Star fruit or carambola is a fruit that looks like five-pointed stars. Both skin and flesh of this sweet and sour taste fruit are edible.
The low carb and fiber rich star fruit is a good fruit for keto. Moreover, star fruit contains little amount of sugar and you can add this fruit with your keto fruits for diabetes.
Let’s check the facts which make star fruit ok for a standard keto diet plan.
Why Is Starfruit Keto Approved?
With 2.5 grams of net carbs against a serving size of 100 grams makes star fruit keto approved. This little number of net carbs helps to stay in ketosis.
A perfect keto diet plan restricts daily carb intake to 30 grams and helps to maintain prediabetes range or a1c goals by age chart. However, the majority of fruits are high in sugar which can spark blood sugar.
As low sugar is another added benefit of star fruit over low carbs, it helps to maintain blood sugar levels like other fruits on keto. Because of this star fruit is keto approved.
Is Star Fruit Low in Carbs?
Yes, star fruit is low in carbs. One small sized star fruit weighs 70 grams which contain 4.71 grams of carbohydrates and 1.96 grams of dietary fiber (1).
After deducting the fiber net carbs of star fruit become 2.5 grams which are perfect for maintaining ketosis.
Star Fruit Benefits
Star fruit is a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These nutrients of star fruit make it anti‐inflammatory, anti‐infective, antitumor, and immune‐boosting.
Star fruits are widely used throughout the world to prepare remedies for fever, sore throat, cough, asthma, chronic headache, and skin inflammations.
Moreover, the benefits of star fruit are proven by scientific studies. Let’s check the top star fruit benefits.
Cholesterol Reduction: Studies have shown that daily consumption of star fruit juice prepared from fresh star fruits can reduce LDL cholesterol (2).
Dietary intake of star fruit shows hypo-cholesterolemic and hypolipidaemic effects. Because star fruit helps to reduce cholesterol, lipid, and bile acid (3).
Anti-Diabetic & Blood Glucose Controller: Star fruit has hypoglycemic and antidiabetic effects. It can improve cell viability and glucose‐stimulated insulin secretion (4).
Star fruit or carambola has benefits over blood glucose level maintenance. The high fiber component of star fruit aids in controlling blood glucose concentration (5).
Also, this keto diet fruit is able to lower blood glucose by slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates in our body.
Cell Damage Prevention: Star fruit is a great source of vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) and Gallic acid. Both of these components help to remove reactive oxidative species(ROS) (6).
Reactive oxidative species are free radicals that cause damage to DNA, RNA, and proteins, and cell death for extreme cases.
Immunity Boost: Star fruit contains iron, zinc, and manganese. These antioxidants of star fruit strengthen the immune system (7).
Star fruit contains saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, and tannins. These components are well known for antioxidant and specific healing properties (8).
Star fruit aid in removing toxins from the body. Moreover, keto star fruit prevents cancer, ROS damage, and lipoperoxidation (9).
Gut Health: Star fruit contains insoluble fibers fractions. The insoluble fibers fraction aids in smooth bowel movements (10). That’s why starfruit has benefits over constipation on ketosis diet.
In fact, star fruit may be the best fruit on keto for reliving common keto and constipation issues i.e peanut butter constipation, almond flour constipation, and coconut flour constipation.
Star Fruit Recipes
You can consume both raw and cooked star fruit. However, raw star fruit is more commonly used in keto recipes. Some best star fruit recipes are given below.
Star fruit smoothie: This smoothie is very beneficial for maintaining good heart health by LDL cholesterol reduction. To make this recipe add 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder keto with star fruit blend until smooth. You can drink this low carb star fruit smoothie any time.
Star fruit nut mix: To make this healthy fruit & keto diet nuts mix add 2 piece of low carb almonds, 1 small sized star fruit and 1/2 tbsp of keto black pepper sauce. This star fruit nut mix can be a great addition to your vegan inexpensive keto snacks.
Final Thoughts
Star fruits are low in carbs and contain many useful nutrients. Because of this low carb star fruit is inserted among the keto approved fruits list.
Moreover the nutrients of star fruits aids in a healthy life style. These useful nutrients of star fruits helps to prevent heart diseases, control blood sugar, relives from constipation etc.
