Keto snacks – the best and the worst
, medical review by Dr. Michael Tamber, MD
Evidence basedAre you hungry on your keto diet, but your next meal is hours away? A keto snack may be the answer. Snacks can buy you some time, allowing you to delay meals to fit your busy schedule.
Snacking shouldn’t happen every day, though. In fact, ideally, you shouldn’t feel the need to snack at all.
For the times you occasionally need a snack, check out the great keto options below, along with some common snacking mistakes to avoid.
Easy keto whole foods
The numbers below the snacks are the digestible carbohydrates, or net carbs.
A slice of cheese, a few olives, some fatty cold cuts, or a few slices of bacon make excellent keto snacks.
Or choose a small portion of nuts that are very low in carbs, like macadamia nuts, pecans or Brazil nuts (be careful of cashews.)
A hard-boiled egg is another ideal keto snack. Try it with mayo, cream cheese, a keto dip, or butter.
Read more about the health benefits of eggs in our evidence-based guide.
Keto snack recipes
Cook up some keto snacks at home so you’ll have tasty choices easily on hand. Below are six popular options, with net carbs per serving shown in the green circle.
Top 6
Keto veggies and dip
Vegetable sticks: Snack freely on the lowest-carb vegetables.
Dip: What goes great with veggies? Cream cheese, sour cream or a savory high-fat dipping sauce. Here are a few popular options:
Top 6
Keto berries and cream
Heavy whipping cream: For a decadent treat, put a dollop of whipped heavy cream on top of your berries, without adding any sugar or sweeteners.
Be careful, though — berries with cream are so delicious that you may end up eating more than you need, which could stall weight loss.
Here are a couple of keto berry recipes to try:
Chocolate
Net carbs per 100 grams (3.5 ounces).
One square of 86% chocolate has 2 grams of net carbs. One square of 70% chocolate has 3.5 grams of net carbs. Shaving a square of 70% or 86% chocolate over whipped cream makes a little go a long way.
Other keto snacks
Pork rinds: Also called cracklings, chicharrones, or pork crisps, these are a great zero-carb treat when you want something salty and crunchy.
Beef jerky: Reading the nutrition label can help you choose the best option, as many commercial brands contain sugar and other additives. Although most have at least 9 grams of net carbs per 100 grams, a few are fairly low carb. Many people make their own.
Biltong: A South African dried, spiced meat usually made of beef, venison or ostrich. It typically has no sugar and is just meat marinated in salt, spices, and vinegar for a number of days, then dried. You can make it at home.
Keto chips
Cheese
Milk coffees: Cafe lattes and cappuccinos have lots of carbs from lactose (milk sugar). A 16-oz (470-ml) latte has 18 grams of carbs; when made with skim milk, it has 19 grams. Drink coffee black or with a little milk or cream. Or for a higher-fat option, try one of our hot keto drinks.
Juice, regular sports drinks and vitamin waters: Full of sugar. Do not drink.
Fruit: Nature’s candy.
For the best options, see our keto fruits guide.
Cashews: The high-carb nut. Choose macadamias, pecans or other lower-carb nuts from our keto nuts guide.
Carbs list
Note: Carbohydrate information for beverages is provided in common serving sizes rather than per 100 grams:
Horrible choices
Common snack foods like chips, nachos, donuts, candy and chocolate bars aren’t a good choice for your health or your waistline.
But here is the great news: a keto diet can often reduce and sometimes even put an end to cravings for these foods.
A word of warning: be wary of “keto” or “low-carb” versions of cakes, cookies, chocolate bars, candies, ice cream and other sweets. They might maintain cravings for a sugary taste and can make you eat more than you need, causing weight loss to slow or stall.
Carbs list
Even more keto snack options
Quick bites
Sometimes you just want a little something to delay lunch or dinner. Consider a quick combination:
- Slice of cheese with celery, cucumber, radish, or wrapped in lettuce
- Celery filled with cream cheese, natural peanut butter, brie or other soft cheese
- Slice of cheese spread with butter and rolled up
- Cucumber or lettuce spread with mayo
- Parmesan crisps spread with butter
- Slice of salami and cheese, rolled up together
- Slice of bacon spread with peanut butter
- Spoonful of butter, ghee, or coconut oil melted into coffee or tea
More keto recipes
Looking for something crunchy and tasty to serve friends who are coming over? Our many recipes for delicious keto snacks will give you lots of choices. Even friends who aren’t keto will want the recipe.
Packaged keto snacks on the go
Maybe you’re traveling. (If so, check out our guide to low-carb travel.) Maybe you need something in your desk for those nights when you’re stuck at the office. Maybe you’re carpooling to soccer practice when you should be eating dinner.
Whatever the reason, you need shelf-stable, keto-friendly food.
Check the macros of these packaged snacks to see if they suit your personal regimen.
We’ve included links to some of these snacks solely for your convenience. Diet Doctor will not benefit from your purchases.
- Olive snack packs: green, black, or a variety pack.
- Epic Meat bars: chicken sriracha and pulled pork.
- Cooked bacon
- Salami bites
- Coconut chips
- Parmesan crisps
- Pork rinds
- Macadamia nuts (or pecans or Brazil nuts)
- Pili nuts (the world’s lowest-carb nut)
- Really dark chocolate (85% or more)
So whether you snack on our oven-baked brie cheese at home or a bag of pork rinds in the car, keep it keto and reinforce your healthy choices for a healthy lifestyle.
Finally, sometimes the best snack is a bite or two of yesterday’s dinner. With that in mind, for even more inspiration, please see all of our keto recipes.
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Want more? Living keto goes beyond recipes. Enjoy our selection of guides to help you understand keto and keep it deliciously simple.
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