Popcorn is keto-friendly unless you make this mistake

From Men’s Health

POPCORN IS a classic snack and an essential movie night, but if you’re on a ketogenic diet, you might be wondering if, in fact, popcorn is keto-friendly.

Could eating a hot, salty, freshly popped bag of popcorn cost you your hard-to-reach ketosis and kick you out of the fat-burning state?

Corn, after all, contains carbohydrates, the big enemy of ketosis – and why a keto diet drastically limits your daily carbohydrate intake in the first place. (Side note: A ketogenic diet is also controversial for the same reason.)

The keto diet is all about reducing carbs and increasing fat intake, as well as maintaining moderate protein intake.

This means that on a keto diet your total daily net carb count, which is the number of carbs you get by subtracting fiber and certain keto sweeteners, such as erythritol, from the total carb count, should be less than 25 grams per day.

Let’s get back to the snack in question: One cup of air popcorn has 6 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 5 grams of net carbs, says Natalie Rizzo, MS, RD Unless you eat one sort of wacky sweet caramel coated popcorn, that’s not a ton of carbs.

But still, popcorn is, by nature of its source, a high carbohydrate snack. Your first guess might be that you should stay away from popcorn because it doesn’t seem like a food that could fit on a keto diet. That said…

Is popcorn keto?

Because 5 grams of net carbs is quite low, popcorn can definitely fit into a keto diet, says Rizzo. “It’s a healthy whole grain snack that’s low in carbohydrates,” she says.

In addition, he has in good health carbs and fiber, which help with energy production and digestion, so you get good sources of fiber to promote gut health and keep you regular – which is actually a concern for people on keto due to the lack of naturally rich sources of fiber.

What foods are good to eat with popcorn on keto?

The story continues

Now, if you sprinkle chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, or some other high-sugar filling on your popcorn, your popcorn, while now tastier, probably isn’t keto.

To increase the fat (and flavor) in your popcorn snack: “Pair a cup of air popcorn with nuts and top with cinnamon and salt to make a trail mix. Or drizzle 1 cup of air popcorn with nut butter, ”says Rizzo.

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