Keto Protein Powder With No Artificial Sweeteners: Our 0 to 1 g Carb Options

The short answer: our 0 to 1 g carb proteins without sucralose

These are the powders that clear both bars, going by each flavour's own label:

• Grass-Fed New Zealand Whey Protein Isolate, Unflavoured & Unsweetened (0 g carbs, no sweetener), Natural Vanilla (Stevia) (1 g) and Natural Chocolate Milkshake (Stevia) (1 g).
• Whey Protein Isolate, Unflavoured & Unsweetened and Natural Vanilla (Stevia) (1 g each).
• Vegan Protein, Unflavoured & Unsweetened (1 g, of which 1 g is fibre).
• Pea Protein Isolate, Unflavoured & Unsweetened (1 g, of which 1 g is fibre).

Just over the line at 2 g a scoop: Grass-Fed New Zealand Whey Protein Concentrate in Unflavoured & Unsweetened or Natural Vanilla (Stevia). It's still low, just not 1 g or under, and costs less per serving. You can browse everything else in our full range.

How much a scoop adds to a low-carb day (and what your mixer adds)

A scoop with 0 or 1 g of carbohydrate barely registers. If your plan caps you at 20 g a day, one scoop of a 1 g powder is 5% of it; two scoops are 10%. A 2 g concentrate scoop is 10% on its own, which is fine for most people but adds up if you have two or three shakes a day.

The bigger number is usually what you mix it with. Water adds nothing. Milk, oat drinks and some nut drinks do add carbohydrate, and the amount varies a lot by brand and whether it's sweetened, so read the carton's Nutrition Facts table for the 250 to 500 ml you'll pour. Fruit in a smoothie counts too: a banana can outweigh the scoop many times over.

Stevia, sucralose or nothing: how to spot the sweetener on our labels

The ingredient list tells you, and it's short enough to read in five seconds:

• Stevia: look for "Reb A (steviol glycosides)". That's what our naturally sweetened range uses, with no artificial sweeteners. These flavours have "Natural" and "(Stevia)" in the name on the whey proteins.
• Sucralose: it's listed by name, usually next to "natural and artificial flavour". Most of our flavours use it.
• No sweetener: Unflavoured & Unsweetened whey isolates and concentrate list just the whey and sunflower lecithin. Vegan Protein Unflavoured & Unsweetened lists only pea, brown rice and hemp protein, and Pea Protein Isolate lists only pea protein isolate.

Side by side: carbs, protein, sweetener and price per serving

Figures are per scoop from each flavour's label (1 kg bag where labels differ by size). Price per serving is the one-time price.

Every whey on this list contains milk. Vegan Protein and Pea Protein Isolate list none of the common allergens. Subscribing lowers the price of all of them, and the 2 kg bags bring the per-serving cost down further: a 2 kg bag of the unflavoured grass-fed isolate is about 66 scoops, roughly two months of one shake a day.

Which one fits how you eat: shakes, coffee and cooking, or dairy-free

You want a shake that tastes like a shake

Go for the stevia flavours: Grass-Fed New Zealand Whey Protein Isolate in Natural Vanilla (Stevia) or Natural Chocolate Milkshake (Stevia). If price matters more than grass-fed sourcing, Whey Protein Isolate in Natural Vanilla (Stevia) is $2.58 a serving with the same 1 g of carbohydrate. Stevia isn't for everyone: a few reviewers find the vanilla too sweet, so try it with more water if that's you.

You add protein to coffee, yogurt or cooking

Unflavoured & Unsweetened is the flexible choice, since it won't fight savoury food or your coffee. The grass-fed isolate's 0 g of carbohydrate and 0 g of fat make it the easiest to fit into tight macros. Our guide to cooking and baking with protein powder covers what holds up to heat.

You don't eat dairy

Vegan Protein Unflavoured & Unsweetened (24 g of protein from pea, brown rice and hemp) or Pea Protein Isolate Unflavoured & Unsweetened (25 g of protein, the lowest price per serving here). Both have 1 g of carbohydrate, all of it fibre.

Most of these mix the same way: one scoop in 250 to 500 ml of water or another liquid, drunk within 30 minutes. Pea Protein Isolate's label says to mix one 30 g scoop well in 1 to 2 cups of liquid (water, juice and so on) immediately before drinking, once a day.

What a label can't tell you about keto

A label gives you carbohydrate, fibre and sugars per scoop, rounded the way labels are. On our labels fibre is counted inside the carbohydrate figure, so the 1 g in Vegan Protein Unflavoured & Unsweetened is all fibre.

What a label can't tell you is how your own body responds. We don't know of good evidence that tells you how a small amount of stevia affects anyone's ketone readings, and people's experiences differ. If you track ketones, test with your usual routine after a week of your normal shake. And if you're on a ketogenic diet for a medical reason, check any new product with your doctor or dietitian first.

Count your scoops toward your protein target as well as your carbs. For how shakes fit around training, see our piece on where shakes fit in a muscle-building program.