Of men’s health
POPCORN IS a classic snack food and movie night essential, but if you have a ketogenic diet, you might be wondering if popcorn is actually keto-friendly.
Can it make your food so challenging to reach ketosis, and then feed yourself out of the fat burning state, if you drop a bag of hot, salty, freshly popped popcorn?
After all, maize contains carbohydrates, the biggest enemy of ketosis – and why a keto diet in the first place severely limits your daily intake of carbohydrates. (Side note: a ketogenic diet is also controversial for the same reason.)
The keto diet is about maintaining carbohydrates, increasing fat intake, and keeping protein intake moderate.
This means that your total daily net carbs, which is the amount of carbohydrates you get from fiber, should be included in a keto diet, and some keto sweeteners, such as erythritol of the total amount of carbohydrates, should contain less than 25 grams per day .
Back to the snack in question: One cup of popcorn contains 6 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, a total of 5 grams of net carbohydrates, says Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD, unless you eat some kind of crazy, sugary, caramel-coated popcorn, it is not a ton of carbohydrates.
But still, popcorn is by nature a carb-heavy snack. Your first guess may be that you should stay away from popcorn because it does not look like a food that can fit into a keto diet. That said …
Is popcorn keto?
Because 5 grams of net carbohydrates is fairly low, popcorn can definitely fit into a keto diet, Rizzo says. “It’s a healthy whole grain snack with few carbohydrates,” she says.
Plus, it has healthy carbohydrates and fiber, which contribute to the production and digestion of energy, so you get some good fiber sources to promote gut health and keep you regular – something that those on keto are actually concerned about due to the lack of natural high fiber sources.
What foods are good to eat with popcorn on keto?
If you now baste popcorn with chocolate syrup, caramel sauce or another topping with a high sugar, then your popcorn is probably not keto, although it is tastier now.
To refresh the fats (and flavor) in your popcorn snack: “Combine a cup of popcorn with nuts and add cinnamon and salt to make a mixture. Or drip 1 cup of popcorn with nut butter,” says Rizzo.
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