You might be wonder “Is Popcorn Keto Friendly”. There is nothing better during a nice movie than diving into a bucket full of popcorn. However, when you’re on a keto diet you want to avoid anything that is high in carbs. So is popcorn keto-friendly? Today, we’re going to find out by digging into the nutrition facts for popular popcorn.
Corn is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world and popcorn is one of the most popular snacks in the US. The salt and buttery flavoring on the delicious, light, and fluffy popcorn is to die for. However, popcorn is made out of corn (obviously) and corn contains carbohydrates. So we often wonder: Is popcorn keto friendly?
If you’re looking for other great keto snacks, take a look at our post on sweet keto snacks and keto-friendly crackers.
About Popcorn
Popcorn is packed with a good amount of fiber, some antioxidants, and nutrients. Most of the time we consume our popcorn with butter and salt. On most diets, this would be considered unhealthy, but on keto, this is actually a good mixture of macronutrients for the diet. We’ll take a look at a fairly popular (and delicious) popcorn, Orville Redenbacher’s Ultimate Butter Microwave Popcorn. This popcorn contains 2g of fat, about 1g of protein, about 1g of fiber, and 3.5 net carbohydrates per cup.
If you’re new to keto or low-carb diets, it can be difficult to identify which foods are higher in carbohydrates. To stay in ketosis you’re probably only consuming around 30g of net carbohydrates per day. That doesn’t really give you a lot of room for excess carbs in your diet. However, you may crave some of the snacks that you used to eat before starting keto. This is normal for everyone. In most cases, we eat alternatives to our favorite snacks. However, is popcorn keto-friendly?
Is Popcorn Keto Friendly?
Knowing all of that, let’s answer the question “Is popcorn keto-friendly”. The short answer is “maybe”. Your average popcorn contains about 3.5g of carbohydrates, which is pretty low, but that’s only for a cup. If you’re like me you will probably consume 1/2 to a whole bag of popcorn. That’s about 5 cups and would be too many carbs for a keto diet. So if you can limit yourself to 1-2 cups popcorn is keto-friendly. Eating popcorn in moderation will probably not kick you out of ketosis. I would recommend keeping it as a snack for special occasions like a movie night.
It really comes down to your macronutrient levels for the day. How many carbs did you consume and how many more can you eat. I find that most days I could trade some of my carb foods for a nice snack if I chose to. So that means I could skip something to have a few cups of popcorn on keto. If you have the carbs allocated in your diet then, sure, eat the popcorn.
For the most part, the carb counts should stay the same between brands unless you try to get something that is sweetened versus salted. You will want to avoid any sweet popcorn on the keto diet and stick to the buttery and salty popcorn brands. This means no caramel corn. There are also some low carb popcorn flavorings that you can find online or at your local grocery store that might help enhance the flavor of plain air-popped popcorn.
The Best Popcorn for Keto
Hopefully, we answered your question: Is popcorn keto-friendly? By now, you should have all the information you need to make an informed decision about eating popcorn on keto. There are tons of options for popcorn you can try on a keto diet. Here are some of our picks for the best popcorn to eat on a keto diet.
| Image | Title | Price | Prime | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Pop Secret Popcorn, Movie Theater Butter, 3 oz Microwave Bags, 30Count | Prime | Buy Now | |
 | Orville Redenbacher's Butter Popcorn, 3.29 Ounce Classic Bag, Pack of 36 | PrimeEligible | Buy Now | |
 | Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popcorn Kernels, Original Yellow, 8 Lb | PrimeEligible | Buy Now | |
| Pop Secret Popcorn, Movie Theater Butter, 30 Count bags Of 3.0oz Each | Prime | Buy Now | |
| Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter Microwave Popcorn, 3.29 Ounce Classic Bag, 12-Count | Prime | Buy Now | |
| ACT II Xtreme Butter Microwave Popcorn, 12 ct, 33.01 oz | PrimeEligible | Buy Now |
Keto Popcorn Alternatives
If you’re looking for an alternative to popcorn on the keto diet, then you may want to read our post on crunchy keto snacks.
