What Milks Are Allowed and OK on a Keto Diet? (2024)

• What Is
  • What is the keto diet?
• Drink Cow's Milk on Keto Diet
  • Can you drink cow's milk on the keto diet?
• Types of Milk Safe to Drink on Keto
  • What types of milk are safe to drink on the keto diet?
• Milks to Avoid
  • What milks should you avoid on the keto diet?
• Health Benefits of Keto-Safe Milk
  • What are the health benefits of only consuming keto-safe milk and other foods?
• Comments
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What is the keto diet?

Milk and related dairy products are essential ingredients in many people's diets. You may enjoy pouring milk on your morning cereal, mixing sweet creamer into your coffee, and adding cream cheese to savory pasta dishes. If you decide to follow the ketogenic—or “keto”—diet, though, you may worry that you will need to cut all milk out of your daily routine. Fortunately, it is possible to have keto milk, though not all kinds of milk are allowed if you're on the keto diet.

This diet only permits small amounts of carbohydrates, so you’ll need to avoid many carb-heavy milk varieties. Read on to learn more about what types of milk you can safely eat while on the keto diet.

Understanding keto diet guidelines can help you determine what foods you can consume. The keto diet was originally developed in 1921, but it has exploded in popularity recently. This method requires you to eat a diet with roughly this ratio of macronutrients:

• Fats: 50–60%
• Protein: 30–35%
• Carbohydrates: 5–10%

Under these guidelines, a person who needs 2,000 calories daily can only eat 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates because the keto diet works by restricting the number of carbs that you eat. When you deprive your body of carbs, it enters ketogenesis, which means that it starts producing ketone bodies as an alternate energy source. This metabolic change can lead to weight loss and other health benefits, like improved insulin sensitivity.

Of course, it’s always a good idea to consult your doctor or a nutritionist before starting a new diet to ensure that your new regimen won’t cause any adverse health effects.

Can you drink cow's milk on the keto diet?

The keto diet restricts carbohydrate intake to a maximum of 50 grams per day, so it’s best to select foods with very low amounts of carbs. Cow’s milk doesn’t meet this requirement because it contains high amounts of lactose, a type of sugar.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s FoodData Central, one cup of 1% milk contains 12.7 grams of carbohydrates. 12.2 grams of these carbohydrates come from lactose.

In other words, drinking a single cup of cow’s milk could provide one-fourth of your daily carbohydrates, requiring you to more severely restrict your carb intake for the rest of the day. To avoid this issue, you may want to eliminate cow’s milk from your diet if you follow the keto method.

What types of milk are safe to drink on the keto diet?

Luckily, there are many types of low-carb milk that you can safely drink on the keto diet. Generally, plant-based milk tends to contain fewer carbs than animal-based milk, with a few exceptions.

Examples of keto-safe milk types include:

• Almond milk.This faintly nutty-tasting milk is made from almonds. A 100-gram serving of plain, unsweetened almond milk contains 0.67 grams of carbohydrates, making it a great choice for a keto diet. However, you should avoid almond milk if you have a tree nut allergy.
• Cashew milk.This milk is made by blending wet-milled cashews and water. One cup of cashew milk contains 2 grams of carbohydrates.
• Soy milk.100 grams of soy milk include 3 grams of carbohydrates. This popular alternative milk is a good source of protein, though some people dislike the bean-like taste.

Unfortunately, these plant-based varieties of milk are often more expensive and less widely available than cow's milk. Some people on a keto diet may consequently need to reduce their overall milk consumption.

Many manufacturers also add sugars to plant-based milk to make them taste sweeter. This process can increase the number of carbohydrates in milk. For instance, 100 grams of sweetened almond milk contains 5 grams of carbohydrates, while the same quantity of unsweetened almond milk contains less than 1 gram.

Carefully checking nutrition labels before consuming milk can help ensure you’ve selected a keto-friendly variety.

What milks should you avoid on the keto diet?

To ensure that you stay within your daily carb allotment, you only need to avoid types of milk that contain high amounts of carbs and added sugars. Here are a few milk varieties that might not be a good fit for your keto diet:

• Animal milk.Milk from goats, sheep, and yaks contains roughly the same amount of carbohydrates as cow’s milk, so you should avoid all of these products while on a keto diet.
• Coconut milk.100 ml of coconut milk contains 6 grams of carbohydrates, so it’s not an ideal choice for the keto diet.
• Oat milk.100 grams of oat milk will contain 5 grams of carbohydrates, half of which come from sugars.
• Rice milk.Rice is a carbohydrate-rich starch, so rice milk contains more sugar than cow’s milk. One serving of rice milk contains an average of 25 grams of carbohydrates, making it a poor choice for the carb-restrictive keto diet.

Avoiding these milk varieties can help ensure that you consume an appropriate number of carbohydrates while on the keto diet.

What are the health benefits of only consuming keto-safe milk and other foods?

Sticking to keto-friendly milk and other low-carbohydrate foods can improve your overall health and well-being. For example, the keto diet can lead to rapid weight loss, with some dieters losing 10 pounds in the first two weeks.

According to recent research, the keto diet can also:

• Decrease insulin production
• Decrease appetite
• Eliminate visceral belly fat
• Lower triglycerides
• Promote healthy gut microbiota
• Reduce inflammation
• Reduce insulin resistance
• Support brain health

Sacrificing carbohydrate-heavy milk varieties like cow’s milk can be a small price to pay for the many possible benefits of following a keto diet. Additionally, thanks to the growing popularity of low-carb, plant-based alternatives, you can still enjoy milk even while staying on the keto diet!

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SOURCES:

AgEcon Search: "The Economics of Plant-Based Milk."

Cureus: "Advantages and Disadvantages of the Ketogenic Diet: A Review Article."

FoodData Central: "Almond milk, sweetened," "Almond milk, unsweetened, plain, refrigerated," "Coconut Milk Drink, Coconut Milk," "Milk, lowfat, fluid, 1% milkfat, with added vitamin A and vitamin D," "Oat milk, unsweetened, plain, refrigerated," "Soy milk, unsweetened, plain, refrigerated," "Unsweetened Original Cashewmilk."

Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health: "Milk."

Journal of Food Science and Technology: "How well do plant based alternatives fare nutritionally compared to cows milk?"

Masood, W., Annamaraju, P., Uppaluri, K. StatPeals, "Ketogenic Diet," StatPearls Publishing, 2022. Nutrients: "The Potential Health Benefits of the Ketogenic Diet: A Narrative Review."

UF IFAS Extension: "Plant-Based Milks: Cashew."