How to Read Nutrition Labels on Keto

When I first started keto, I remember standing in the grocery aisle for what felt like hours. What should have been a quick trip suddenly turned into a slow, confusing mission because every single packet I picked up seemed to have carbs hidden inside it. One moment I thought something looked healthy, and the next moment the label told me a totally different story. If you’re in that stage of learning how to read food labels, know that you’re not alone — and this guide will help you make sense of it all without the frustration I went through.

Think for a moment about what your normal experience is like when you walk through a grocery store. Packaging is designed to convince you. It’s colourful, eye-catching, and covered in phrases like “fortified,” “source of vitamins,” “low-fat,” or “heart foundation approved.”

Marketers know exactly which words make us feel safe. But labels aren’t designed to convince you — labels are designed to inform you. The front wants your attention; the back tells the truth.

When you start comparing products side by side, especially foods you buy often, you quickly realise why some items work beautifully for keto and others derail your progress.

Once you learn how to make those comparisons, something just clicks, and label-reading stops feeling like decoding a foreign language.

To show you exactly how this works, let’s look at a few everyday examples: yoghurt, oats, and low-carb granola. These are common, familiar foods, and seeing the difference between them helps you understand what to look for on any label.

Plain Yoghurt vs Flavoured Yoghurt: Why the Details Matter

One of the easiest comparisons you can make is between plain yoghurt and the flavoured yoghurts so many people buy thinking they’re making a healthy choice. A plain, double-cream yoghurt is usually made from milk, cream, and a stabiliser. When you look at the nutritional information, you’ll see around seven grams of carbohydrates per serving, of which roughly three grams are naturally occurring sugars from the milk. There’s around three grams of protein and roughly four grams of fat. There may also be a small cholesterol number on the label, but this isn’t something you need to worry about — dietary cholesterol does not directly raise blood cholesterol the way we were once taught.

The ingredients list on plain yoghurt is straightforward. Milk, cream, stabiliser. That’s it. This is the kind of product that works well on keto, especially when used in moderation.

Now, compare this to a fruit-flavoured yoghurt. Straight away, the carbs jump dramatically to fourteen grams per serving, double the amount in plain yoghurt. When you look at the ingredients, you’ll suddenly see a very long list containing added sugar, fruit purée, stabilisers, modified starch, colourants, flavourings, and in many cases, artificial sweeteners like sucralose. The packaging often shows bright fruit and gives you the impression that it’s healthy, but the label reveals that it’s far closer to a dessert than a nourishing yoghurt. This is one of the simplest ways to see how misleading packaging can be. The front tells you a story; the back tells you the truth.

Oats vs Low-Carb Granola: A Clear Lesson in Carbs

Another practical example is comparing oats to a low-carb granola. Oats are often seen as a wholesome, comforting breakfast that’s good for you. But when it comes to keto, oats are extremely high in carbs. Per 100 grams, oats usually contain around sixty grams of carbohydrates. If you look at a normal 50-gram serving, you’re already taking in about thirty grams of carbs — which is more than the entire daily carb limit for many keto beginners.

It’s also worth paying attention to the nutritional panel on oats, because you’ll usually notice a list of added vitamins and minerals. These are not naturally occurring. Oats, like many grains, are heavily processed, and in the process, many nutrients are stripped out. Manufacturers then “fortify” the product by adding vitamins back in so it looks nutritionally balanced. The fibre content in oats is around ten grams per 100g, which is decent, but even when you subtract the fibre to calculate net carbs, it’s still an extremely high carbohydrate food for someone trying to stabilise their blood sugar.

Now let’s look at a low-carb granola, such as the Woolworths Carb Clever version. Per 100 grams, this granola contains only about eight grams of carbohydrates and an impressive twenty-six grams of fibre. Because fibre doesn’t impact blood sugar, the net carbs are extremely low. This granola also contains around forty grams of fat and seventeen grams of protein, making it a wonderfully balanced keto-friendly breakfast or snack.

When you compare it to oats side by side, the difference is striking. Oats give you a quick blood sugar spike followed by a carb crash; low-carb granola gives you sustained energy without sabotaging your carb count.

This is why I always say that looking at carbs per 100 grams is one of the simplest and fastest ways to judge a food. Even before you check anything else, that one number can give you a very good idea of whether the item belongs in your pantry.

Total Carbs vs Net Carbs: What’s the Difference and Which Should You Track?

One of the most common questions I get as a keto coach is whether it’s better to count total carbs or net carbs. The good news is that the answer is much simpler than it seems. Total carbohydrates include all the sugars, starches, and fibre in the food. Net carbohydrates are the portion of carbs that actually raise your blood sugar.

The calculation is very simple:

Net carbs = total carbs – fibre

For example, a cup of cooked broccoli contains around 11.2 grams of total carbs. Of that, roughly 5.1 grams are fibre. When you subtract the fibre, you’re left with 6.1 grams of net carbs — and it’s the net carbs that matter most when it comes to your blood sugar and insulin levels.

Some people prefer tracking total carbs because it feels straightforward. Others track net carbs because it allows for more vegetables and fibre-rich foods. Both methods can work. What matters far more than the method you choose is the question you ask yourself when deciding whether to eat something: “Will this food spike my blood sugar?” If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t really matter whether you’re counting net or total carbs — the effect on your body will be the same.

Net carbs are especially useful when reading labels on packaged low-carb products, because this is where fibre and sometimes sugar alcohols make a big difference. Whole foods, on the other hand, are much simpler. An avocado or a piece of steak doesn’t need any calculations, which is one of the reasons whole foods are so much easier to include in a keto lifestyle.

So How Do You Judge a Label Quickly?

Although label reading can feel overwhelming at first, it becomes much easier with time. One approach that works well is to look at the carbs per 100 grams first. If a food is higher than five grams per 100g and you know you’re likely to eat a full serving or more, it might not be worth it. After that, move straight to the ingredients list. Carbs aren’t the only thing that matters. A food can be low-carb but still full of ingredients that don’t support your health, such as hidden sugars, syrups, maltodextrin, starches, and artificial additives. If the ingredient list feels longer than your attention span, it’s usually a sign to put it back.

Whenever you’re unsure, remind yourself that whole foods never lie. Foods like meat, eggs, fish, avocado, leafy greens, butter, nuts, and vegetables don’t need a nutrition label to prove themselves. The further a food gets from its natural state, the more important the label becomes — and the more cautious you should be.

Final Thoughts: You Will Get Better at This

In the beginning, reading labels can feel like a lot. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed, especially when you realise just how many foods in your pantry are far higher in carbs than you ever imagined. If you ever decide to do a full pantry purge based on carb content alone, you may end up clearing out most of your groceries. But here’s the truth: you don’t have to get everything perfect right away. Label reading is a skill that develops with time.

The more you learn about this lifestyle, the easier it becomes. Eventually you’ll find yourself glancing at a label and knowing immediately whether something fits into your lifestyle or not. No stress, no confusion, no overthinking.

Take it one product at a time. Make the better choice when you can. And give yourself the space to learn along the way. This journey is not about perfection, it’s about progress, awareness, and supporting your body in the best way you can. You’re already doing better than you think, and every smart choice you make adds up beautifully over time.