The Keto Basket Part 2: Keto Friendly Fruits

Consuming fruits and vegetables every day is challenging. When I was living overseas, getting fruits was not a problem since they were always available in big supermarkets. But availability is not the only factor to consider when consuming fruits. Since I started a ketogenic diet, I avoided fruits that I used to consume such as mangoes, apples, oranges due to their high carb content. Since the main goal of ketogenic diet is to drastically reduce carb intake so that your body will change the way it processes sugars and fat into energy, avoiding certain fruits is necessary. Given that a cup of fruit like sugar apple contain 59 grams of carbs, this fruit may be inappropriate for this diet.

Although consumption of fruits and vegetables helps in reducing the risk of certain cancers and other chronic diseases, some fruits contain high amounts of sugar, which in larger quantities will deliver a significant sugar load to your intestines. Even if only 70% of that sugar is absorbed, 70% of a big number is still a big number. A different article will be posted to further elaborate this topic. 

Fruit juice should not substitute whole fruits because it contains sugar, almost like sweetened beverages. Dried fruits can be consumed if there is an unavailability of fresh fruits, but they should be consumed moderately.

Types of sugar:

Glucose is the main type of sugar in the blood and is the major source of energy for the body’s cells.

Fructose is metabolized exclusively by the liver, which is different from how the body metabolizes glucose. While some research has cautioned against regularly consuming high levels of fructose, that a high fructose intake may contribute to chronic diseases in humans, this advice applies to added fructose, such as high fructose corn syrup or agave nectar, not whole fruit. 

Sucrose may be more familiar to you as “table sugar,” but it also occurs naturally in some fruits. Our bodies are equipped with an enzyme to break it down into glucose and fructose, and then metabolize it as each of those individual sugars.

If your doctor has advised you to avoid sugar in general, and fructose in particular, you should do so. If not, you can incorporate fruit into your low-carb diet.

Below are the common fruits and their carbs content. 

Serving size: 1 cup.  Avocado 2.7g net carbs, coconut 4.9g net carbs, Starfruit 5.1g net carbs, Blackberries 6.2g net carbs, Raspberries 6.7g net carbs, Clementine 7.6g net carbs, Pear 8g net carbs, Cantaloupe 8.4g net carbs, and Strawberry 8.6g net carbs.