Is 'Keto' Bread Actually Keto-Friendly?

The ketogenic diet, or keto diet, is a high-fat, low-carb diet that replaces carbs with protein and fat. It encourages the body to enter the metabolic state of ketosis and allows it to burn fat more easily. While the keto diet doesn't completely eliminate carbs from your daily diet, it does significantly reduce the number of carbs you can consume each day (via Food Network). "A keto diet usually comprises 5% to 10% carbohydrates, 70% to 80% of fat, and 10% to 20% protein," Jonathan Valdez, registered dietitian and spokesperson for New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, told Food Network. "For carbohydrates, that ranges from 20 to 50 grams per day."

Net carbs are the number of carbs in food that you can digest and use for energy (via The Kitchn). Since fiber is indigestible, net carbs are the grams of total carbohydrates in a food minus the grams of total fiber. While regular bread typically contains too many net carbs per slice to be included in the keto diet, keto-friendly bread is low in carbs and high in fiber and protein. For example, one slice of Franz Keto white bread contains 12 grams of total carbs, all of which are dietary fiber. This means that it contains zero grams of net carbs.

Keto bread may be low in calories and total and net carbs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's healthy. While store-bought keto bread can certainly be part of a healthy and well-balanced diet, it needs to be more than just low-carb to be considered healthy (via Healthline). The quality of the bread also matters. "Just like with non-keto food products, you'll want to look at the ingredients list to make sure the food you want to eat is made with real food ingredients," Amanda Maucere, a registered dietitian and nutritionist for the Lung Health Institute, told Healthline. "If what you find in the ingredients list is a long list of chemicals and additives, steer clear."

Anthony Gustin, CEO and co-founder of Perfect Keto, also told Healthline that eating highly processed foods with artificial sweeteners can cause many of the same ailments that the keto diet aims to alleviate. These include poor digestion, depression, anxiety, chronic inflammation, asthma, and allergies. At the end of the day, low-carb junk food is still junk food, and adhering to a keto diet doesn't necessarily mean you're always consuming healthy ingredients.