Drinks tend to be the trickiest sources of sugar and calories in your diet. Despite some drinks with seemingly a healthy and nutritious presentation, you’ll never know how much sugar they had in them, which may largely affect any diet you’re observing. In particular, freshly pressed fruit juices, coffee drinks, even your favorite refreshing sodas contain large amounts of sugar, increasing your likelihood of gaining fat and make it difficult for your body to get into ketosis. 

While keto prepared meals allow you to focus on having healthful fats, adequate protein, and essential nutrients, keto-friendly drinks enhance your basal metabolism and improve absorption of minerals in your body. However, with all the confusing marketing strategies of various producers regarding drinks such as ‘low-carb,’ ‘all-natural,’ and ‘weight-loss-friendly terms,’ identifying keto-friendly drinks from those aren’t gets tougher nowadays, so you must know how to pick healthy drinks accompanying your keto diet.

Keto-Friendly Drinks For Your Diet

Following a high-fat, low-carb keto diet, you must be strictly observing your food intake, especially those containing carbs and sugar. Also, you may be wondering what you can drink other than water. Although it’s the healthiest alternative due to being free of additives, carbs, and calories, you may also replace some of your favorite sugary drinks and add some variety to boost your energy and to taste other flavors.

To help you more, here are the top four keto-friendly drinks to take with your meal:

1. Herbal Teas

If you’re looking for an all-natural drink to replace the water in your keto meals, then herbal teas might be the perfect choice for you. Taken from herbs, fruits, dried leaves, and flowers, herbal teas are one of the most popular keto-friendly drinks. They’re healthy beverages made from decoction or infusion of various plant materials in hot water.  

While most of them are known to have low carbohydrate levels, products from candied or dried fruits might have a little more carbs in them, so you must take note of the carbohydrate count in the packaging before buying them. 

2. Diet Sodas

Although some products are known to be keto-friendly, they might not be the best option when it comes to selecting drinks for your keto meals. Primarily, these drinks contain manufactured sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, which can affect various microorganisms in your body as well as enhance the feeling of wanting sugar intake, possibly resulting in gaining of weight. 

However, several sodas are made from sweeteners without calories like erythritol and stevia, which have fewer detrimental consequences than the artificial ones because they’re derived from corn. As much as possible, try to choose soft drinks containing natural zero-calorie sweeteners than those with artificial sweeteners.   

3. Energy Drinks

Despite many popular brands of energy drinks using artificial sweeteners in their formula, some energy drinks are made to be keto-friendly. However, differentiating keto-friendly from those that aren’t is challenging. If you’re looking for a keto-friendly energy drink, always choose those containing natural sweeteners like stevia. 

Also, be mindful of the effects energy drinks could cause on your liver, brain, and heart if not taken moderately. If you decide to consume such beverages on occasion, keep their caffeine content in mind and follow the recommended safe daily caffeine threshold to prevent palpitations and it’s worth reading up on the effects of long-term consumption of energy drinks.

4. Fruit And Vegetable Juices

When it comes to selecting the best drinks to accompany your keto meals, it’s a general rule to always avoid juices, but there’s an exception to this. Lime and lemon juices, in particular, are types of fruit juices low in carbohydrate count but have great flavor. While fruit and vegetable juices are known to have high sugar levels, these lemon and lime juices are an ideal replacement for water and other drinks. 

To know if you’re choosing the right keto-friendly drink, make it a habit to check the packaging of these bottled beverages since they may contain sugar and other carbohydrate sources. Also, see to it they’re using natural sweeteners to avoid taking in artificial ingredients.

Bottom Line

Choosing the right drink for your keto-prepared meals is crucial in ensuring you get the nutrients your body deserves aside from improving your basal metabolism and nutrient absorption. While a wide variety of seemingly healthy drinks can confuse you, always choose those containing natural ingredients. Several drinks suitable to your keto diet include herbal teas, diet soda, energy drinks, and fruit and vegetable juices.

When it comes to choosing your food and drinks, always select the healthiest and the best option to achieve optimum health.