Following a ketogenic diet involves cutting back on high-carb foods like starches, desserts and processed snacks.
This is essential to reaching a metabolic state called ketosis, which causes your body to begin breaking down fat stores instead of carbs to produce energy.
Ketosis also requires reducing sugar consumption, which can make it challenging to sweeten beverages, baked goods, sauces and dressings.
Fortunately, there are various low-carb sweeteners that you can enjoy.
Here are the 6 best sweeteners for a low-carb keto diet — plus 6 you should avoid.
1. Stevia
Stevia is a natural sweetener derived from the Stevia rebaudiana plant.
It’s considered a nonnutritive sweetener, which means that it contains little to no calories or carbs (1).
Unlike regular sugar, animal and human studies have shown that stevia may help lower blood sugar levels (2, 3).
Stevia is available in both liquid and powdered form and can be used to sweeten everything from drinks to desserts.
However, because it’s much sweeter than regular sugar, recipes require less stevia to achieve the same flavor.
For each cup (200 grams) of sugar, substitute only 1 teaspoon (4 grams) of powdered stevia.
SUMMARY
Stevia is a natural sweetener derived from the Stevia rebaudiana plant that contains little to no calories or carbs.
2. Sucralose
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that is not metabolized, meaning it passes through your body undigested and thus doesn’t provide calories or carbs (4).
Splenda is the most common sucralose-based sweetener on the market and popular because it lacks the bitter taste found in many other artificial sweeteners (5).
While sucralose itself is calorie-free, Splenda contains maltodextrin and dextrose, two carbs that supply about 3 calories and 1 gram of carbs in each packet (6).
Unlike other types of sweeteners, sucralose is not a suitable substitute for sugar in recipes that require baking.
Some studies have found that sucralose could produce harmful compounds when exposed to high temperatures (7, 8).
Instead, use sucralose as a low-carb way to sweeten drinks or foods like oatmeal and yogurt and stick to other sweeteners for baking.
Splenda can be substituted for sugar in a 1:1 ratio for most recipes.
However, pure sucralose is 600 times sweeter than regular sugar, so you’ll only need to use a tiny amount in place of sugar for your favorite foods