Is Peanut Butter Actually Keto-Friendly?
Like a reliable old friend, peanut butter has been beside you throughout every stage of your life. In the past, your parents put sandwiches spread with PB and jelly in your elementary school lunch box. And as you got older, you found that adding peanut butter to your morning toast is the perfect way to pack some protein into your breakfast. But although peanut butter has been with you through thick and thin, you may be worried that you'll finally have to give it up due to your keto diet.
On the one hand, since keto requires a large fat intake (per Harvard Health Publishing), peanut butter seems like a great keto-friendly food choice. After all, according to Very Well Fit, one 2 tablespoon serving of your favorite PB brand offers you 16 grams of healthy fat. However, in the end, a keto diet always comes down to carb intake. So how does peanut butter's carb count stack up? Well, according to Healthline, it depends on the brand.
PB can be keto-friendly, but there's a catch
On the other hand, peanut butter lovers can breathe a sigh of relief because Healthline reports that it can be keto-safe. As the website notes, a serving size of smooth peanut butter only has 7 grams of carbs. However, that doesn't mean you can start diving into your favorite PB brand spoon first. Because if you want to include peanut butter in your keto diet plan, you need to carefully pick out the type of PB you choose to indulge in.
Healthline explains that certain types of peanut butter are far from keto-friendly. For example, reduced fat PB tends to have a higher carb count than regular peanut butter. And the outlet also reported PB brands that have a lot of added sugars, like those with fruit or honey on their ingredient list, have higher carb counts than old-fashioned PB.
Men's Health revealed that the key to buying the best low-carb peanut butter is to look for jars that list two ingredients: Nuts and salt. And while the same outlet stated that adding several types of nut butters to your keto plan will help you incorporate multiple vitamins into your diet, Healthline did note one nut butter has an overall lower carb intake than the rest. The outlet stated that if you're willing to give up peanut butter, almond butter (which generally only has 6 grams of carbs per serving) is a lower-carb keto alternative.