Keto made easy

Keto Grocery List for Beginners: Start With What Not to Buy

Quick answer: Keto is a carb restriction, not a shopping list, so the best beginner list is mostly about what stays on the shelf: bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, sugary drinks and sauces. Then fill the cart with ordinary meat, eggs, green vegetables, cheese and plain cooking fat. You can do all of it at a regular supermarket. Specialty "keto" products are optional.

In this article

Why the list starts with "don't"

Most keto shopping lists online are long. Oils, butters, powders, bars, flours, testing kits. A beginner reads one and thinks keto is expensive and complicated.

KetoDick's point is the opposite. Keto, in his words from the video, is a diet where you "have to not get things" (video DWI8qQl5BbY). The main intervention is moving from a high-carb way of eating to a low-carb one, and almost nothing about that requires buying something new.

He also doesn't sort foods into "keto" and "not keto". The dose makes the poison: what matters is how many digestible carbs you eat over time, not whether a food is on a banned list (video ffwBPoKxlDI). That's why the list below is about what you buy in quantity, not what's forbidden. See the keto food list.

Step by step: your first keto shop

  1. Clear the starches first. Before you shop, decide what you won't restock. He names potatoes, corn and carrots as problem foods (video UygKGoP_BtA), and potatoes, bread and noodles as what he misses (video cTGYIFOTPl8).
  2. Drop the drinks. Soda, juice and sweet coffee drinks. Many people lose the calories they used to drink, he says (video DoSUgIr2rNo). Seltzer is the swap he credits for himself (video cTGYIFOTPl8).
  3. Skip the sweet sauces. Barbecue and other sugary sauces are on his avoid list (video 9Hk0jRb_9Es). Dry seasonings replace them; in his words from the video, they're "the number one free kind of calorie" (video hHFu6L-yedE).
  4. Buy the fattier cuts. Swap lean chicken breast and 85/15 beef for thighs, chuck roast and 70/30 ground beef (video DoSUgIr2rNo). He also names pork shoulder (video DWI8qQl5BbY). These cuts tend to be cheaper. See cheap fatty cuts of meat.
  5. Get eggs and quick protein. Eggs, tuna for tuna salad, string cheese, salami (video cTGYIFOTPl8). These are the grab-and-eat items that stop grazing.
  6. Fill half the cart with green vegetables. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, green beans, lettuce, kale and avocado are on his list; peppers and tomatoes are fine (video UygKGoP_BtA). He wants almost all your carbs coming from vegetables, for the fibre.
  7. Add plain fat. Butter, cheese, heavy cream for coffee, and whatever cooking oil you already use. Store-brand butter is what he used in his meal-prep demo (video hHFu6L-yedE).
  8. Add herbs. Parsley, thyme, rosemary. He says herbs add micronutrients and asks people not to lose the leafy greens chasing fat (video cTGYIFOTPl8).
  9. Pick a crunch. Pork rinds, crisp bacon or kale chips; he says crunch is what keto lacks (video cTGYIFOTPl8).
  10. Stop. That's a week of food. Check the receipt; it probably isn't much different from what you spent before.

What's optional

He held up MCT oil, Kerrygold, pastured butter and ketone strips as a "keto kit", then argued that none of it except perhaps the strips is needed (video DWI8qQl5BbY). Grass-fed is better if you can afford it, he says, but it isn't what makes a diet ketogenic. You can be keto at Walmart.

He's also clear that canola and vegetable oils are not ideal but acceptable on keto; which oil you use is a separate health question from ketosis (video DWI8qQl5BbY).

Item Needed for ketosis? His view
MCT oil No Has research behind it, not required (video ffwBPoKxlDI)
Grass-fed or Kerrygold butter No Better if you can afford it (video DWI8qQl5BbY)
Ketone urine strips No His one useful item, for feedback (video DWI8qQl5BbY)
Almond flour No One of his three picks, for cooking (video DWI8qQl5BbY)
Erythritol or stevia No His sweetener pick (video DWI8qQl5BbY)
"Net carb" packaged treats No A few items a week at most (video UygKGoP_BtA)

More in is grass-fed butter worth it?, is MCT oil necessary? and keto on a budget.

Reading the label in the aisle

The aisle is where hidden carbs live. He flags maltodextrin, a bulking agent with a high glycemic index, as the kind of ingredient to watch (video ffwBPoKxlDI).

He also counts total carbs rather than net, because US labels don't split soluble from insoluble fibre and sugar alcohols vary in how much you digest. His example: a bar with 30 g carbs and 20 g fibre could count anywhere from 10 to 30 (video ffwBPoKxlDI). See net vs total carbs and reading nutrition labels.

What the research says

The research on what to buy is mostly about fibre, which is the strongest reason to put vegetables in the cart.

Here's the tension worth knowing. At 20 to 50 g of total carbs a day, hitting 25 g of fibre takes a lot of green vegetables. That's the practical case for his "spend your carbs on vegetables" rule.

KetoDick's take

I've said that keto is just about a carb restriction: not buying carbs, not eating carbs. It isn't a diet where you have to get things; it's one where you have to not get things (video DWI8qQl5BbY).

Before you load up the cart with specialty items, get yourself a chuck roast and some fatty meat, and learn to cook a chicken thigh (video DWI8qQl5BbY).

Key takeaways