Keto diets have increased in popularity over the past decade. It’s estimated that nearly 13 million Americans follow a keto each year, which means keto diets have overtaken previously popular low-carb diets like the Atkins diet.
Since the keto diet is so low in carbs, you probably find yourself looking up specific foods to see if they’re keto-friendly – and you’re not alone!
Coconut flour is keto-friendly because it’s low in net carbs with eight grams per ¼ cup. Just because it’s low in net carbs doesn’t mean you don’t have to watch your portions while on a keto diet, though. Don’t worry; we’ll explain that and more in this article!
Quick keto refresher
A ketogenic (keto) diet is a very low-carbohydrate diet. Carbohydrates (carbs) are one of three main macronutrients and are primarily found in foods like grains, fruit, starchy vegetables, and some dairy products. Sweeteners and foods and drinks made with sweeteners are also significant sources of carbs.
There are three types of carbs – starch, sugar, and fiber. Of those three, fiber isn’t absorbed by your body so it doesn’t impact your blood sugar levels or state of ketosis (the premise of the keto diet).
While the average American consumes around 200 grams of carbs or more per day, a keto diet restricts carbs to fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day, with some strict keto dieters keeping their carb intake below 20 grams per day.
Keto diets are very high in fat with at least 70% of your total calories coming from fat, which allows your body to burn fat for energy instead of carbs (carbs are your body’s preferred energy source).
Is coconut flour keto?
Coconut flour is one of the most popular keto flours thanks to its low net carb content. Net carbs are found by subtracting the grams of dietary fiber from the total carbs, which leaves the number of carbs that impact your blood sugar and state of ketosis.
One serving (¼ cup) of coconut flour contains 18 grams of total carbs and 10 grams of fiber, which means it only contains 8 grams of net carbs per serving. That is much lower in carbs than “regular” enriched flour, which contains 23 grams of net carbs per ¼ cup serving!
Coconuts are rich in medium-chain triglycerides, a type of fat that is ideal on a keto diet because of their ability to be used as energy more quickly than long-chain fats. For this reason, coconut oil is also a popular keto diet staple.
How much coconut flour can you eat on keto?
It’s important to keep an eye on how much coconut flour you’re eating on a keto diet since it can add up quickly if you’re not careful. Eight grams of net carbs per ¼ cup serving is low in carbs for flour, but if you eat enough of it it could put you over your daily carb target depending on what else you typically eat.
Using coconut flour with other low-carb or carb-free ingredients can help keep your overall carb intake low. Another option is to use a combination of coconut and almond flour since almond flour is even lower in net carbs than coconut flour (two grams of net carbs per ¼ cup).
Here is a comparison of coconut flour vs. almond flour:
| Calories | Fat | Total Carbs | Fiber | Net carbs | |
| ¼ cup almond flour | 160 | 12 g | 6 g | 4 g | 2 g |
| ¼ cup coconut flour | 120 | 3 g | 18 g | 10 g | 8 g |
How to use coconut flour for a keto diet
You can replace all-purpose flour with coconut flour in recipes, but you’ll need to use a lot less than the recipe calls for since almond flour absorbs liquid more than all-purpose flour. You can substitute every cup of all-purpose flour with ¼ cup of coconut flour, and you might need to increase the amount of liquid in the recipe.
If you’re not up for experimenting with substituting coconut flour in recipes (it can take some trial and error!), you can easily find recipes that call for coconut flour. Coconut flour has become a popular flour for not only keto diets but gluten-free diets as well, so there are plenty of coconut flour recipes out there for you to try.
FAQs:
Almond flour is lower in net carbs and higher in fat than coconut flour, so it’s better for a keto diet.
Carbs are broken down into sugar (glucose) after you eat them (except for the fiber in carbs, which isn’t digested). Coconut flour is low in net carbs thanks to its high fiber content, so it won’t spike your blood sugar as significantly as most grain-based flours.
Leave a Comment