The Best Vegetables for the Keto Diet

As I am getting older I am enjoying vegetables more and more. And as you know, vegetables are crucial for a healthy body. And wanting to lose weight and being on the Keto Diet, I wanted to know the best vegetables for the Keto Diet. Here is what I found.

So what are the best vegetables for the Keto Diet? The best vegetables are generally those that grow above ground. Like: Spinach, Lettuce, Asparagus and Avocado. They are lower in carbs and are the better Keto option. Below ground vegetables i.e. root vegetables, generally have more carbs. Like Beet, Carrot, Onion and Potato.

Here is a list of vegetables and their Net Carbs. Also a list of my top 10 vegetables. Some great ways to add more fat to the diet using vegetables. Let’s discuss that and the many options for vegetables on the Keto Diet.

Low Carb Above Ground Vegetables-

Vegetable	Net Carbs per 100 grams (3.5 oz)
Spinach	1
Lettuce	2
Asparagus	2
Avocado	2
Cauliflower	3
Cucumber	3
Eggplant	3
Green Pepper	3
Kale	3
Olives	3
Tomato	3
Zucchini	3
Broccoli	4
Green Beans	4
Red Pepper	4
Brussels Sprouts	5
Yellow Pepper	5

Low Carb Below Ground Vegetables-

Vegetable	Net Carbs per 100 grams (3.5 oz)
Rutabaga	6
Celeriac	6
Beetroot	7
Carrot	7
Onion	8
Parsnip	13
Potato	15
Sweet Potato	17

Top 10 Vegetables for Keto:

Here are 10 wonderful vegetables for the Keto Diet. They are pretty good tasting, contain the nutrients you need and are readily available at a grocery store near you.

Cauliflower – This versatile veggie has many uses in keto recipes. It can substitute as a low carb potato, or fill in for rice or noodles. There are only 3 grams of net carbs in an entire cup.
Cabbage – This veggie is great for something filling and low in carbs. It really stands out when sauteed in butter or used in a stir fry. The cabbage only has 2.3 grams of net carbs in a single cup.
Avocado – Although a fruit, it is packed full of nutrients, and healthy fat, this is a real winner! So many ways to enjoy: Slices, guacamole, or even baked. Only 2 grams net carbs per cup.
Broccoli – This versatile veggie can be used in place of pasta, potatoes or rice. There are so many way to prepare broccoli. It can be steamed, roasted, baked or dipped in a cheese sauce. With only 3 grams net carbs in a cup!
Spinach – This low carb winner is delicious! Use it raw in salads or creamed in a soup. Baked in chips or sauteed in a pan. Only 1 gram net carbs in a cup.
Asparagus – This veggie is made for a delicious sauce such as hollandaise or bearnaise. It is very nutritious and filling. Asparagus has just 2 grams net carbs in a cup.
Brussels sprouts – These are excellent roasted or served in a creamy sauce. They pack a lot of flavor! 5 grams net carbs in a cup.
Green beans – Can be steamed, stewed or roasted, but stand out when cooked with bacon! 4.3 grams of net carbs in a cup.
Zucchini – Great for Zoodles (a noodle replacement). Missing potatoes? Try zucchini fries or chips. Very low in carbs at 3 grams net carbs per cup.
Kale – Especially dense source of essential vitamins A and C. Use in salads or bake into chips, or use as a base instead of pasta, or saute in lard. With 3 grams of net carbs per cup.

Vegetables on Keto-

All foods have three main components – carbs, protein, and fat. Meat is mostly made up of protein and fat. Dairy likewise is protein and fat. Vegetables contain mostly carbs (fiber and sugar). If you are on a strict keto diet, with fewer than 5% of calories from carbs, you need to know which veggies are lower in carbs, especially if your goal is to consume fewer than 20 grams of carbs a day.

In this situation, vegetables with less than 5 net carbs may be eaten freely.

Some are hard to over-eat: kale, asparagus, zucchini, and spinach. These can be considered keto vegetables.

With higher carb vegetables you will need to be more careful. Red or yellow bell peppers, green beans, and brussels sprouts need to be keep below 20 grams of carbs a day. For example, one cup of Brussels sprouts has 4.6 grams of carbs.

If you are going with more than 20 grams of carbs a day, you can eat all the above ground vegetables you want.

Vegetables and Fat-

Vegetables are a great way to get your fat on the Keto Diet. You can cook them in butter, saute or roast them in avocado oil, coconut oil, lard or ghee. With dairy, you can make a nice cream sauce any or all of these: cheese, cream cheese, and/or heavy cream.

You can also add fat by dipping vegetables in salad dressings or other dipping sauces. You can add olive oil to your salad.

A word of caution: If you have plenty of excess weight that you want to lose, don’t overdue the added fat. Let your body burn excess body fat, instead of the extra dietary fat. Just add enough fat that you do not feel hungry.

Key Benefits of Vegetables in Keto-

There are a great number of benefits of including vegetables in the Keto Diet. They provide the nutrients that your body needs to be healthy and feeling great. The main nutrients you get are vitamins, minerals and trace minerals.

Meat just does not contain all the nutrients you need, so we need to add the vegetables to our diet. Veggie’s provide phytonutrients, carotenoids like beta-carotene and antioxidants. Very important.

They also provide fiber. The right type of fiber is soluble and some insoluble. The soluble is great to feed your microbes in your gut. This allows the microbes to exchange back beneficial fatty acids like butyric acid. Butyric acid feeds the colon cells.

So you are feeding your colon cells with fiber. Without that fiber you don’t feed your colon cells. Butyric acid also helps improve insulin resistance and it will actually help indirectly lower insulin which is incredible.

The vegetables will also buffer the acidic pH from the meat that you are consuming because they are alkaline.

Lastly vegetables help the fat travel out of your body. So you are losing all this fat from your body and it travels through the liver. There is a chance that the fat gets stuck in the liver and would result in a fatty liver. The vegetables help in the elimination of fat through the liver, out the gallbladder and through the colon.

So we don’t want to put a restriction on vegetables because of the carbs they contain. Instead we want to put a requirement of 7 to 10 cups and make this keto healthy.

Will Vegetable Carbohydrate Stop Ketosis?

Why would you not include veggie cars on keto? Some people include vegetable carbohydrates in the formula for the calculating carbs. I don’t recommend including your vegetable carbs in that. Why?

Let’s take 1 cup of salad for example. On average 1 cup of leafy greens is 1.5 grams of carbohydrate. Now if we subtract the fiber, which is 1 gram, we get 0.5 grams of net carbs. So we are dealing with a ½ gram of carbs. I recommend 7 to 10 cups of veggies a day. So we would have 3.5 to 5 grams of carbs. Extremely low! You are allowed 20 grams to 50 grams a day.

That salad is going to provide a lot of benefit, will count for 3.5 to 5 grams of carbs which is almost insignificant.

The glycemic index for a green salad is very small at 15. The glycemic load which is basically the amount of carbohydrate minus the fiber is 3. That is extremely low. It has a significant amount of fiber which causes the overall carbs to be less.

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The Best Vegetables For The Keto Diet