Ketogenic Diet

Common Questions & Answers
When following a keto diet, foods to focus on include meat, fatty seafood (like salmon), eggs, cheese, nuts, avocados, olive oil, and low-carb vegetables (like leafy greens, asparagus, and celery).
There are many variations of the keto diet, but the most commonly followed version calls for consuming 75 percent of your daily calories from fat, 20 percent from protein, and 5 percent from carbs.
Foods to avoid on the keto diet include grains like rice, wheat, oats, barley, rye, and quinoa; carb-rich snacks like pretzels, potato chips, and crackers; dairy milk; margarine; and starchy vegetables like peas, carrots, butternut squash, corn, and sweet potatoes.
You can eat low-carb fruits on the keto diet, including watermelon, cantaloupe, berries, and avocados. However, fruits that are higher in carbs, like bananas, apples, pears, mangoes, pineapple, and grapes, are typically avoided.

Kayli Anderson, RDN
Medical Reviewer
Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.
Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.
Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.
She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.

Kacy Church, MD
Medical Reviewer
Dr. Church always knew that she wanted to pursue endocrinology because the specialty allows for healthy change through patient empowerment. She completed her fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism in 2017 at Stanford University in California.
She loves running, dancing, and watching her sons play sports.

Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES
Medical Reviewer
Lynn Grieger is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified personal trainer, and certified health and wellness coach. She completed requirements to become a registered dietitian at Valparaiso University in 1987 and completed a dietetic internship at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, in 1988.?
Lynn brings her expertise in nutrition, exercise, and behavior change to her work in helping people reach their individual health and fitness goals. In addition to writing for Everyday Health, she has also written for websites and publications like Food and Health Communications,?Today's Dietitian,?iVillage.com, and Rodale Press.?She has a passion for healthy, nutrient-dense, great-tasting food and for being outdoors as much as possible — she can often be found running or hiking, and has completed a marathon in every state.

Michael Cutler, DO, PhD
Medical Reviewer
Michael Cutler, DO, PhD, is a cardiac electrophysiologist at Intermountain Heart Rhythm Specialists in Salt Lake City, Utah. His research interests include understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmia, gene therapy for cardiac?arrhythmias, neural control of the circulation in sleep apnea, role of exercise in health and disease, and improving the management of cardiac arrhythmias (i.e., atrial fibrillation).
He completed his BS and MS in exercise physiology and was a member of the track/cross country team at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Cutler was an adjunct clinical instructor in the College of Health at the University of Utah and also served on the Utah Governor’s Council on Health and Physical Fitness. He then attended the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth for medical school and for his PhD in cardiovascular physiology.
After medical school, Cutler entered the highly selective ABIM Research Pathway physician-scientist training program at the MetroHealth Campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. During this time, he completed his clinical training in internal medicine, cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology, served as chief cardiology fellow, and received the Kenneth M. Rosen Fellowship in cardiac pacing and electrophysiology from the Heart Rhythm Society. Following residency and fellowship, Cutler accepted a position as an assistant professor of medicine at the MetroHealth Campus of Case Western Reserve University until he joined his current partners at Intermountain Heart Rhythm Specialists.
Cutler's research has received meritorious recognition from the American Physiological Society, the American Heart Association, and the Heart Rhythm Society.
Cutler has been an author on publications in journals such as?Circulation,?Circulation Research,?Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and?Nature. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and clinical cardiac electrophysiology through the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Roxana Ehsani, RD
Medical Reviewer
Roxana Ehsani, RD, is a Miami-based licensed dietitian-nutritionist, board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, and media spokesperson, consultant, and content creator for food and nutrition brands. She is an adjunct instructor for sports nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Ehsani?appears as a food and nutrition expert for television stations across the nation and in national publications, including Runner's World, Women's Health, Glamour, and more, and?is a contributing writer for EatingWell.?She has a strong background in sports nutrition and has worked with professional, Olympic, collegiate, and high school teams and individual athletes, whom she sees through her private practice.?

Kelly Kennedy, RDN, LDN
Medical Reviewer
Kelly Kennedy is a licensed dietitian-nutritionist with over 14 years of experience in digital media. She previously managed and oversaw nutrition content, recipe development, meal planning, and diet and nutrition coaching at Everyday Health. She developed and reviewed various meal plans, books, slideshows, and online tools, and oversaw the creation of more than 500 unique recipes. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a master's degree from the State University of New York College at Oneonta.
Kennedy enjoys anything that takes her outside, from gardening and playing in the yard with her kids to hiking and even feeding her pet chickens.

Reyna Franco, RDN
Medical Reviewer
Reyna Franco, RDN, is a New York City–based dietitian-nutritionist, certified specialist in sports dietetics, and certified personal trainer. She is a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and has a master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Columbia University.
In her private practice, she provides medical nutrition therapy for weight management, sports nutrition, diabetes, cardiac disease, renal disease, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, food allergies, eating disorders, and childhood nutrition. To serve her diverse patients, she demonstrates cultural sensitivity and knowledge of customary food practices. She applies the tenets of lifestyle medicine to reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve health outcomes for her patients.
Franco is also a corporate wellness consultant who conducts wellness counseling and seminars for organizations of every size.?She taught sports nutrition to medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, taught life cycle nutrition and nutrition counseling to undergraduate students at LaGuardia Community College, and precepts nutrition students and interns. She created the sports nutrition rotation for the New York Distance Dietetic Internship program.
She is the chair of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's?Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist Member Interest Group. She is also the treasurer and secretary of the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, having previously served in many other leadership roles for the organization, including as past president, awards committee chair, and grant committee chair, among others. She is active in the local Greater New York Dietetic Association and Long Island Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, too.

Kayli Anderson, RDN
Medical Reviewer
Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.
Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.
Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.
She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.
- Dynka D et al. Ketogenic Diets for Body Weight Loss: A Comparison With Other Diets. Nutrients. March 10, 2025.
- Keto Diet: Is It Right for You? Mayo Clinic. July 6, 2023.
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