Why Eat Avocados on Keto? Fiber, Potassium and Healthy Fats

2020-01-22

In this recording

A 94-second clip from January 2020, part of the same batch of short explainers as my tracking and meal-planning videos.

[0:00] Why avocados? They're one of the friendlier foods on keto: very low in net carbs, a good source of fiber, high in potassium, and with one of the healthiest fatty-acid profiles you can eat. They help with micronutrient concerns.
[0:00] Ways to use them: at breakfast, on burgers, as a side, as guacamole with pulled pork or beef.
[0:47] Potassium again, because it's one of the things we need to watch on keto. Plus they're versatile: chunky, diced, blended into a purée or a sauce.

That's the whole clip. It's short, so this post fills in what the evidence pages say about the two nutrients I leaned on.

Watching this in 2026

Avocados were a staple for me long before this clip. In 2017 I was dressing them up with sambal chili garlic sauce, lime and mayo (videos cTGYIFOTPl8, xyEZL0HuejI), and there's a raw phone clip of me making exactly that with bacon (live IMG_8266). I also used avocados as my example of where to get fats with real nutrition attached, as opposed to spoonfuls of butter or MCT oil (video DLRlphyc1t8).

So nothing here contradicts what came before. If I'd change anything, it's that "address a lot of the micronutrient concerns" is doing a lot of work in a 90-second clip. An avocado helps with potassium and fiber. It doesn't replace the rest of a varied plate.

The claim worth unpacking: potassium

I said potassium is something we need to supplement on keto, and that avocados are a good source. Here's what the reference bodies on the evidence pages say about how much adults need:

The National Academies (2019) set an adequate intake of 2,600 mg/day for women and 3,400 mg/day for men.
The WHO (2012) recommends at least 3,510 mg/day of potassium from food for adults.
In a meta-analysis for the WHO guideline, higher potassium intake lowered blood pressure in people with hypertension, with no adverse effect on blood lipids or kidney function (Aburto et al., 2013).

The phrase "from food" in the WHO wording matters. It's one reason I'd put food-first sources like avocados and leafy greens ahead of pills. The evidence pages don't list a potassium figure per avocado, so I'm not going to give you one here. Check a nutrition database or the label if you're tracking it.

When to talk to your doctor: if you have kidney disease, or take blood-pressure or heart medication, ask before raising potassium, whether that's from supplements, potassium-chloride "light" salt, or large amounts from food. The WHO's guidance on potassium salt substitutes specifically excludes people at risk of high blood potassium (WHO sodium reduction fact sheet). More in potassium and magnesium.

Fiber, briefly

The National Academies set an adequate fiber intake of 14 g per 1,000 kcal, which works out to 25 g/day for women 19–50 and 38 g/day for men 19–50 (NASEM 2005). On a low-carb diet that's hard to reach without deliberately picking high-fiber foods, which is why avocados, broccoli and leafy greens keep showing up in my food lists. See fiber on keto.

Key points

Avocados are low in net carbs and good sources of fiber and potassium.
Adult potassium targets: 2,600 mg/day women, 3,400 mg/day men (NASEM 2019); WHO says at least 3,510 mg/day from food.
Kidney disease or blood-pressure medication: ask your doctor before pushing potassium up.
Use them however you like: guac, on burgers, at breakfast, as a sauce.