How To Make Your Own Keto Trail Mix
Our Keto Trail Mix is an awesome tasty snack to enjoy on the go. It’s low carb, super crunchy, and loaded with healthy fats for energy. Mix and match the ingredients to make it your own!
Being active doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your diet. There are tons of options available in most major food stores that are keto-specific. You do need to watch for some "loose" and sneaky marketing techniques though. Always check the ingredients for yourself.
The main things to look out for on the ingredient list are sugar or other additives that could counteract the health quality of the foods. Keto is trendy right now and marketers are taking advantage of it by using misleading labels. Flip the package over and check through them yourself before deciding what you to buy.
Keto Trail Mix and Net Carbs
The basic rule for staying in ketosis is to shoot for anywhere between 20-50g of carbs per day. This will vary depending on your weight and activity level. Those numbers are based on Net Carbs. Net carbs are the grams of total carbohydrates in a food minus its grams of total fiber. Because fiber is a carbohydrate that your body can't digest, it doesn't count against the number of carbs that can cause an insulin response.
Total Carbs – Total Fiber = Net Carbs
Sometimes a product will actually list the Net Carbs so you don't have to do any math, but again, make sure you are still checking the ingredients. Another soft rule is that less ingredients usually means healthier. Things such as sugar additives or preservatives can prevent your body from properly creating ketones.
What is Keto?
It is a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carb lifestyle that puts your body in a metabolic state called ketosis. Ketosis is when your body burns fat instead of carbohydrates as the primary fuel source. This is a much cleaner, more efficient way for your body to perform optimally.
How to Make Your Own Keto Trail Mix
To keep this as simple as possible, we are going to just throw a few ingredients into a bag, mix it up and head out to the trail. Trail mix is meant to be something quick and easy to pack along on adventures, keep us fueled up, and taste good! Mix it up any way that works for you and keep experimenting!
We created a web story that makes this super easy to follow along and get inspiration for making your own keto trail mix. ------>>>
Let's go Nuts!
Choose your nuts wisely! While nuts are always a great choice to add to your keto trail mix and the fat content is great for keto, you also need to consider the carbs. We love macadamia nuts because of their high fat content and low carb count. Pecans, Brazil Nuts, and Walnuts are nice as well. Below we’re counting down the best to worst nuts based on the amount of carbs in a 1oz portion.
Pecans: 1.1 grams
Pine Nuts: 2.7 grams
Brazil Nuts: 1.3 grams
Almonds: 2.9 grams
Macadamia Nuts: 1.5 grams
Peanuts: 3.8 grams
Walnuts: 1.9 grams
Pistachios: 5.8 grams
Hazelnuts: 2.3 grams
Cashews: 8.4 grams
Add Some Seeds
We love adding seeds to our keto trail mix for that extra crunch and texture. Additionally, seeds (and nuts) are packed with micronutrients such as vitamin E, B vitamins, and minerals (calcium, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium, potassium, selenium and zinc). Here is a list of how some of the most seeds rank according to net carb per 1 oz serving.
Flaxseed: 0.5 gram
Sunflower Seeds: 3.2 grams
Sachi Inchi Seeds: 0 grams
Sesame Seeds: 3.3 grams
Chia Seeds: 1.7 grams
Pumpkin Seeds: 3.9 grams
Chocolate Makes Everything Better!
That's right, we said chocolate! So not only is dark chocolate a suitable snack to have while on the keto diet (in moderation), it's also a great snack to have to help promote heart health. The key is to choose dark chocolate varieties with at least 70 percent cocoa solids to consume the most flavanols.
Our favorite is Lily's Chocolates. The net carbs fluctuate with different flavors, but we highly recommend the Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate. For the keto trail mix, it's best to stick to baking chips with no sugar added making them an awesome stevia sweetened addition.
Yes to Cheese, Please!
If you aren't a chocolate fan and don't want the stevia sweetness add some cheese snacks to the mix. Prepackaged snacks such as salty Moon Cheese Bites are perfect because they don't need to be refrigerated. If it is a short trip, you could definitely get away with chopping up some hard cheeses and tossing them in there.
How to Store and Carry Your Keto Trail Mix
As avid supporters of our big beautiful world, we try to practice conscious packaging whenever we can to minimize our carbon footprint. We love using Stasher Snack Bags any chance we get! They are reusable snack-size silicone bags that are toxin-free and environmentally friendly. Stasher makes these in a variety of sizes so you can use them for trail mix, sandwiches (minus the bread because - keto), cooking ingredients in the cooler and more!
Want to Learn More About Keto?
Being a big part of our life, we have created a few articles about the health benefits of keto. One of the misconceptions about keto is that it is difficult to stick to. It's easy to get overwhelmed when you're first getting started, but we hope that some of our articles help break it down into nice, bit-sized pieces.
If you are into backpacking, some concessions must be made because the food options are limited. A lot of keto foods are perishable, but again, we tried to make it easy by putting a full guide to the best snacks that you can find at your local Target. Most of these items are available at other grocery stores as well.
Pack it Up, Pack it In
Don't forget anything ever again by using our Free Car Camping Checklist! Now that you have some delicious snacks ready to go, use this guide to pack up the car and make sure everything you need is right by your side!