Are Sweet Potatoes Keto Friendly?
You probably heard that sweet potatoes are also called “healthy potatoes”. So are sweet potatoes keto friendly? Compared with usual potatoes, sweet potatoes have less carbs, more fibre, and less calories.
Sweet Potatoes Nutrition Value
Sweet potatoes are low-fat and have great nutrition value – they are full of vitamin A, they also contain vitamin B6, C, calcium, and magnesium.
However, sweet potatoes are not good for keto diet. Your daily intake of carbs should not exceed 50 grams. So one sweet potato can easily exceed your daily keto limit of carbs and take you out of the ketosis.
Sweet Potatoes Alternatives on Keto Diet
You can use pumpkins and carrots as closer to taste to sweet potatoes during keto diet.
Another keto-friendly alternative to potatoes is cauliflower, a vegetable which is rich in vitamin C. And you can also use turnip as a substitute of sweet potatoes during keto diet.
Pumpkins have beta carotene, a compound of vitamin A. It is necessary for your skin, vision, and immune system. And pumpkin also has vitamin B and E. Pumpkin seeds are also keto-friendly. A tablespoon of raw pumpkin seeds has 1,6 grams of net carbs.
Carrots are keto-friendly when taken in small amounts. One medium raw carrot has 4.1 grams of net carbs. Carrots have great nutritional value, they are rich in vitamin A, C, K, calcium, and iron.
Cauliflower is low carb keto-friendly vegetable. Its rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds. Cauliflower is also rich in dietary fibre.
Turnips are rich in vitamin A, C, K. Vitamin K plays important role in blood clotting, preventing from excessive bleeding.
We highly recommend including above vegetables in your grocery shopping list. You can find plenty of keto-friendly recipes with them to make your keto diet journey tasty and easy.
Keto Diet Types
However, there are some types of keto diets which allow higher carbs intake on certain days. For example, cyclic keto diet allows one or two days a week with 140 to 160 grams of carbs a day. This type of diet is often followed by athletes. It can temporarily get you out of ketosis.
Carbs are needed for intense physical training. They are usually burnt out quickly with an exercise course.
Benefits of cyclic keto diet include reduce of cravings, muscle gain and increased workout performance.
The cyclic keto diet is not recommended for people with low or medium physical activity. It is because they might not be able easily and quickly get back to the state of ketosis.
Summary
To sum up, if you are trying low carb diet and not a strict keto diet, you can make sweet potatoes a part of it. The best way is to cook sweet potatoes is with avocado oil or heavy cream. Oil’s or cream’s fat helps to minimize carbs effect on the diet.
You can also divide them into smaller portions, if you decided to make them part of your diet. This way instead of taking one whole sweet potato, you can mix smaller amounts of it with other keto-friendly vegetables, such is broccoli, lettuce, spinach.
Did you know that pumpkin is not a vegetable as widely thought? It is a fruit.
One of my favourite pumpkins recipes is pumpkin soup, which is easy-to-make and perfect for winter cold weather.
- Fry garlic and onion in olive oil
- Add pumpkin puree, stir and cook for couple of minutes
- Put coconut milk, stir, boil and cook for 10 minutes
- Add salt and pepper to your taste and blend it
Carrot zucchini salad – is also one of my favourite keto dishes. It requires minimum preparation time. Peel and slice vegetables. In a separate bowl mix the dressing ingredients: lime juice, olive oil. Add dressing to the vegetables, add salt and pepper to your taste; shredded cheddar cheese on top. You can find more information about zucchini on keto diet here: https://freeketoeasy.com/zucchini-carb/
There are keto-friendly salads dressings available online, have a look at this one which has 3 different flavours: 
