Are tomatoes keto-friendly?

To achieve this, the diet requires you to cut out or severely limit your intake of carb-rich foods, including grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, and fruit.

Though tomatoes are commonly considered a vegetable, they're botanically a fruit, causing some to wonder whether they can be included on a ketogenic diet.

This article discusses how keto-friendly tomatoes truly are.

Tomatoes are different from other fruit

Botanically speaking, tomatoes are considered a fruit. However, unlike other fruit, they're considered keto-friendly.

That's because tomatoes contain around 2-3 grams of net carbs per 3.5 ounces (100 grams) — or up to 10 times fewer net carbs than most fruit — regardless of their variety (5Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source, 10Trusted Source).

Net carbs are calculated by taking the carb content of a food and deducting its fiber content.

Hence, tomatoes are much easier to fit within the daily carb limit than other fruit, which is what makes tomatoes keto-friendly. The same can be said of other low carb fruits, including zucchini, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and avocado.

In addition to their low carb content, tomatoes are rich in fiber and contain a variety of beneficial plant compounds, which may be lacking on a strict ketogenic diet. There are two more reasons to include them on your keto diet.

Not all tomato-based foods are keto-friendly

Although raw tomatoes are considered keto-friendly, not all tomato products are.

For instance, many store-bought tomato products, such as tomato paste, tomato sauce, salsa, tomato juice, and even canned tomatoes, contain added sugars.

This significantly raises their total carb content, making them more difficult to fit into a ketogenic diet.

Therefore, be sure to check the ingredient label when purchasing a tomato-based product and avoid those containing extra sugar.

Sundried tomatoes are another tomato-based food that may be considered less keto-friendly than raw tomatoes.

Due to their low water content, they end up containing around 23.5 grams of net carbs per cup (54 grams), which is significantly more than the same serving of raw tomatoes (6Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source).

For this reason, you likely need to limit how many sundried tomatoes you eat while following a ketogenic diet.

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Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

Source: Healthline