The Best Low Carb Crunchy Keto Snacks

Over the last few years, the ketogenic diet, or lifestyle has rapidly grown in popularity. This is largely due to its many benefits when it comes to helping with weight and fat loss, but also with controlling blood sugar levels. There have even been studies showing those following a keto lifestyle could help in treating certain diseases such as – cancer and Alzheimers. So, in case you’re looking for some great crunchy keto snacks to enjoy, we’ve picked out some of our favourites to share with you.

What Is Keto?

In short, keto is a low carb, high fat diet that limits carbs to a maximum of 50 grams per day. This type of diet, or lifestyle has many similarities to the Atkins diet.

Instead of having a good balance of proteins, fats and carbs in your diet, you are drastically reducing your carbs, and replacing it with foods high in fat. This drastic change in your intake of carbs puts your body into a metabolic state known as ketosis.

What Is Ketosis?

Ketosis is a process that happens when your body doesn’t have enough carbs stored to burn as fuel your body. Instead, it will start to use up any fat stores you have to burn as energy. Once this process has happened, your body becomes great at burning your fat stores for energy, meaning you lose a lot of excess fat very quickly. This process also means you are turning fat cells into ketones which is an excellent source of energy for the brain.

The Different Types Of Ketogenic Diet

There are actually several different types of the ketogenic diet.

Standard Ketogenic Life Diet (SKD)

The standard keto life diet is a diet very low in carbs, a moderate amount of protein and very high in fats. Typically – 70% fat, 20% protein, and 10% carbs.

Cyclical Ketogenic Life Diet (CKD)

The cyclical ketogenic diet involves a cycle where you will have periods of higher carb, or re-feed days. For example, you might have 5 ketogenic days, followed by 2 much higher carb days as a re-feed for your body.

Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD)

This diet is aimed more at those who exercise a lot, or at a high intensity. It allows you to add in extra carbs around any of your intense workouts.

High Protein Ketogenic Diet

This one is pretty self explanitory in that it simply means you have a higher amount of protein in your diet. The ratio is generally around 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs.

However, the standard and the high protein ketogenic diets are the most popular, and are the only ones to have been studied extensively by scientists and nutritionists. Whereas the cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced methods and yet to be fully studied.

Can Ketogenic Diets Help You Lose Weight?

Yes! In fact this is one of the main reasons why people try this type of diet, of lifestyle. It is a very effective way of helping you to lose weight much faster than that of other diets. Many of those who have taken part in keto life say they found it much easier to lose weight, in part due to the fact they felt full most of the time.

Research over the years has also seen a huge reduction in diastolic blood pressure, as well as lower blood sugar levels and improved sensitivity to insulin in the blood.

Health Benefits Of Following A Keto Lifestyle

We have touched on some of these points above but here is a list of everything being on the ketogenic diet might be able to do for you and your health.

Heart disease – The ketogenic diet can improve your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and even blood sugar levels.

Cancer – Although still in its early stages, this diet is being explored as an additional treatment for cancer growths.

Alzheimer’s Disease – The ketogenic diet may help to reduce some symptoms of Alzheimers and slow down its progression.

Epilepsy – Scientific research has been known to show the ketogenic diet can aid in reducing seizures in epileptic children.

Parkinson’s Disease – One scientific research study has found the keto diet helped improve early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

What Foods Should I Eat On The Keto Diet?

In a nutshell, any foods high in fat should be on your list, but here are a few of the ones we think are great for those of you on keto.

Meat – red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken, turkey, pork rinds
Fish – salmon, trout, tuna, and mackerel
Eggs – hard-boiled egg, egg whites, omelettes, scrambled egg
Dairy – Cream, milk, sour cream,
Cheese – cheddar, cream cheese, goats cheese, parmesan cheese, blue, or mozzarella cheese
Nuts & Seeds – macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, trail mix
Healthy Oils – extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil
Avocados
Vegetables low in carbs – green veggies, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, courgette,

Foods To Avoid On Keto

Of course, because this is quite a specific diet, there are quite a few foods you will need to avoid.

Any foods high in sugar
Grains or Starches – wheat-based products, rice, pasta, cereal, etc.
Fruit – except small portions of berries like strawberries
Beans, pulses & legumes – peas, kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
Root vegetables – potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc.
Condiments high in sugar – barbecue sauce, honey mustard, teriyaki sauce, ketchup
Unhealthy Fats – processed vegetable oils, mayonnaise
Alcohol

The Best Tasting Crunchy Keto Snacks

Once you’ve found your rhythm with being on the keto diet, it’s actually not as hard as it may at first seem. However, there is one aspect of keto that many people find difficult – the lack of crunchy, low carb snacks. Yes, you get to eat lots of cheddar cheese, fat bombs, meat and other healthy fats, but there is very little you can eat when it comes to a good crunchy snack. So, we have been on the hunt to find you some great savoury and sweet snacks to help you on your keto journey.

Low Sugar Crunchy Nut Bars

In our opinion, starting with some of the best keto snacks are these Adonis low sugar crunchy nut bars. Full of simple ingredients such as nuts and seeds. They come in 3 different flavours – Pecan & Cocoa, Vanilla & Coconut and Dark Cocoa Orange. The box of x16 is £24.90, or the box of x6 is £9.90. However, if you do subscribe and save, you get an additional 10% off.

Although the bars are pretty small, they are quite filling and are perfect for taking out and about with you if you’re on a low carb diet. Each bar is approx 2 grams of carbs making them the ideal tasty snack.

Keto Chips

We all love a bag of crisps but of course being on a keto diet, eating a bag of crisps is a no-no. Instead, perhaps you could try these keto chips to satisfy your crunchy fix. Essentially keto crackers, these low carb crackers come in two different flavours – cheezy onion and smoky paprika. Both taste great and would be amazing to have with a little hunk of cheese on top.

However, for a pack of x10 30 gram bags, they’re £22 so not at all cheap. Having said that, you could make one bag last a while, especially if you did have them with some cheese as well.

These savoury keto chips, or crackers, are very crunchy, in fact, the most crunchy item on this list so if you want a crunchy keto snack, these should be your first stop.

Funky Fat Choc

This Funky Fat Chocolate bar is low carb, keto, dairy free and paleo, so hopefully, it should cover you, no matter what diet you lead. The entire bar is 12g of carbs so you probably wouldn’t be able to eat the whole thing (depending on how strict you are with carbs). However, it makes for a great keto snack when you want something a bit crunchy.

It comes in 5 different flavours – dark chocolate, chocolate coconut, coffee, hazelnut, and white chocolate and is £2.99 per bar. OK, so it’s not the cheapest for a 50g bar, but if you only have a square or two when you need it, you can easily make it last.

Low Carb Pancake & Waffle Mix

OK, so this one isn’t a crunchy snack (unless perhaps you burn them), but this pancake mix is amazing and worth a place on this list anyway as a delicious snack for those with a sweet tooth. You could even add in a few squares of the funky fat chocolate to give them some added crunch.

The pancake mix gives you approx 20 pancakes at 1,9 grams of carbs per pancake. Or 8 waffles at 4.75 grams of carbs per waffle. The mix is ready to go other than adding in some eggs and milk. Plus, they only take a few minutes to cook in the pan. Great for weight loss too at only 64 calories per pancake and each one is pretty filling.

Although you can’t top them with berries or gallons of maple syrup, try watering down some peanut butter instead and top with full-fat yoghurt and nuts instead.

Keto Boostballs

Another not-so-crunchy snack, but one of my husband’s favourite snacks since he’s been doing keto. You can buy these keto boostballs individually, or as a multipack of x12 containing x6 different flavours. Mocha, peanut butter cup, white chocolate & raspberry, mint chocolate chip, raw chocolate brownie and chocolate hazelnut. Our favourite of these has been the peanut butter cup and the mint choc chip. These boostballs are a great option when you fancy a sweet treat and the great thing is, that they come in small bags so they are easy to take with you on the go.

However, you have to be a bit careful as on the bag it tells you the grams of net carbs per bag – not the total carbs of each bag. So, make sure you check you have enough carbs left to fit them into your daily total.

Raw Gorilla Berry Granola

If you’re living a low carb lifestyle, finding a good breakfast can be one of the hardest things, especially if you generally prefer to eat a sweeter breakfast. This berry granola is perfect to have on its own for breakfast, or perhaps with some full-fat yoghurt topped with a few nuts & seeds. Or, you could have it as a little sweet snack during the day on its own, or even as a topping for your yoghurt as a dessert perhaps.

However, it really isn’t like the granola you might be used to. It’s more nuts and seeds more than anything else covered in a berry powder. They do taste great but bare that in mind if you give this raw granola a try.

Cheesies – Crunchy Cheese

This crunchy keto snack is essentially crispy cheese – cheese crisps if you like. These cheesy keto popcorn balls come in either a variety pack with a mixture of all the flavours or as singles of one flavour.

Personally, our favourite was the plain cheddar cheese, but they all tasted great and made an ideal keto-friendly snack. A pack of x6 bags was £8 from Amazon, making them just over £1 per bag. However, i bet you could make these at home in an air fryer a whole lot cheaper.

Gourmet Keto Artisan Loaf

The bread itself couldn’t be further from being a crunchy loaf – so why is it on this list you ask? Well, the entire loaf of keto artisan bread is only 4 grams of carbs so whether you have it for sandwiches, toast, croutons, or perhaps even as eggy-bread it had to have a place on our list.

You could pretty much eat the entire loaf and still be well within your carb limit for the day. Plus, the things you could do with it are almost endless. Place it on a baking sheet, and top it with some cheese for a delicious cheese-on-toast snack. Or, once toasted, dip it into some peanut butter as more of a sweet snack.

Homemade Bacon Bites

So this is a very simple homemade recipe using bacon – smoked, or unsmoked, whichever you prefer. You simply lie your bacon strips on to a baking tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes at 180 degrees C. Or if you have an air fryer, cut your bacon down into smaller pieces and air fry for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

If you find the bacon starts to roll up at the edges, put another baking tray on top of the bacon to keep it flat. Your bacon will be ready when it has gone darker in colour, not burnt, but more like a thin snappable biscuit.

Once cooked to your liking, take it out of the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. However, if you plan to cut them into smaller pieces, do this while they are still warm.

Once cool, you then have great tasting, crunchy, salty snacks to have as you please on your keto diet.

We hope you found this article useful when trying to find some great-tasting crunchy keto snacks. If you give any of these a go, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

*Some PR samples were given for this article.

The Best Tasting Low Carb Crunchy Keto Snacks

What Is Keto?

What Is Ketosis?