6 Best Nuts For Keto & Healthy Ways To Eat Them (Plus, 3 Nuts To Avoid)

If you've decided to go on the keto diet for weight loss or better blood sugar control, you may feel bummed about the foods you have to limit to maintain your macros. But don't panic—you can definitely keep a bag of nuts at the ready for simple snacking and mealtime crunch.

Many nuts fit right into the keto diet's high-fat macronutrient prescription.

"Nuts can make a great addition to a keto diet since they are low in carbs and high in healthy fats," says Haley Bishoff, RDN, a registered dietitian and owner of Rūtsu Nutrition. Bishoff adds that nuts are also loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.

As if those benefits weren't enough to get crunching, nuts have also been well-researched for their ability to help lower cholesterol and triglycerides1, improve blood sugar, and reduce inflammation2. These cardiometabolic bonuses could add to the big picture of healthy weight loss while on keto.

Brazil nuts—the large, buttery nuts you may recognize by their brown-and-cream-colored stripes—fit well on a keto diet due to their balance of low carbs and high fats.

Brazil nuts may have a special role to play for keto eaters. "The keto diet may contribute to lower serum levels of selenium5," explains Amy Brownstein, M.S., R.D., owner of Nutrition Digested. "Brazil nuts are an excellent source of selenium—just one Brazil nut provides 100% of your needs for the day!"

Brownstein adds that selenium is an important trace nutrient involved in many bodily processes, including reproduction, thyroid hormone metabolism, and DNA synthesis6.

If you've never cooked with Brazil nuts before, you're in for a treat. Chop them up for a crunchy ice cream topping, roll them into energy balls, or grind them to make your very own Brazil nut butter.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a healthier nut than walnuts. "Research shows that walnuts do wonders for brain health and can improve cognitive function8," Bishoff says. "Just eating 1 to 2 ounces of walnuts a day can help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and heart disease."

Walnuts also happen to be a top option for keto dieters, with 17 grams of fat per serving. We're fans of them in a sun-dried tomato and walnut dip or plant- or plant-based "beef" crumbles.

Macadamia nuts don't just add mellow crunch to white chocolate cookies and tropical trail mixes (though these are some great places to get started eating them). They also happen to be associated with lower cholesterol10 because of their rich monounsaturated fat content.

Since high cholesterol can be a concern on a long-term keto diet, macadamia nuts are an excellent choice to add. Try them in an easy chocolate bark or low-carb macadamia nut cookies.

Pecans are a no-brainer ingredient for desserts—they're so rich and buttery, you can hardly help but turn them into treats. The same butteriness that makes pecans perfect for sweets makes them ideal for keto. "Pecans have a 5:1 ratio of fat to carbs12, making them highly favorable for people following the keto diet," Brownstein points out.

As you whip up some chocolate pecan cookies or a keto-friendly pecan fat bomb, you'll not only stay in ketosis, you'll reap some health benefits, too.

Pecans pack sizable amounts of fiber and healthy unsaturated fats. "Fiber helps stabilize blood sugar levels and promotes weight loss by contributing to satiety," says Brownstein. "One small randomized controlled trial of people aged 40 to 80 with stable coronary artery disease found that eating 30 grams (the equivalent of 1 ounce) of pecans daily for 12 weeks reduced the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL (good) cholesterol13."

When choosing the best nuts for keto, it can be helpful to think about their net carbs (aka total carbs minus fiber). Earthy, rich hazelnuts keep things seriously low in this department. "Hazelnuts contain less than 2 grams of net carbs per ounce serving, making them a great choice for a keto diet," says Bishoff. "They are also one of the richest nut sources of monounsaturated fatty acids, which helps keep your heart healthy."

There are so many ways to incorporate hazelnuts into your keto diet! Stir them into muffin batter, DIY some high-fat hazelnut granola bars with butter and coconut flakes, serve up an elegant hazelnut-crusted steak, or satisfy your sweet tooth with no-bake hazelnut fudge brownies.

Don't forget about nuts that come from pine cones. They're some of the highest-fat choices around at 19.4 grams per 1-ounce serving. This fat has a lot going for it beyond promoting ketosis. "Pine nuts are rich in pinolenic acid (PNLA), a fatty acid that has many health benefits," says Bishoff. "Pinolenic acid16 may lower cholesterol levels and even reduce inflammation in your body."

Try tossing pine nuts atop a Mediterranean salad, pulsing them into an herby pesto, or sprinkling them onto puréed soup for a pleasant crunch. 

Are cashews OK for keto? Unfortunately, these curvy nuts aren't a top choice. "While rich in magnesium and other nutrients, cashews are higher in carbs compared to some of the others, so you may need to avoid them initially while trying a ketogenic diet, particularly if you are trying to lose weight," says Sara Gottfried, M.D., integrative physician and author of Women, Food, and Hormones.

For powering muscle growth with plant-based protein, pistachios are a wunderkind—for ketosis, not so much. Pistachios are significantly higher in carbs and lower in fats than several other nuts, so they're not the most keto-friendly option.

Add peanuts to the list of not-so-great nuts for keto. "They contain a 1.5:1 ratio of fat to carbs20, making it more challenging to remain in ketosis," says Brownstein. "Ketosis requires a very low carbohydrate intake to force your body to convert fat to ketones for energy. And since it can be easy to eat more than the recommended portion size of nuts, you may eat more carbs than you'd like to."