Wondering what keto dieters can drink? Well, aside from water, which is the healthiest choice for everyone because it’s additive-, carb-, and calorie-free, there are some other keto-friendly beverages for those following the diet as well.
If you’re planning to start a keto diet, you can try different beverages to provide some flavor and variety, boost your energy, and replace some of your favorite sugary drinks.
So here are 15 best keto friendly drinks, besides water, which hold 0–5 grams of net carbs—the total number of carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols.
1–2 Juices
Although it’s best for keto dieters to avoid juices, there are a few keto-friendly options available.
1. Fruit Juice
Typically loaded with sugar, fruit juice is inappropriate for the keto diet. But there are exceptions though.
There are low-carb, yet flavorful lime and lemon juices, which you can add to plain water or other beverages to add flavor or liven up the taste. Other keto fruit juices include sugar-free strawberry limeade and watermelon juice.
2. Vegetable Juice
There are also some low-carb juiced vegetables that can be included on your diet. But it is noteworthy that juicing takes away most of the nutritious fiber from the vegetables—well, unless you opt to drink the pulp.
Some keto vegetables that can be juiced include celery, cucumber, and leafy greens, such as kale and spinach.
If you can’t make your own vegetable juice at home, you can purchase them at stores. Just make sure to check the label on the bottled veggie juices. You might want to avoid those that are packed with sugar and other carb sources.
Most store-bought bottled veggie juices hold at least 10 grams of carbs per serving, which makes them inappropriate to your diet.
3–4 Soft Drinks
Typically, soft drinks are packed with sugar or artificial sweeteners that can be potentially harmful. Interestingly, keto-friendly soft drinks do exist.
3. Alternative Diet Sodas
Although they are technically keto, diet sodas like Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke may not be your best choice. Why? Because they contain artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and sucralose, which can be harmful to the healthy bacteria in your gut. In addition, these sweeteners may even strengthen your sugar cravings, causing weight gain.
Fortunately, there are several diet sodas made with naturally derived zero calorie sweeteners, like erythritol or stevia.
Keto-friendly sodas like Zevia and Virgil’s Zero Sugar are available online for purchase.
4. Sparkling Water
Sparkling water is carbonated either during manufacturing using carbon dioxide gas or naturally from a mineral spring. Many are flavored but typically unsweetened, making them very appropriate for a keto diet.
Keto-friendly sparkling waters, such as Perrier, Hint, and Aura Bora, are available for purchase online.
5. Flavored Waters
Some keto-friendly drinks contain small amounts of real fruit juice to add natural sweetness and flavor while maintaining a relatively low carb count—usually 1–5 grams of net carbs for every serving.
Spindrift sparkling water, lemon perfect flavored water, and other flavored waters are available for purchase online.
In addition, you can also add zero-carb powdered or liquid water enhancers, which are available in many flavors, to your bottled water. Some water enhancers are made with artificial sweeteners and flavors, but others are either unsweetened or using keto-approved sweeteners, like stevia.
Unsweetened products like True Lemon and stevia-sweetened options like Stur are available for purchase online.
6. Milk Alternatives
Since cow’s milk contains natural sugar, it is not recommended for keto dieters. Good thing there are several plant-based alternatives that keto dieters can enjoy.
Keto-friendly plant-based milks include almond milk, coconut milk, macadamia nut milk, and flaxseed milk. These milk alternatives are great for various culinary uses, pouring on keto-approved cereals, or even drinking!
Remember, plant-based milks that are sweetened and flavored are inappropriate for keto; only those that are unsweetened are keto-friendly.
7. Energy Drinks
Although many popular energy drink brands are made with artificial sweeteners, some are made with natural sweeteners, like stevia, making them keto-friendly.
However, energy drinks may be harmful to the heart, brain, and liver, especially in teens and adolescents. In rare cases, these drinks are even linked to heart failure.
Should you decide to drink these beverages, make sure you are aware of their caffeine content. Most of these drinks hold 150–200 mg per 16-ounce can. Take note that the recommended safe daily caffeine threshold is 400 mg for the general population.
Keto-friendly, naturally derived energy drinks, such as Kill Cliff and EBOOST can be purchased online.
8-10 Hot Drinks
Several hot drinks, depending on what you add to them, can be keto-friendly. Suitable additions include sugar-free flavoring syrups, zero calorie sweeteners, unsweetened plant-based creamers, heavy whipping cream, and half-and-half.
Keto dieters should avoid high-carb additions, such as sweetened creamers, regular milk, standard flavoring syrups, sugar, and honey.
8. Black or Green Tea
Tea is a natural option for keto dieters that hold an insignificant amount of carbs, which is < 1 gram per cup (240 mL). You can have your tea either hot or iced.
Made from aged tea leaves, black tea gives a more robust flavor, higher caffeine content, and darker color. Green tea, on the other hand, lends a more floral flavor, less caffeine, and lighter color, since it is made from fresh tea leaves.
White tea, which is made from young tea leaves, can also be a great choice. Compared with both black and green tea, white tea has a very mild, delicate flavor.
In addition, aside from it being calorie-free, tea is also rich in polyphenol antioxidants. For example, green tea is full of epigallocatechin gallate, which can be beneficial for cancer patients.
9. Herbal Teas
Derived from herbs, leaves, fruit, or dried flowers, herbal teas are a perfect choice for keto dieters. Examples include yerba mate, hibiscus, peppermint, chamomile, and rooibos tea.
However, herbal teas made with candied or dried fruit pieces may contain higher carbs. That said, you have to check the carb content of packaged tea products before putting them in your basket.
10. Coffee
Coffee can be another great option for keto dieters. It is a nearly calorie- and carb-free favorite. Like tea, you can have your coffee hot or iced.
Containing caffeine, coffee may slightly boost your metabolism and provide chlorogenic acid, a polyphenol antioxidant that may help you lose weight.
11. Sports drinks
Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade may help replenish water lost through sweat as they contain electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium.
Moreover, electrolyte drinks may also help fight against keto flu—symptoms of ketosis which include muscle cramps, bad breath, fatigue, headaches, and digestive issues.
Fluid rehydration and electrolyte supplements are vital for people who engage in outdoor workouts or intense exercise.
Loss of electrolytes through sweat can lead to headaches and muscle cramping, as well as aggravate dehydration.
Most sports drinks are actually packed with sugar. Although Powerade Zero and Gatorade Zero are keto-friendly, they are made with artificial sweeteners.
That said, you can have electrolyte powders sweetened with stevia and mix into water.
Electrolyte powders like LMNT and Ultima Replenisher are available for purchase online.
12. Starbucks Pink Drink
Yes! Keto dieters can still enjoy Starbucks! You can have one of the best Starbucks drinks—the Starbucks Pink Drink.
This Starbucks favorite is made with tea, coconut milk, and a hefty dose of sweetener. To stick with your diet, you can ask for heavy or light creamer, sugar-free syrup, or passion tango tea.
13–15 Alcoholic Beverages
Alcohol may hamper your efforts if you’re trying to achieve weight loss by following a keto diet. So you may want to know which alcoholic beverages you can drink while still maintaining in the ketosis state.
Take note that these beverages contain calories from alcohol and fat.
13. Low-carb Hard Seltzer
Low-carb hard seltzers are made with sparkling water or flavored seltzer water with added liquor.
Many low carb hard seltzer are made with malt liquor; thus, it’s important that you check the label carefully, especially if you are trying to avoid gluten.
14. Low-carb Beer
Beer typically contains sugars from wheat that are not fermented into ethanol, making them a high-carb beverage.
But there are some low-carb beers made by allowing a longer fermentation process to fully convert the sugars into alcohol, or by using less wheat.
Some of the lowest carb beers include Michelob Ultra, Miller 64, and Budweiser Select 55. They clock in at 2–3 grams of net carbs per 12-ounce bottle.
15. Hard Liquor
Hard liquors, including rum, vodka, tequila, and whiskey, are appropriate for the keto diet because they are naturally carb-free.
However, you might want to avoid mixed drinks as they are often packed with sugar from soda or fruit juices. Checking the label on flavored liquors for any added sugar is ideal.
Or what would be wise is to use zero-carb mixers like seltzer water or diet soda or try drinking hard liquor straight. Avoiding tonic water, which contains added sugar, is also a good idea.
Conclusion
There are actually plenty of drinks that keto dieters can enjoy aside from water.
Herbal tea and coffee are a few excellent options. Low-carb juices, sparkling water, energy drinks, sports drinks, soda, and even hard liquor are good options as well. You just need to look for sugar-free, low-carb versions or those that use keto-approved sweeteners, like stevia, instead of artificial sweeteners.
These keto-friendly beverages are also available online. As you can see, there are plenty of low-carb beverages that you can enjoy while on the keto diet.
