Is Bread Keto?
Are you missing the simplicity of a sandwich in your diet or craving some avocado toast? If you struggle to come up with simple meal ideas as part of your keto lifestyle, you might be wondering if there’s a way to incorporate bread into your diet.
While some grocery stores sell keto-friendly bread, these options are few and far between. Traditional bread is loaded with carbohydrates that will kick you out of ketosis. Making your own keto bread is one solution to this dilemma.
If you are wondering whether bread is keto–or if there’s a way to make bread keto–here are the facts you need to know.
Is Bread Keto-Friendly?
Chances are that you already know white bread is not likely to win any awards for healthy eating. However, many people have come to enjoy a quality piece of wheat bread or multigrain bread from time to time. Unfortunately, bread is not keto-friendly.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a single slice of whole wheat bread has 13.8 grams of carbs and only 1.9 grams of fiber. [1] This means that you are consuming 11.9 grams of net carbs from just one slice of bread.
Even multigrain bread is not a great option for keto enthusiasts. A quick glance at the Target brand Archer Farms shows that it has 51.2 grams of carbohydrates with only 4.7 grams of fiber. [2]
The keto diet is all about lowering that carbohydrate count and boosting healthy fats. By limiting carbs (and therefore glucose), your body will start to create ketones from the fat that is already stored in the body, which results in greater weight loss.
To this end, most people who stick to a strict keto diet eat fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day (while many eat less than 20 grams). [3] For the most part, a good rule of thumb is to keep your calorie intake around 5 to 10 percent carbohydrates with much greater percentages given to fat and protein.
As you can see from a quick overview of the nutrition facts on standard bread products, you will not be able to enjoy traditional bread on the keto diet. That does not mean that you can never eat bread. Instead, it simply means that you will need to make your own bread or purchase loaves that promise to keep the carb count low.
How to Make Your Own Bread
For those who just can’t bear the thought of forgoing their afternoon sandwich, there are still a few options you might choose to pursue. First and foremost, you can try your hand at making a simple keto bread using ingredients that you likely already have on hand. Some rely on flour substitutes like almond flour and coconut, while others are mainly egg based. Unlike traditional bread that can take hours to proof and rise before baking, low-carb recipes are often much faster.
In just one hour, you can make this easy almond flour keto bread with just four ingredients: eggs, butter, coconut oil, and almond flour.
Don’t have an hour to spend on your sandwich? You can make this 5-minute bread with simple ingredients like coconut flour and unsweetened almond milk. All you have to do is toss it in the microwave for five minutes or so after you mix up the batter.
This keto breakfast bread is also a versatile and easy option with a great texture, or try keto cloud bread, which uses mostly eggs and cream cheese for a super low carb version of bread. You might also want to try a recipe for keto cornbread or keto banana bread.
Of course, if your goal is to eat a sandwich, you could just do without the bread. Protein from the deli meat you typically buy is still a great option and you can substitute lettuce wraps for your bread. You can still pile on all of your favorite keto toppings like mayo, bacon, and avocado, and you will not have to worry about whether it will kick you out of ketosis. On Ketogenic.com, you’ll find recipes for salmon salad lettuce wraps, shrimp lettuce wraps, and Asian chicken lettuce wraps.
Is Store-Bought Keto Bread Really Keto?
Spend a little time perusing your local grocery store and you are likely to find many bread options that claim to be keto-friendly on the packaging. Unfortunately, you are likely to spend three times as much on some of these keto loaves simply because they come with this desirable label.
It may be time to peel back the label on some of these bread options to see: are they really keto?
Aldi is one store that boasts an affordable solution with their La Oven brand, which boasts zero net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber). At under $3.00 per loaf, it seems like a great option, but it could still impact your metabolism. To find out if it really passes muster, we take a deep dive into Aldi keto bread in our article here.
The bottom line with store-bought products? Take a look at the ingredients, do your own research, check to see if it’s Ketogenic Certified, and, most importantly, find out how your own body reacts. One way is to test your ketones before and after eating the product.
Get Creative with Keto Bread
If you still want to enjoy a sandwich, a piece of toast, or even a slice of French toast, you may have to get a bit more creative with your diet. While some store-bought keto breads are an acceptable substitute, they are often cost-prohibitive for many people on the keto diet. Stick to some of our tried and true recipes to help you get the most nutritional value for the lowest number of carbs!
References
Bread, Whole Wheat, Commercially Prepared. U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/335240/nutrients
Bread, Multigrain, Archer Farms. U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/2101740/nutrients
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (2019, May 22). Diet Review: Ketogenic Diet for weight loss. The Nutrition Source. Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/ketogenic-diet/
