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What Are Net Carbs?

What Are Net Carbs

When you follow the Keto Diet, you actually count grams of Net Carbs, which represent the total carbohydrate content of the food minus the fiber content and sugar alcohols (if in the product).

The Net Carbs number reflects the grams of carbohydrate that significantly impact your blood sugar level and therefore are the only carbs you need to count when you do keto. Foods that are low in Net Carbs such as nutrient-dense vegetables and low glycemic fruits such as berries don’t have a significant impact on blood sugar and therefore are less likely to interfere with weight loss.

How to Calculate Net Carbs

You can calculate the approximate number of Net Carb grams of a low-carb product yourself by looking at the information provided on a food label:

Net Carbs = Total Carbohydrates – Fiber – Sugar Alcohols (if applicable)

Calculating the net carbs for foods without labels, such as fruits and vegetables, is easy too.

Simply go to https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ and look up the food in the FoodDate Central database. 

Image by Mari Vorobei from Pixabay