Keto Snacks

My wife, Michelle,  and I started our keto journey about 10 years ago accidentally. We tried a cleansing program that allowed certain amounts of various oils, protein powder, vitamins, psyllium husk, and a lot of water. I am not sure whether the cleansing worked or not but we lost a lot of weight in a short time. We researched a bit and realized that the cleansing program put us into ketosis which helped with quick weight loss. Later on, we read more about the Ketogenic diet and started our Keto journey. 

Keto Snacks to Make

One of the difficulties with the Keto diet is giving up the carb-full habits. For us, it was about giving up snacking after dinner while watching TV. Most importantly, we needed our chocolate fixes during the daytime. That's how Michelle's journey with creating Keto recipes and transforming her artisan chocolates into new Keto-friendly formulas. You can find the recipes for some of the Allulose desserts and Keto snacks that we have been enjoying in our Keto Recipe blog. 

There are plenty of tasty snack options to choose from. Fat bombs, for example, are a staple snack for those on the keto diet. These are small balls or bites made from healthy fats such as coconut oil, butter, or cream cheese combined with ingredients like nuts, seeds, or cocoa powder. Another popular option is pork rinds, which are high in fat and protein, but low in carbs. Nuts and seeds, such as almonds, pecans, and pumpkin seeds, are also great options for snacking on the go, as they provide healthy fats and proteins.

For those who prefer sweet keto snacks, there are options like berries with heavy cream, keto-friendly chocolate, or even keto-friendly desserts like cheesecake or brownies made with almond flour or coconut flour instead of wheat flour. Dairy products, such as cheese and Greek yogurt, are also good options for snacking on the ketogenic diet.

Keto Snacks to Buy

To make snacking even easier, many companies now offer keto-friendly snack options, such as packaged cheese sticks, almond flour crackers, and meat snacks like beef jerky or pepperoni.

The fact is that some of us are also used to 'junk food' we grab from the supermarket and enjoy while driving, working, or watching TV. We all needed keto snacks to go that we can purchase from Walmart or Target.  With the popularity of the Keto diet, many 'snack' brands found an opportunity to sell the Keto version of the popular snacks. The most popular of these are the keto bars, keto candies, keto cookies, keto chips, aaaaand keto chocolates! 

When we started our keto journey there were not many options. A few years ago, when I see 'Keto bread' in Costco I was so happy.... then I realized that it kicks me out of Ketosis. I see so many Keto labeled snacks at Costco, Walmart, and Amazon in the past few years. At first, I was curious and kept checking the ingredients and nutrition information on the packages. However, later I lost interest since many brands did not have a clue how keto works. They claim their product is keto-friendly by simply reducing the sugar amount or adding MCT oil, etc... (Not all are the same. There are really good brands that understand and focus on only keto food). 

 Just like me, many people lost interest in 'Keto' snacks because the term lost its meaning. People stay away from packaged Keto snacks mainly because of 4 reasons that Sam mentions in this video: 

1. They are not really Keto-friendly

   We have talked about this a little bit in the above paragraph. The main reason these are not considered Keto Friendly snacks is that their net carb amount is so high. Most Ketogenic diet guidelines recommend you stay between 15g to 30g of net carbohydrates per day. When you have a snack with 4g to 8g net carbs, you don't have many carbs left for the actual meals. 

    

   The second thing to be careful of is the sugar-alcohol. Even though some sugar alcohols, such as maltitol and mannitol, have zero calories and zero carbs, they still spike your blood glucose levels. They are not keto-friendly at all. You can read more about this in Michelle's blog post on Sugar-Alcohols and Keto.

2. They taste awful

   I can understand that nothing can be as good as the original. No cookie tastes like your mother's cookies. Since there are ingredients, like sugar, to avoid in keto-friendly recipes and formulas, it becomes an art to come up with a formula that tastes like the original with much less sugar/carbs. Even though there are really good imitations, most taste awful. Especially, sweeteners like Erythritol leaves a cooling effect in your mouth, and stevia has a heavy aftertaste that most cannot tolerate. 

3. They have so many unhealthy ingredients

   To be able to match the original taste and texture of keto foods, many keto-friendly formula developers add artificial/natural flavors, fillers, and other agents. Sometimes, the fiber becomes the easier choice to play with. This becomes a compromise game: Do you want cleaner ingredients or tastier snacks? 

4. They are expensive

   Keto label immediately makes it a special item. Even though this is true, in most cases, the cost of the ingredients doesn't make the cost difference (3% to 5%). However, manufacturing in small quantities increases the cost per product. Therefore, a 10% to 20% price difference between a keto food and a non-keto food should be expected.