Low Carb Food List
Everything below is sorted into three buckets: eat freely, keep an eye on, and leave alone. Carb figures are net carbs per 100 grams, which is total carbohydrate minus fibre, because fibre is the part your body does not absorb as sugar.
One hundred grams is roughly a small chicken breast, a large handful of spinach, or half a large avocado. It is a comparison unit, not a serving suggestion. Where a food is normally eaten in much smaller amounts than 100 grams, the nuts being the obvious case, there is a note saying so.
How many carbs is low carb?
There is no single official number, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. In practice three tiers get used:
- Strict, roughly under 20 to 50 grams a day. Meat, fish, eggs, fats, leafy greens. Almost no fruit, no grains, no starch.
- Moderate, roughly 50 to 100 grams a day. Adds berries, more vegetables, some dairy.
- Relaxed, roughly 100 to 150 grams a day. Cuts out the obvious sugar and refined grain and leaves most else alone.
Which tier suits you is a question for you and, if you have a medical condition or take medication, your doctor. The list below works for all three. The stricter you go, the further up the page you stay.
Eat freely
Essentially zero to low carbohydrate. These are the foundation at any tier.
Meat and poultry
All fresh, unprocessed meat is zero carb: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, venison, offal. Carbs only appear when something is added, so the things to read the label on are sausages, deli meats, meatballs, breaded cuts, and anything sold in a marinade or glaze.
Fish and seafood
| Food | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Salmon, tuna, cod, mackerel, sardines, all finfish | 0 g |
| Prawns, crab, lobster | about 1 g |
| Scallops | about 3 g |
| Oysters | about 3 to 4 g |
| Mussels | about 4 g raw, about 7 g cooked |
Finfish are reliably zero. Shellfish are the exception people do not expect, because they store glycogen. Still low, but not nothing, and cooking concentrates the figure as water is lost.
Eggs, fats and oils
| Food | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Eggs | about 1 g (roughly 0.6 g per egg) |
| Butter, ghee, lard, tallow | 0 to 0.1 g |
| Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil | 0 g |
Low carb vegetables
| Vegetable | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Spinach | about 1.4 g |
| Asparagus | about 2 g |
| Avocado | about 1.8 g |
| Zucchini (courgette) | about 2.1 g |
| Cauliflower | about 3 g |
| Mushrooms | about 3.3 g |
| Cabbage | about 3.3 g |
| Green beans | about 4 g |
| Broccoli | about 4 g |
| Kale | about 4.4 g |
| Bell pepper | about 4.6 g |
Anything that grows above ground and is mostly water or leaf is a safe bet. The pattern holds well enough to use as a rule when you have no label to read.
Cheese and cream
| Food | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Hard cheese: cheddar, parmesan, gouda | about 1.3 g |
| Soft cheese: brie, cream cheese | about 3 to 4 g |
| Heavy or double cream | about 2.8 g |
Keep an eye on
Real food, real carbs. Fine in the relaxed tier, needs measuring in the strict one.
| Food | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Blackberries | about 4.3 g |
| Raspberries | about 5.4 g |
| Strawberries | about 5.7 g |
| Tomato | about 2.7 g |
| Milk | about 5 g |
| Plain full fat yoghurt | about 4.7 g |
| Carrot | about 6.8 g |
| Onion | about 7.6 g |
| Blueberries | about 12 g |
Nuts and seeds, where per 100g misleads
Nobody eats 100 grams of almonds on purpose. A normal handful is about 28 grams, so the practical number is roughly a third of what is shown here.
| Nut or seed | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Pecans | about 4 g |
| Brazil nuts | about 4 g |
| Macadamias | about 5 g |
| Walnuts | about 7 g |
| Almonds | about 9 g |
| Pistachios | about 17 g |
| Cashews | about 27 g |
Cashews are the one that surprises people. They sit closer to dried fruit than to the other nuts.
Leave alone
High enough that a normal portion uses most of a strict day's budget on its own.
| Food | Net carbs per 100g |
|---|---|
| Sugar | 100 g |
| Bread | about 45 g |
| Rice, cooked | about 28 g |
| Pasta, cooked | about 25 g |
| Banana | about 20 g |
| Sweet potato | about 17 g |
| Potato | about 15 g |
| Apple | about 11 g |
| Beer, fruit juice, soft drinks | varies, usually high |
Note that cooked rice and pasta look lower than bread only because they absorb water. By dry weight they are far higher.
The hidden carbs that catch people out
Most people who think they are eating low carb and are not have been caught by one of these. None of them look like carbohydrate.
- Sauces and condiments. Ketchup, barbecue sauce, sweet chilli and most bottled marinades are largely sugar. Mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar and hot sauce are usually fine.
- Anything labelled low fat. When fat comes out, sugar or starch generally goes in to replace the texture.
- Processed and cured meats. Sausages and meatballs are often bulked with rusk or breadcrumb. Glazed ham and many deli meats carry added sugar.
- Coffee shop drinks. A flavoured latte can carry more sugar than a dessert.
- Thickened soups, gravies and stews. Flour and cornflour are the default thickeners.
- Dried fruit. Same sugar as fresh fruit with the water removed, so several times the carbs by weight.
- Alcohol. Spirits are zero, dry wine is low, beer and mixers are not.
The habit that fixes nearly all of it: read the carbohydrate line on the label rather than the claim on the front.
Want this on the fridge?
The same three buckets on one printable page, designed to be readable from across the kitchen when you are standing at the fridge deciding what to cook. Instant email delivery, no account needed.
How to use this list
Pick your tier first, then build meals from the eat freely bucket and add from the middle bucket until you reach your number. That order matters. People who start from the middle bucket and work backwards tend to run out of budget before they have eaten anything filling.
If you are cutting carbs sharply for the first time, expect the first week to feel worse than the second. Salt and fluids are usually the reason, not willpower.
Carb values are approximate and vary by variety, ripeness, growing conditions and preparation. Treat them as a guide for choosing between foods rather than exact figures, and read the label on anything packaged. This page is general information about the carbohydrate content of foods. It is not medical or dietary advice. If you have a health condition or take any medication, talk to your doctor before making a significant change to how you eat, because some medications need adjusting when carbohydrate intake changes.