Is Green Juice Keto-Friendly?

Green juice is delicious and nutritious, but is that glass of green juice keto-friendly? The keto diet requires that the foods you consume are low sugar and low carb, so it’s important to know what’s in your green juice to tell whether it meets keto diet recommendations. But, even if it is keto-friendly, how will you know when to take it?

Green juice can be keto-friendly if you use low-carb vegetables, and make sure to limit the amount of sugar. Using high-carb vegetables or high-sugar fruits can throw off the drink’s ketogenic balance. Even keto-friendly green juice should only be consumed in moderation, and in the mornings.

The rest of this article will explore what keto-friendly foods are appropriate for green juice and how to know if your juice is keto-friendly. We’ll also talk about some not-so-keto-friendly pitfalls to avoid, share a keto-friendly green juice recipe, and give you some tips on making keto-friendly green juice for yourself. Which starts with the best juicer for green juice

Green Juice Contains Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs

Green juice recipes often contain a mixture of vegetables (including leafy greens), fruits, and herbs. It has many health benefits, such as:

• Helps you increase your intake of vitamins and minerals.
• Reduces inflammation
• Supports a healthy immune system.

While green juice sounds trendy and hip, there is a catch regarding whether or not your green juice is healthy. The nutritional makeup of green juice depends entirely on the ingredients that you use. For example, green juices that include lots of fruit to add sweetness and balance will be much higher regarding sugar content.

What Is the Keto Diet?

The keto diet is a low-carb diet that supports the idea of getting more calories from protein and fat, rather than from carbohydrates, which puts your body in a state called ketosis. Your body should get its energy from burning fat instead of burning glucose from carbs, which can help reduce and manage blood sugar levels, help you lose weight, and even reduce risk factors for heart disease.

While protein is often front and center when people talk about keto diets, vegetables are a necessary part of the keto diet and shouldn’t be overlooked.

To make sure your diet, including green juices, are keto-friendly, you need to know which foods you should include in your diet (foods low in sugar and carbs) and which foods to avoid (foods high in sugar and carbs).

Keto-Friendly Foods: What You Should Eat

• Meat and fatty fish
• Eggs
• Butter, cream, and cheese
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy oils (olive, coconut, avocado, etc.)
• Avocados
• Low carb vegetables (green vegetables, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc.)
• Herbs and spices

Not-So-Keto-Friendly Foods: What You Should Avoid

• Sugary foods (juice, soda, smoothies, etc.)
• Grains and starches (rice, pasta, cereal, etc.)
• Fruit (except for small portions of berries and a few other fruits)
• Beans or legumes
• Root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc.)
• Low fat or diet products, including sugar-free diet foods (condiments, mayonnaise, etc.)
• Some condiments or sauces (ketchup, barbeque sauce, etc.)
• Unhealthy fats (processed vegetable oils, mayonnaise, etc.)
• Alcohol

Can You Consume Green Juice on a Keto Diet?

With the list of keto-friendly foods in mind, only you can decide if green juice works with your macros or macronutrients. Think about what kinds of vegetables are in the juice, what fruits, if any, are included, and whether or not there are any additional or added sweeteners.

Creating a low-carb, low sugar juice is possible but depends entirely on what ingredients you choose to use.

Is It Too Much Sugar?

Green juice recipes, or commercially sold green juices, might contain fruits like lemons, oranges, apples, and berries. Many juice recipes and commercially made juices on the market rely on fruits to make the leafy greens and other vegetables in the juice more palatable. Commercially made juices may also contain added sugars to make them more appealing to drink.

The Keto diet involves keeping your carbohydrate and sugar intake to a minimum, so if your juice recipe contains high sugar vegetables and fruits, green juice may not be the best option for your keto diet.

How To Make Green Juice Keto-Friendly

It’s essential to carefully consider what to put in your smoothie if you want to make your green juice keto-friendly. If you want your body to stay in a state of ketosis, it’s probably not a good idea to have a green juice every day, but once in a while should be okay.

Keto Green Smoothie Recipe

To get started with green juice on your keto diet, try this recipe for very veggie green juice from Goodnature.

Very Veggie Green Juice Recipe

Ingredients

• ⅔ medium cucumber
• 2½ cups Romaine lettuce, chopped
• 4 cups spinach
• ½ medium zucchini
• 2 celery stalks
• ½ lemon
• ¼ cups watercress, chopped
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• Pinch of salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Wash and prepare your ingredients.
2. Juice all ingredients in your juicer.
3. Enjoy!

Making Your Own Keto Juice

To make a keto-friendly green juice, you’ll need to plan your recipe carefully. Your green juice can be a “build your own” style based on your tastes and preferences. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try different flavors until you find combinations you like.

You can follow this simple three-step guide to make something delicious, all while staying keto-friendly.

1. Pick a vegetable or vegetables that are low carb.
2. (Optional) Add a little fruit (mostly berries) for sweetness.
3. (Optional) Add herbs and spices for additional flavor.

Check out this table of keto-friendly ingredients. You can use this table as a guide for creating your green juice recipe. The options provided below can help you find new and delicious combinations for your green juice.

Is Green Juice Worth It?

With all of that in mind, you might ask yourself if the work involved in making or finding green juice for your keto diet is worth it. The work involved in making or finding a keto-appropriate green juice might not be worth the effort to you.

While green juice can be delicious and nutritious, it can also be challenging to make keto-friendly green juice. If you aren’t into the strong taste of juiced vegetables without a lot of fruit to cut or dilute intense flavors, you may even have difficulty tolerating the taste of keto-friendly green juice.

You certainly don’t need green juice as part of your keto diet. Many healthy, balanced keto recipes can help you increase your intake of leafy greens and healthy vegetables, so if you decide that green juice isn’t for you, there are other options.

You can, however, place your ingredients in a blender, along with some protein powder and MCT oil to make a delicious smoothie. Not only will you have a nutritious morning shake, but you will also have more fiber to counteract the glucose effect of the carbohydrates.

Conclusion

Green juice can be part of your regular keto diet, so long as you pay attention to your ingredients to ensure you are keeping your juice low-carb and low sugar. To keep up with your keto diet, you should include green juice in your diet in moderation.

Remember that green juice can be used as part of a healthy and balanced diet, so it’s essential to make sure that you are getting your nutritional needs met through your daily meals instead of relying on green juice to provide the nutrition you need.

Sources

• WebMD: Keto Diet: What is a Ketogenic Diet?
• Healthline: The Ketogenic Diet: A Detailed Beginners Guide to Keto
• Healthline: Does Green Juice Have Benefits? All You Need to Know
• Healthline: The 21 Best Low-Carb Vegetables