The Comprehensive Printable Low Carb Food List for a Ketogenic Diet

Do you find it challenging to determine which foods fit into a low-carb lifestyle?

Worry no more! Today’s guide includes a printable low-carb food list featuring selections from every keto-friendly food group.

With this handy reference, you can easily create meals using keto-approved ingredients and confidently order at your favorite restaurants without deviating from your diet.

This printable is just one tool at your disposal — and there are many other ways to use it effectively.

How to Use the Low Carb Food List Printable

Ease into a ketogenic diet with this printable guide to help you:

#1. Keep track of what you can and cannot eat. Print this list and place it on your fridge, in your office, purse, gym bag, or anywhere you need a quick reminder of the net carbs in various foods.

#2. Serve as your shopping guide. Take this list to the grocery store or farmer’s market to check the carb content of items before you purchase them. It’s also handy to give to someone who might be shopping or cooking for you, ensuring they buy keto-friendly options.

#3. Assist with your keto meal planning. Armed with a list of the best keto-friendly foods, you can craft meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even snacks and desserts. Get creative with these ingredients or search for keto recipes to expand your culinary horizons.

#4. Educate others about your diet. As you start losing weight, friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors will likely ask about your diet. This printable can demystify your success on keto, showing them it’s about smart, wholesome choices, not just cutting carbs.

Use this list to dispel myths when your diet is compared to others like Atkins, or when your food choices are questioned. You might even inspire others to try keto for themselves once they see how manageable finding low-carb foods can be.

The Ultimate Low Carb Food List to Get In Ketosis ASAP

There are thousands of low-carb foods to explore on your keto journey.

While it’s impossible to list them all here, our low-carb food list printable offers the net carbs per serving for over 100 foods, organized by food group.

Let’s start with the most important macronutrient in a keto diet: fat.

Healthy Fats

As the basis of any ketogenic diet, healthy fats will make up 70–80% of your daily calories.

While you don’t need to necessarily meet your fat macro, fats will help you go low carb with ease because they’ll:

• Keep you feeling full and satiated
• Ward off cravings and hunger
• Give you a steady source of sustained energy

Monounsaturated fats also protect you from heart disease, improve your cholesterol and may even prevent cancer too. #NBD

Stay away from trans fats and less healthy oils like soybean, canola and veggie. You’ll also want to rule out margarine too.

These keto approved fats have zero carbs:

• Avocado oil
• Animal fats (such as duck fat or saved bacon drippings)
• Coconut oil
• Grass-fed butter
• Ghee
• Macadamia oil
• Mayonnaise
• MCT oil
• Olive oil
• Toasted sesame oil

The next food group should also be your second largest keto macro.

High-Quality Protein

As the next chunk of your daily macros, 20–25% of your calories should come from high-quality protein sources.

Do your best to aim for organic meats, grass-fed beef, and hormone- and antibiotic-free poultry if you can.

As a general rule of thumb, the fattier the cut, the better for your keto diet. However, you can always add more fat by cooking your protein in oil or butter (or smothering it in cheese).

Processed Meats and Deli Cold Cuts

When it comes to processed meats, you’ll need to check the carb and sugar count as they can contain both sweeteners and carby fillers.

Be extra careful when sourcing these and try to only use sugar- and nitrite-free:

• Bacon and sausage
• Deli meats such as ham, turkey, chicken, and bologna
• Italian meats such as prosciutto, salami, pepperoni, capicola and mortadella

Seafood

You can buy fresh or frozen fish (and bonus points if you score locally caught and sustainably farmed fish too!) depending on your preference.

These healthy fish have zero carbs per serving:

• Anchovies
• Bass
• Catfish
• Cod
• Crab
• Crawfish
• Eel
• Flounder
• Grouper
• Haddock
• Halibut
• Herring
• Lobster
• Mackerel
• Mahi
• Perch
• Red Snapper
• Rockfish
• Salmon (including smoked and canned)
• Sardines
• Shrimp
• Sole
• Tilapia
• Trout
• Tuna (canned — you’ll have extra fat from tuna packed in oil than in water!)
• Tuna (fresh)
• Turbot

Here’s something most new low-carbers don’t know: there’s seafood with naturally-occurring carbs, such as:

• Caviar 0.5g 1 tablespoon
• Squid 1.5g 3 oz.
• Clams 4.5g 3 oz.
• Scallops 4.5g 3 oz.
• Mussels 6g 3 oz.
• Oysters 10g 6 medium-sized

Next, the final protein source on this list may also be the smallest.

Eggs

Eggs are super versatile and have an amazing protein-to-carb ratio at around 6g of protein per whole egg for less than 2g net carbs. Always use the whole egg for all its glorious fat and protein.

Dairy

Stick to full-fat dairy when you’re going low carb. Low-fat and skim-milk varieties remove the natural fat from milk and then replace it with sugar.

Creams

• Sour cream 0.5g 1 tablespoon
• Heavy whipping cream 1g 1 fluid oz.
• Half and half 1.5g 1 fluid oz.

Cheese

• Gruyere 0g 1 oz.
• Brie 0g 1 oz.
• Cheddar 0.5g 1 oz.
• Muenster 0.5g 1 oz.
• Fontina 0.5g 1 oz.
• Gouda 0.5g 1 oz.
• Provolone 0.5g 1 oz.
• Parmesan 1g 1 oz.
• Feta 1g 1 oz.
• Cream cheese 1g 1 oz.
• Havarti 1g 1 oz.
• Monterrey Jack 1g 1 cup
• Swiss 1.5g 1 oz.
• Blue cheese 1.5g ½ cup
• Mozzarella 2g 1 cup
• Cottage cheese 3.5g ½ cup
• Ricotta 4g ½ cup

Moving on to your final macro, you’ll eat most of your carbs from low-starch veggies and a handful of specific high-fiber fruits, as you’ll see next.

Vegetables

Veggies provide the necessary fiber, vitamins, minerals and variety your diet needs to stay healthy.

But they can also add too many carbs if you’re not careful. So you’ll want to stick to low glycemic, non-starchy, high fiber veggies like these:

Green, Leafy Veggies

• Arugula 0.5g 1 cup
• Watercress 0.5g 1 cup
• Collard greens 0.5g 1 cup
• Swiss chard 1g 1 cup
• Endive 1g 1 head
• Mustard greens 1g 1 cup
• Alfalfa sprouts 1g 1 cup
• Radicchio 1.5g 1 cup
• Spinach 2g 2 cups
• Lettuce 2g 2 cups
• Romaine 2g 2 cups
• Kale 5g 1 cup

Low Carb Veggies

• Celery 1g 1 large stalk
• Seaweed 1g 2 tablespoons
• Onions 1g 1 tablespoon (chopped)
• Bok choy 1g 1 cup
• Scallion 1g 1 large stalk
• Mushrooms 1.5g 1 cup
• Shallots 1.5g 1 tablespoon
• Radishes 2g 1 cup (sliced)
• Cucumber 2g ½ cup (sliced)
• Asparagus 2.5g 1 cup
• Cabbage 2.5g 1 cup (shredded)
• Eggplant 2.5g ½ cup (cubed)
• Zucchini 2.5g 1 cup (sliced)
• Bell peppers 3g 1 cup (sliced)
• Cauliflower 3g 1 cup (chopped)
• Fennel 3.5g 1 cup (sliced)
• Broccoli 3.5g 1 cup (chopped)
• Tomato 4g 1 cup
• Okra 4g 1 cup
• Brussels sprouts 4.5g 1 cup
• Jicama 5g 1 cup (sliced)
• Spaghetti squash 5.5g 1 cup (cubes)
• Artichoke hearts 6g 1 medium

You can usually have more veggies than fruit when you go low carb. Let’s talk about the best fruits to choose on keto.

Fruit

Fruit delivers healthy antioxidants, vitamins and fiber to your ketogenic diet.

But since they can be such sugar bombs, you’ll need to eat them in small quantities and not very often.

It doesn’t matter if you choose fresh or frozen, but you should try to buy organic.

You may also want to try pairing your fruit with a fat (like peanut butter, whipped cream or cheese) to slow down the release of all that sugar.

The best low carb fruits on keto include:

• Rhubarb 2g ½ cup
• Avocado 3g 1 medium hass
• Blackberries 3g ½ cup
• Raspberries 3.5g ½ cup
• Cranberries 4g ½ cup
• Strawberries 4g ½ cup (whole)
• Limes 5g One whole 2” fruit
• Blueberries 9g ½ cup

The next food group may contain some of the smallest items on today’s list, but they’re also tiny nutritional powerhouses.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds make excellent additions to your diet in the form of healthy fats and fiber.

It doesn’t matter if you opt for raw or roasted, just stay away from anything with too much sugar — even if it’s natural.

Bonus: Salted nuts will help you replenish your electrolytes as you drink lots of water in ketosis.

Check these out:

• Pecans 1g 1 oz.
• Macadamia 1.5g 1 oz.
• Walnuts 2g 1 oz.
• Hazelnuts 2g 1 oz.
• Almonds 2.5g 1 oz.
• Pine nuts 3g 1 oz.
• Pistachio 5g 1 oz.
• Cashews 8g 1 oz.

Don’t forget about nut butters — a keto blessing and a curse. Since the serving size is so small, you’ll need to be extra careful about sugar and carbs here:

• Mixed nut butters with MCT oil 2g 2 tablespoons
• Coconut butter 2g 2 tablespoons
• Almond butter 3g 2 tablespoons
• Peanut 4g 2 tablespoons
• Cashew 8g 2 tablespoons

Seeds can also be ground up to create sunflower seed butter, for example, if you have a nut allergy (of if you just prefer the taste).

You can also use seeds to top salads, add texture to fat bombs or make pudding or keto oatmeal.

Reach for these low carb seeds:

• Flax 0g 2 tablespoons (ground or whole)
• Hemp 1.5g 2 tablespoons
• Chia 2g 2 tablespoons
• Sesame 2g 2 tablespoons
• Sunflower 3.5g 2 tablespoons

Next it’s time to add flavor to your fat, protein and carbs the low-sugar way.

Herbs and Spices

Many prepared spice mixes contain sugar or carbs as fillers. You’ll want to stick with fresh or dried herbs and spices to season your food instead.

As long as you stay under the two tablespoon mark, these herbs and spices should add zero carbs to your dishes:

• Allspice
• Basil
• Cardamom
• Cayenne pepper
• Chili powder
• Cilantro
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Cumin
• Curry powder
• Dill
• Fresh ground pepper
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Oregano
• Paprika
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Smoked paprika
• Tarragon
• Thyme
• Turmeric

Salts

You’ll also want to diversify your salt selection and stock up on:

• Sea salt
• Himalayan Pink Salt
• Lite-salt (50% sodium/50% potassium)

Another way you may be used to adding flavor to your foods is by topping them with dressings or dunking them in condiments.

Condiments and Salad Dressings

Whether used in a pinch or to add a dollop of much-needed fat to your bed of lettuce, condiments and salad dressings can be safe on a low carb diet as long as you scan the ingredient labels and know what to watch out for.

Always choose full-fat condiments and salad dressings and stay away from anything marked low-fat or “lite”. These usually have the fat removed only to add sugar back in.

Watch out for vinaigrettes as they typically begin with a base of honey or sugar instead of fat.

Low Carb Condiments

• Mayonnaise
• Yellow mustard
• Hot sauce
• Tartar sauce
• Horseradish
• Soy sauce
• Sauerkraut

Salad Dressings

• Ranch
• Blue Cheese
• Caesar
• Avocado and olive oil
• Vinegar (white or red wine)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Apple cider vinegar

Cooking and Baking Ingredients

Low Carb Cooking and Baking Staples

Sweeteners

Drinks and Libations

Keto Snacks

Time to Use Your Low Carb Food List Printable

It’s Time to Utilize Your Low Carb Food List Printable