Fruits are an excellent gift of nature to humankind. They bring a great taste into your mouth and come with a lot of beneficial components that are helpful for your health.
When you plan to follow a keto diet, you need to be careful about what you eat. Fruits are packed with natural sugar, and the carbs vary in each fruit. Keto-conscious people exclude a lot of fruits and vegetables from their list.
Guava is also known as green apple, a popular fruit in tropical areas. However, not every fruit is a good choice for a keto diet. Before picking it on your keto diet list, you should ask yourself is guava keto friendly or not. Can you eat it on a keto diet?
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Things You Should Be Aware Of While Doing Keto
Fruits are heavily packed with vitamins and minerals, but the excessive amount of sugar can be a red flag for keto. Some fruits are suitable; on the other hand, some fruits are high in carbs and sugar. If you are not careful enough, there is a possibility it may kick you out of your keto.
Coming back to the topic “keto,” it was a method to treat seizures or epilepsy. But nowadays, it is a well-accepted technique for weight loss. Some studies say it can also benefit your health as you eat healthy food during this period.
Picking the right food and eating them in the right amount will keep you fit and healthy. The process will make your body go through a phase, and it will dissolve the extra fat in your body as an energy source. To see the result, you have to reduce the daily carb intake and keep it under 50 grams per day.
What Makes Guava Unique From Other Fruits In A Keto Diet
Selecting the food and being picky is the requirement to get a good outcome from keto. Therefore, high-carb foods are banned, including some grains and vegetable fruits. Despite all the good factors, you still might want to know whether you should consider them; moreover, is guava keto friendly?
One guava fruit without refuse contains 4.9 grams of sugar. This amount is lower than other fruits such as oranges, apples, and bananas. Total carbohydrates are 8 grams and dietary fiber of 3 grams. So, 5 grams of net carbs make it a perfect keto choice.
You can consume guava in many ways, like having it raw, adding it to the salads, adding jam, or using it in desserts. Moreover, it is also an excellent addition to your smoothies and milkshakes.
Nutrition Information Of Guava
According to the USDA, regular-sized guava contains,
- 8 grams of total carbs
- 0.5 grams of Fat
- 1.4 grams of Protein
- 3.0 grams of Fiber
- 5 grams of net carbs
- 38 calories
This fruit is rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fires. It is a good source of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, and magnesium. These antioxidants protect you from handful effects and oxidation, which may make you sick.
Interesting Facts About Guava
Guava is also called “the apple of the tropic” because of its shape and seeds inside. This fruit is oriented in central America. It is oval-shaped and a yellowish-green skin outside and white inside.
Moreover, the leaves of guava are used in herbal tea to treat diarrhea. The unique flavor makes it more versatile; therefore, you can use it in jams, jellies, or pickles. Apart from the vitamins and minerals in it, it has 80% water which keeps you hydrated.
Guava has a distinctive benefit of the regulatory metabolism process, which stimulates excess weight loss. The high water and fiber content fills up the stomach and reduces calorie consumption. Moreover, it has only a fair amount of sugar makes it more keto-friendly.
Health Benefits Of Guava
If you are still thinking, is guava keto friendly, and what are the other benefits I can get from it? Here are some benefits:
Rich In Fiber And Have Low Glycemic Index
Guava is rich in fibers which reduces your blood sugar level. This low-calorie fruit can help you gain sustainable weight loss.
Moreover, the fiber can increase bowel movement and retain more water in the body. It improves the digestive system; thus, it improves the digestive process. It is safe to say this fruit is effective against constipation, gastric, and diarrhea.
Food with low GI value is easy to digest and absorb. Guava is a low glycemic index fruit, and the leaf can improve insulin resistance. It raises the blood sugar level slowly; therefore, it is beneficial for diabetes patients.
Prevents Cancer
Guava is effective against cancer. It contains two powerful antioxidants called lycopene and polyphenols. These two antioxidants are abundant in guava, and it has the ability to prevent the growth of cancer cells.
High lycopene content in this fruit reduces the chances and helps fight against prostate cancer. Being rich in vitamin C, guava can prevent cell damage to your body to the minimum.
Maintains A Healthy Heart
You can balance the amount of potassium and sodium in your body with the help of guava. It is essential to have this balance for average blood circulation. Guava reduces the proportion of harmful cholesterol, which prevent the heart from having severe heart diseases.
A study shows that it lowers blood pressure and reduces unhealthy LDL cholesterol while producing good HDL cholesterol. Eating ripe guava before having meals can decrease blood pressure by 8-9 points. Furthermore, it reduces LDL cholesterol by 9.9% and increases healthy HDL cholesterol by 8%.
A good amount of vitamin B and its rich composition positively affect the nervous system. It enhances the blood flow to the brain. The effect on the nervous system reduces stress and gives you more emotional stability.
Negative Sides Of Guava
Excessive consumption of guava has harmful outcomes. It can upset your stomach as well as cause diarrhea. Moreover, some people may suffer allergic reactions because of it. Guava can increase the risk of bleeding if you consume it before any surgical procedure.
People who have kidney problems should not eat unripe guava. It can have an adverse effect on people with diabetes as it is a source of fructose. You should not eat red sweet fruits with cold as the microbes multiply faster in this environment.
The toxin may appear in the peel for chemical treatment or preservation. The preserved one contains more sugar and harmful materials. Please try to eat only the fresh ones.
Alternatives Of Guava On A Keto Diet
As discussed earlier that moderate amount of guava will not hamper your keto. However, if you have doubts that it is minimally processed and the high carbs can interfere with your diet, you can pick up alternative fruits for your keto.
The strict keto diet lets you consume up to 20 grams of net carbs per day. There are tons of various foods low in carbs and do not put your keto diet at risk. Avocado is an excellent example of fewer carbs and dense fat. One cup of sliced avocado can provide you with 21 grams of fat as well as 2 grams of net carbs only.
You can add strawberries to your keto plan. It has a balanced ingredient of only 3 grams of carbs and 4 grams of fiber. It is not only low in sugar but also contains vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and other beneficial components.
Carambola, also known as the star fruit, is common in Asia as well as in the United States. It contains 5 grams of net carbs and 4 grams of fiber, making it a good keto pick. The unique shape and sweet plus sour taste can bring variety to your diet.
Lastly, among hundreds of fruits, you can also pick passion fruit, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon, and lemons. They bring different tastes to your diet without worrying much about ruining the keto diet plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is guava a good fit for keto?
Guavas contain around 9 grams of net carbs per 100 grams. Low carb count makes this fruit easy to incorporate into both the standard and low-carb levels of the ketogenic diet.
Guava is one of several fruits that will not offer you any unnecessary fat; instead, eating it will provide other advantages. Thus, a very occasional indulgence in guava will not knock you out of ketosis.
2. How many calories does guava have?
Fresh guava has just 68 calories per 100-gram serving. Moreover, it has an extremely low carbohydrate content which is another plus. It is just approximately 14 grams of total carbs.
Guavas have extremely few calories and are ideal for individuals on a calorie-restricted diet. They are high in fiber as well, which helps you feel full between meals and reduces overeating.
3. Is guava a low-carb fruit?
Yes, Guava contains a very low amount of carbohydrates. It has 14 grams of carbohydrates in every hundred grams of serving.
Less amount of carbohydrates can aid in weight reduction by modulating metabolism, which leads to weight loss. It contains a fair amount of protein, healthy fat, and fiber.
4. Are guavas beneficial for diabetics?
Guavas have a low glycemic index with a low glycemic load. This amount makes them a good choice for people with diabetes and those at risk of getting the condition.
Guava leaf extract has been utilized as a therapeutic therapy for diabetes in East Asia for hundreds of years.
5. Is it harmful to eat guava at the time of pregnancy?
Guava is safe in typical dietary proportions. However, there is insufficient data to tell if it’s safe at more significant therapeutic doses. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, keep to regular dietary portions until additional information is available.
Although the fruit is harmless, you should avoid guava leaf tea and extracts during pregnancy due to the possibility of problems.
Surprisingly, guavas are also expected to promote conception. If you’re struggling to conceive, you might want to try guava fruit.
6. Why is guava so effective for weight loss?
Guavas are high in fiber, which slows digestion and promotes feelings of fullness and satisfaction. When your appetite is full, you naturally avoid more high-fat meals. Guava contains far less sugar than other fruits like apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes.
Thus, it allows you to have effective and natural weight loss. Furthermore, unlike some other low-calorie snacks, they are high in vitamins and minerals, so you aren’t missing out on essential elements, making them a healthy snack.
7. Is guava low in glycemic load?
GI is a system to see how the sugar in food affects when it enters the body. Foods with lower glycemic index cause fewer spikes in the blood sugar after eating them. Guava scores significantly less in the glycemic index.
This fruit has a GI index of 12 to 24, and the glycemic load is 1.3 to 5, which is very low and suitable for people with diabetes. For its low GI, guava is better than apples, pears, grapes, bananas, dates, mangoes, peaches, pineapples, and raisins.
8. Is guava good for your blood sugar?
Guava is low in sugar, which is an exception to the tropical fruit group. It has only 4.9 grams of sugar per fruit.
This fruit without the peel is more successful at lowering blood sugar as well as total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol levels in the blood. It also raises HDL cholesterol levels.
Final Thoughts
Guavas are high in fiber, which takes a long time to break down and digest. Thus, it keeps you full for a long time. You are less inclined to binge on other meals if you are full.
Guava has an extremely low carbohydrate content. According to numerous research, including more low carbohydrate items in the diet may increase long-term weight loss.
So, what is the final verdict? Can we add it to our diet? Is guava keto friendly? The answer is yes, perhaps to a moderate amount. However, it is not one hundred percent keto-friendly, and therefore, it is better to replace guava with other fruits with low carbs.
Keto is a strict way of following a diet. You can either balance your regular consumption or exclude it. However, it would be best to keep the health benefits and weight loss factors in mind.
