Can you eat seafood on the keto diet? The short answer is yes, you can. Before you start eating it, you’ll want to know why.
Here are the main reasons why you are allowed to consume seafood soup on the keto diet.
- Low Carbs : One of the reasons why it’s fine to eat seafood soup on the keto diet is because it contains low carbohydrates. Seafood soup will only provide you with a limited amount of energy. On the keto diet, your body will burn more fat and protein for energy, but this is possible because you limit the amount of carbs you take in. Once your body enters the ketosis stage, you will end up having more energy. Just remember, different types of seafoods contain different amounts of carbs. Try to stick with seafood that isn’t high in carbohydrates. The good news is the majority of seafood are low in carbs.
- Seafood Soup Is High In Protein : Not only is seafood soup low in carbs, but it contains a high amount of protein. For example, shrimp, lobster or crab easily has up to 20 grams of protein or more. Even small amounts of those foods can equal high amounts of protein. What’s better is those foods, and other seafoods only contain a small amount of saturated fat. If you add clams to your soup, then you’ll bet getting lots of protein. Generally speaking, 15 to20 small clams are packed with around 15 to 17 grams of protein. Meanwhile, 12 to 13 medium-sized oysters contain around 8-12 grams of protein.
- Vitamin D : Everyone should be consuming adequate amounts of vitamin D, especially people who are following a keto diet. One of the best sources of vitamin D is fish and other types of seafood. Depending on what kind of seafood you add to your soup, the chances are you’ll end up getting plenty of vitamin D. Some fish, such as salmon can easily provide you with the recommended amount of vitamin D. Check out this article about the pescatarian diet plan if you enjoy eating fish.
- Fiber : Although seafood typically doesn’t contain high amounts of fiber, the foods that go into a typical seafood soup does. For example, if you add a vegetable or a few vegetables, then you’ll be adding plenty of fiber to the soup. The best veggies to add to seafood soup include green peas, carrots and broccoli. Collard greens are great choices too. However, you don’t have to add veggies to your soup if you want high fiber. Some shellfish contain a moderate amount of fiber. These include catfish and crab. Bear in mind that if you don’t get enough fiber from your soup, then the other foods you include in the keto diet should provide you with an adequate amount of fiber.
- Healthy Fats : Finally, seafood soup is keto-friendly because many of the ingredients contain healthy fats or no fats at all. Generally speaking, you don’t want to consume too many bad fats on the keto diet, but healthy fats are fine. Some of the best types of foods to add to seafood soup include sardines, salmon and sardines, because all of them contain omega-3s. Omega-3s are very healthy fats, which is a good thing when you’re on the keto diet.
If you’re currently on the keto diet or you’re planning to follow the keto diet, you should consider adding seafood soup to your diet. As you can see, there are several reasons why seafood soup is considered keto-friendly. Go ahead and add it if you are looking for some new foods for the keto diet. Remember, you can switch things up from time-to-time by tweaking the ingredients in your soup.