Berries are sometimes acceptable on ketogenic diets. Find out whether grapes are keto-friendly too and what other options you have.
100 grams of grapes contain around 17.2 grams of net carbohydrates (total carbs minus fiber).
On top of that, grapes do not come with a lot of fiber to mitigate the blood sugar spike to some extent.
In simpler words, grapes are generally not keto-friendly.
You could theoretically fit in tiny amounts in your diet while staying in ketosis. That being said, it is generally not recommended to consume so many of your daily carbs in such a small amount of food.
Additionally, there are more keto fruits that can still allow you to eat something sweeter while making it more likely that you stay in ketosis.
Carbs in grapes
How many carbs there are in grapes is an important detail for figuring out whether this berry is keto-friendly and in what amounts.
100 grams of grapes, red and green, contain the following amounts of carbs (1):
- Total carbs: 18.1 grams
- Of which fiber: 0.9 grams
- Net carbs: 17.2 grams
If you eat reasonable amounts of other foods, the 17.2 grams of net carbohydrates in 100 grams of grapes is likely enough to raise your carb intake to a level that is not keto-friendly.
One grape is about 4.9 grams, so 10 grapes contain the following amounts of carbs:
- Total carbs: 8.9 grams
- Of which fiber: 0.4 grams
- Net carbs: 8.5 grams
As you can see, consuming smaller amounts of grapes will also make it so you eat fewer carbohydrates.
That being said, even only 10 grapes contain relatively high amounts of carbohydrates for ketogenic diets. This should make it clear that you likely don’t want to eat this berry if you want to stay in ketosis.
Other nutrition information grapes
There are cases where you can consider eating tiny amounts of foods that are high in carbohydrates on keto.
The main reason for this is that the foods contain so many valuable nutrients that it is worth spending a good amount of daily carbs on them.
By looking at the fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals in grapes you can figure out whether they are an example of this too.
100 grams of raw grapes contain the following nutrients (1):
- Calories: 69
- Protein: 0.7 grams
- Carbs: 18.1 grams
- Part of the carbs that is fiber: 0.9 grams
- Fat: 0.2 grams
- Vitamin C: 18% of the DV (Daily Value)
- Vitamin K: 18% of the DV
- Copper: 6% of the DV
- Thiamin: 5% of the DV
- Potassium: 5% of the DV
And some other vitamins and minerals in smaller amounts.
If you are not familiar with nutrition details, the extra amounts in grapes are welcome but not that impressive. There are plenty of more keto-friendly foods that offer these nutrients in bigger amounts.
Carbs in dried grapes
You may also wonder how many carbs there are in dried grapes aka raisins. Removing the water from the berry changes the nutrients per 100 grams a lot.
More specifically, you can find the amounts of carbs in raw grapes and raisins in the table below (1, 2).
| Values Per 100g | Raw Grapes | Raisins |
|---|---|---|
| Total Carbohydrates | 8.9 g | 79.3 g |
| Of Which Fiber | 0.4 g | 4.5 g |
| Net Carbs | 8.5 g | 74.8 g |
As you can see, if you do decide to eat grapes on the ketogenic diet, you preferably want to eat them raw, not dried.
Why grapes are generally not considered keto-friendly
In theory, you could change the rest of your diet to make it so you can eat a few grapes without getting kicked out of ketosis.
To understand why this is typically not recommended, it can be helpful to quickly go over the keto basics.
For a diet to be considered keto, you have to get and stay in ketosis. This is a state where you mainly burn fat as fuel (3).
To get into ketosis you have to keep your carbohydrate consumption low enough. Exactly what is low enough depends on details like your weight, muscle mass, and movement habits.
A typical guideline is that you want to get 55%-60% of your macronutrients from fat, 30%-35% from protein, and 5%-10% from carbohydrates on a ketogenic diet.
If you use these percentages on your calorie intake, you will likely get that you can eat around 20 to 50 grams of carbs (not including fiber) a day.
These ratios are not perfect for everyone but they do already help you understand why grapes are generally not considered to be keto-friendly.
How many grapes can you have on keto?
To make things even clearer it can be worth giving an example situation where you can figure out how many grapes you can have on keto.
Let’s say you conclude that you can eat 30 grams of net carbohydrates while staying in ketosis. Additionally, you already ate 25 grams of these in other foods.
In that case, you would only be able to 29 grams or about 5.7 grapes on your keto diet.
You should be able to find foods that are just as tasty and nutritious without adding as many carbohydrates to your diet.
Substitutes for grapes on keto
Instead of making your portions of grapes tiny, it is typically a better idea to consider more keto-friendly alternatives.
You may enjoy these other options just as much while making it easier for yourself to stay in ketosis.
The numbers next to these grape substitutes are the net carbohydrate values per 100 grams (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9):
- Blackberries: 4.9 grams of net carbs
- Raspberries: 5.4 grams of net carbs
- Strawberries: 5.7 grams of net carbs
- Watermelon: 7.1 grams of net carbs
- Cranberries: 7.6 grams of net carbs
- Cantaloupe: 7.9 grams of net carbs
It is still worth noting that even though these berries are lower in carbs than grapes, you can still not eat unlimited amounts on a keto diet.
Why do you want to stay in ketosis?
By now it should be clear that grapes will typically kick you out of ketosis. Even if you keep your portions small.
Whether this is a problem and to what extent depends on why you are trying to follow a ketogenic diet.
For example, you may need/want to stay in strict ketosis every minute of the day. In that case, you likely want to stay away from even one grape.
On the other hand, if you want to lose weight, grapes can still be good even if they kick you out of ketosis. Grapes are not as good for health but typically acceptable too.
Ketogenic diets are typically not the only ways to lose weight and get healthier.
A potentially interesting note if you are trying to lose weight is that the calories in red and green grapes have tiny differences (but generally not enough to influence your choice).
FAQ
How many carbs are there in 8 red grapes?
If you assume one red grape is around 4.9 grams, there are about 7.1 grams of total carbs (including 0.35 grams of fiber) in 8 red grapes 39.2
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