Cream cheese is a versatile spread that can be used to add flavor to a variety of dishes. Whether it’s added to toast bread or used as a dip for veggies, it’s a great way to get more texture and make every meal burst with buttery goodness.
With cream cheese being a household favorite, beginners of the ketogenic diet often wonder if it’s something they have to give up or can easily incorporate into their keto diet. Here, we look to nutritionists and experts to answer whether or not cream cheese is keto-friendly and give you all the information on the best types of cream cheese, their nutritional information, carb content, and more.
Is Cream Cheese Keto Friendly?
Here’s the good news — cream cheese, just like pork rinds, is very keto-friendly. In fact, nutritionists and keto advocates consider it one of the best keto foods thanks to its high fat and low carb content. It fits seamlessly into theketo diet macros, requiring your daily calories to be 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrates.
Because cream cheese is suitable for the keto diet regime, it becomes a versatile solution to add flavor and texture to your meals. Keto dieters add it to their keto bread, use it as a dip for veggie sticks, or incorporate it as an ingredient in their custom keto recipes.
What are the Best Types of Cream Cheese?
While cream cheese, in whole form, is keto-friendly, some varieties may not be suitable for the keto diet. Keto practitioners often opt for plain, high-fat, and whipped cream cheese and avoid flavored or sweetened cream cheese products that contain sugar and additives.
Proponents say the best type of cream cheese to consume on the keto diet is grass-fed cream cheese or organic cream cheese. Unprocessed and without additives, these varieties will keep your carb consumption low and facilitate ketosis.
If you’re looking for cream cheeses that you can add to your keto diet without compromising your daily macros, nutritionists swear by the following brands:
Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Plain, Full-Fat)
Di Stefano Premium Mascarpone Cheese
Trader Joe’s Mascarpone
Organic Valley
Green Valley Creamery
Nancy’s
How Many Carbs in Cream Cheese?
Keto dieters love adding cream cheese to their meals because it’s a good source of fat and a meager amount of protein. While it does contain carbs, the amount is insignificant when consumption is monitored.
According to theUSDA, 100 grams of cream cheese contains 34.4 grams of fat, 6.15 grams of protein, and 350 calories. As for its carb content, the same serving size has only 5.52 grams of carbohydrates. If you convert this to the regular serving size of 1 tablespoon (14.5 grams), that’s only 0.8 grams of carbs!
Different types of cream cheeses will also have different carb contents. 100 grams offull-fat and plain cream cheese, for example, only has 3 grams of carbohydrates. While the same amount oflight cream cheese has 4 grams of carbs.
Here’s the nutritional information of different cream cheese types with a 100-gram serving at a glance.
Aside from helping you meet your daily keto macros, cream cheese also yields added health benefits. This is owing to its vitamin and mineral content. 100 grams of plain cream cheese contains the following essential micronutrients:
Calcium: 97 mg
Iron: 0.11 mg
Magnesium: 9 mg
Phosphorus: 107 mg
Potassium: 132 mg
Zinc: 0.5 mg
Copper: 0.018 mg
Manganese: 0.011 mg
Selenium: 8.6 µg
Thiamin: 0.023 mg
Riboflavin: 0.23 mg
Niacin: 0.091 mg
Pantothenic Acid: 0.517 mg
Vitamin B-6: 0.056 mg
Vitamin B-12: 0.22 µg
Vitamin A: 308 µg
Beta Carotene: 59 µg
Vitamin E: 0.86 mg
Vitamin K: 2.1 µg
Cream cheese is a good source of vitamin A, antioxidants, and probiotics, whichresearch links to immune system support and reduced information. Compared to other cheese varieties, cream cheese is low in lactose, making it suitable for those with a lactose intolerance.
Conclusion
Cream cheese, with its high fat and low carb content, is a great addition to your ketogenic diet. Nutritionists support cream cheese as a food item that helps you stay on top of your daily macros while also supplying your body with micronutrients to facilitate overall health and wellness.
The best part about it is its versatility — there are plenty of ways you can incorporate it into your keto meals to add more flavor and texture.
Love cheese in general? Here is a complete keto cheese list for you to explore and add even more amazing types of cheese to your keto diet.
We also have an article about the best keto meats, where you will find all the best keto meat options. Belive it or not, one of the healthiest options are pork rinds.
Is Cream Cheese Keto: Frequently Asked Questions
Is Philadelphia cream cheese keto-friendly?
Philadelphia is one of the best brands of keto-friendly cream cheese. A 2-tablespoon serving of Philadelphia cream cheese contains 102 calories, 10 grams of fat, 1.8 grams of protein, and only 1.6 grams of carbohydrates. It’s recommended to opt for plain or full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese for the keto diet.
How much cream cheese can I have on the keto diet?
While cream cheese is suitable for the keto diet, practitioners warn against going overboard. Of course, consuming cream cheese in large amounts can easily skew your daily macros. Limit consumption of cream cheese to the regular serving size of 2 tablespoons. But this will ultimately depend on your daily carb limit.
Does cream cheese break ketosis?
Cream cheese even in cheesecake does not break ketosis. It is high in fat and low in carbs, which fits the principle of the ketogenic diet regime. When carb intake is limited, the body will be forced to use up stored fat to create energy, bringing the body into a state of ketosis conducive to weight loss.
This is a keto favorite, thanks to its nutritional profile: Per the USDA, 1 oz contains 84 calories, 8 g of fat, 1 g of carbs, and 2 g of protein. That means it's a great addition to a meal or snack when you need more fat.
Some cheeses suit the keto diet better than others. This mainly comes down to their carb and fat content and level of processing. The best keto cheeses include cheddar, Gouda, goat cheese, and blue cheese, while the worst are cottage cheese and low fat and processed varieties.
Cow's milk is high in lactose, a type of carbohydrate, so it is not suitable for a keto diet. Milk and related dairy products are essential ingredients in many people's diets. You may enjoy pouring milk on your morning cereal, mixing sweet creamer into your coffee, and adding cream cheese to savory pasta dishes.
While cream cheese is suitable for the keto diet, practitioners warn against going overboard. Of course, consuming cream cheese in large amounts can easily skew your daily macros. Limit consumption of cream cheese to the regular serving size of 2 tablespoons.
Cream cheese: Cream cheese is very popular in the keto diet. At only 84 calories per 1 ounce serving, it has 1 gram of carbs and 2 grams of protein but packs 8 grams of fat per serving. It can be a keto-friendly snack or meal addition when more fat is needed.
Peanut butter can definitely be part of a keto diet, but it's best to stick to plain options that are free of extra flavors and sweeteners. Almond butter is a good choice, too, and it's slightly lower in carbs. Additionally, you should be mindful of your portion size if you're trying to lose weight.
While hummus is suitable for the keto diet, you'll want to limit yourself to a small amount. Consider using it as a garnish rather than as a dip, and avoid dessert flavors. You may also want to consider other low carb dips and spreads, such as baba ganoush, pate, or black soybean hummus.
Some of the best meats for keto include beef, pork, chicken, salmon, and bison. Still, all plain, unprocessed meats are keto-friendly and low in carbs — so there are plenty of options to choose from. However, you may want to choose your meats based on other factors in addition to carb count.
Enjoying cheese is one of the pleasures of the keto diet. But that doesn't mean it's unlimited and unrestricted. Nutritionists say that keto practitioners need to be selective with the cheese varieties they consume while on keto and enjoy them only in moderation to avoid disrupting ketosis and hampering weight loss.
Grass-grazed raw butter may be one of the healthiest dairy products on a ketogenic diet menu. Grass-grazed raw butter is basically pure raw fat; it has zero carbs, zero sugars and zero grams of protein. As you can see, most of butters' fat is saturated.
Unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk, macadamia nut milk, flax milk, soy milk, cashew milk, and pea milk along with half-and-half and heavy cream are all keto-friendly milk options.
Half-and-half and heavy cream are solid choices as well. Avoid cow and goat milks because they contain natural sugar, and avoid sweetened milks, as they're high in added sugar. Thankfully, milk doesn't have to be a thing of the past just because you're following a keto diet.
Keto fruits by definition are low in carbohydrates. You still need to exercise portion control with most keto-friendly fruits to be within the limits of a keto diet. Keto-friendly fruits include avocados, watermelon, strawberries, lemons, tomatoes, raspberries, peaches, cantaloupe, star fruit, and blackberries.
Dieticians have named cheese as the perfect keto food. It's high in fat, contains moderate protein and most varieties are low in carbs, which is what the keto diet aims for. According to functional dietitian Olivia Wagner, RDN, cheese is keto-friendly and can add flavor, variety, and texture to keto meals.
Heavy Cream is the best cream to use on a keto low carb diet because it has less than 3 grams of net carbs per 100 grams. Why Is Cream Keto But Not Milk? Milk naturally contains sugar, but when cream is made, the sugar is consumed by the bacteria that curdle the milk. Leaving a high-fat, low-carb mixture.
Any type of cheese can be included on the keto diet, as long as total dietary carbohydrate intake remains low enough to keep the body in nutritional ketosis (using stored fat instead of carbohydrate to fuel the brain and body).
With only 1.75 grams of carbs per 1/4 cup (59 mL), both heavy and whipping cream can be considered keto-friendly ( 3 , 4 ). For this reason, many people on keto diets rely on whipping cream or heavy cream as a sugar-free coffee creamer or to make keto-friendly desserts, such as chocolate mousse.
Introduction: My name is Corie Satterfield, I am a fancy, perfect, spotless, quaint, fantastic, funny, lucky person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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