other carb limiting diet. You just want to aim for the foods that give you the lowest amount of carbs for the biggest health benefits.
