Is Cabbage Keto?
People have enjoyed warm bowls of healing cabbage soup for eons. If you’ve switched to a ketogenic diet and you’re excited about your progress and results so far, you may also be excited about expanding your palate and consuming a wider range of foods. There are plenty of tasty low-carb veggies to choose from on a keto diet, including Bok choy and asparagus. What about cabbage? Let’s talk about whether cabbage is keto and how to incorporate it into your keto diet.
What Is Cabbage?
Cabbage is a hearty vegetable in the Brassicaceae family, which contains the cruciferous vegetables. Consuming cruciferous vegetables has been shown to be protective against cancer. Other veggies in this family include zucchini, cauliflower, and Bok choy.
Cabbage comes in various colors, with green being the most common you may see at your local farmer’s market. You may also find red, napa, savoy, and white cabbage. The most commonly seen type of cabbage resembles a ball with tightly-wrapped, fan-shaped pale green leaves. Pointed cabbage (Sugar Loaf) is a smaller green cabbage with a cone-like, pointed head, wider leaves, and a sweeter taste.
Raw cabbage has a firm, crunchy texture, and it becomes softer as you cook it. Cabbage is a popular choice in casseroles and baked dishes and is also loaded with numerous minerals and vitamins, such as vitamins C and K. Vitamin C is a key player in regulating your immune system and protecting you from infection. [1]
Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin best consumed with healthy fats like coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, and fatty meats. Vitamin K is heavily involved with preventing blood clotting and promoting healthy brain and metabolic function. You can also obtain folate, vitamin E, and micronutrients from the humble cabbage. [2]
Phytonutrients in red cabbage stand above the rest, including sulforaphane, which is a powerful fighter against inflammation. [3]
Is Cabbage Keto?
The short answer is yes; cabbage is most certainly keto-friendly, so get chomping! Cooked cabbage provides a few more carbs compared to raw cabbage, but it’s still considered a low-carb food. All types of cabbage raw or cooked are an excellent choice for your ketogenic diet. Cabbage typically contains less than 5 grams of net carbs per cup, so it easily fits into the typical keto total net carb count of fewer than 50 grams daily. Let’s look at the carbs in different varieties of cabbage to give you an idea.
Red Cabbage
Red cabbage takes longer to mature than green cabbage and has a rougher texture. Red cabbage is also a little higher in carbs than green cabbage. One cup of chopped raw red cabbage provides around 4.7 grams of net carbs. One cup of shredded red cabbage has 3.7 grams of net carbs. [4]
One cup of cooked, boiled, shredded red cabbage provides 6.5 grams of net carbs, which is somewhat higher than raw red cabbage. [5]
Green Cabbage
A one-cup serving of chopped raw green cabbage provides around 2.9 grams of net carbs. [6]
Napa Cabbage
Chinese cabbage or Napa cabbage has even fewer carbs than “regular” green cabbage and is most definitely keto-friendly. One cup of raw, shredded Napa cabbage has less than 2 grams of net carbs, so you can go to town if you’re a cabbage lover and still remain in ketosis. [7] Napa cabbage is the type usually used to make the Korean fermented dish kimchi.
Low-Carb Cabbage Recipes
Cabbage can be:
- Stir fried
- Mixed into a casserole
- Turned into coleslaw
- Served alongside your favorite protein
- Spiralized into noodles
- Used to bulk up your cauliflower mash
- Made into cabbage cups for chicken or tuna salad
- Used as a pasta replacement for lasagna
- Fermented into sauerkraut or kimchi
- Roasted
- Transformed into egg rolls
Now you know cabbage is keto, enjoy these fun and satiating low-carb cabbage recipes from the recipe creators here at Ketogenic.com:
References
Aslani, B. A., & Ghobadi, S. (2016). Studies on oxidants and antioxidants with a brief glance at their relevance to the immune system. Life Sci, DOI: 10.1016/j.lfs.2016.01.014
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Database. Cabbage, Green, Raw. FoodData Central (usda.gov)
Kaulmann, A., Legay, S., Schneider, Y-J., Hoffmann, L., & Bohn, T. (2016). Inflammation related responses of intestinal cells to plum and cabbage digesta with differential carotenoid and polyphenol profiles following simulated gastrointestinal digestion. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.201500947
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Database. Cabbage, Red, Raw. FoodData Central (usda.gov)
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Database. Cabbage, Red, Cooked, Boiled, Drained, Without Salt. FoodData Central (usda.gov)
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Database. Cabbage, Raw. FoodData Central (usda.gov)
Self Nutrition Data. Napa Cabbage, Raw, (1 Cup Shredded = 76g) Nutrition Facts & Calories. Napa Cabbage, raw (1 cup shredded=76g) Nutrition Facts & Calories (self.com)
