Is Pineapple Keto-Friendly? (& Better Substitutes)

Fruits are typically not that good for ketogenic diets. Find out whether pineapple is one of the keto-friendly exceptions and a few alternatives.

Raw pineapple contains around 11.7 grams of net carbohydrates (total carbs minus fiber) per 100 grams.

This amount will often be enough to kick you out of ketosis which means pineapple is generally not keto-friendly.

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that you could theoretically eat small amounts of pineapple while staying in ketosis.

However, it is likely still not worth using so many of your daily carbs on such a small amount of food.

If you still want to eat something sweeter on your ketogenic, one of the fruits lower in carbs will typically be a better choice.

Carbs in pineapple

The number of carbs in pineapple is an important detail for figuring out whether this fruit is keto-friendly for your situation and in what amounts.

100 grams of pineapple contain the following amounts of carbs (1):

Total carbs: 13.1 grams
Of which fiber: 1.4 grams
Net carbs: 11.7 grams

There are worse fruits but the 11.7 grams of net carbs in 100 grams of pineapple is still relatively high compared to what most people can eat on ketogenic diets.

In simpler words, pineapple is generally not that keto-friendly.

One cup of pineapple chunks is about 165 grams and contains the following amounts of carbs:

Total carbs: 21.6 grams
Of which fiber: 2.3 grams
Net carbs: 19.3 grams

As you can expect, eating more pineapple will also mean consuming more carbohydrates.

19.3 grams of net carbohydrates will be relatively hard to combine with reasonable amounts of other foods on a ketogenic diet.

You can also take this principle in the other direction. Smaller amounts of pineapple will also contain fewer carbs. Potentially up to the point where this fruit becomes doable on a keto diet.

Other nutrition facts about pineapple

Sometimes implementing small amounts of foods that are higher in carbs like pineapple can be worth it on a ketogenic diet if they are nutritious enough.

By looking at the other nutrition facts about pineapple you can get a better idea of whether you want to make the effort of fitting this fruit into your keto diet.

100 grams of raw pineapple contain the following nutrients (1):

Calories: 50
Protein: 0.5 grams
Carbs: 13.1 grams
Part of the carbs that is fiber: 1.4 grams
Fat: 0.1 grams
Vitamin C: 80% of the DV (Daily Value)
Manganese: 46% of the DV
Vitamin B6: 6% of the DV
Copper: 6% of the DV
Thiamin: 5% of the DV

And some other vitamins and minerals in smaller amounts.

The extra nutrients in pineapple are welcome but at the same time, the amounts are not that impressive compared to many food alternatives.

You should be able to find more nutritious foods that are lower in carbs relatively easily.

Carbs in pineapple juice

It is also possible to only consume the juice of pineapple. By removing the fiber you do change the number of carbs per 100 grams and how keto-friendly the fruit is.

You can find the amounts of carbs in raw pineapple and pineapple juice in the table below (1, 2).

Values Per 100g	Raw Pineapple	Pineapple Juice
Total Carbohydrates	13.1 g	12.9 g
Of Which Fiber	1.4 g	0.2 g
Net Carbs	11.7 g	12.7 g

Chart of carbs in raw pineapple vs pineapple juice

If you absolutely want the taste of pineapple on your keto diet, you likely want to stick to the raw fruit.

Especially if you consider that this is an example of pineapple juice without added sugar. Many brands do add this ingredient which makes the juice even less keto-friendly.

Why pineapple will often kick you out of ketosis

Pineapple will often kick you out of ketosis. However, if you really like its taste, you could still consider eating amounts that are small enough to stay in ketosis.

Going over the keto fundamentals can help you understand why this is and how to avoid overdoing it with pineapple.

You can consider any way of eating where you get into ketosis to be a ketogenic diet. Ketosis is a state where you mainly burn fat as fuel (3).

To get into this state, you need to keep your carbohydrate consumption low enough. What is low enough depends on details like your weight, muscle mass, genes, exercise habits, etc.

This makes reality more confusing but there are still general keto guidelines. These are not perfect but do give you an idea of how many grams of pineapple would be acceptable on keto.

A typical guideline is that you want to eat 55%-60% of your calories in fat, 30%-35% in protein, and 5%-10% in carbohydrates.

If you apply these percentages, you will likely conclude that you can consume about 20 to 50 grams of carbs a day.

You typically don’t include the fiber in pineapple and other foods in these amounts, even though fiber is a category of carbohydrates. Your body deals with fiber in more keto-friendly ways.

How much pineapple can you eat on keto?

With the information above you can figure out how much pineapple you can eat on keto.

For example, let’s say you estimate that you can eat around 24 grams of net carbs on keto. Additionally, the other foods you ate already added 20 grams of net carbohydrates to your diet.

In that case, you can predict that you can eat about 34 grams of pineapple before getting kicked out of ketosis.

Do keep in mind that these are rough estimations. In reality, you could be able to eat less or more pineapple before overdoing it.

Is grilled pineapple keto-friendly?

One way to prepare pineapple is to grill it. You can likely still predict the results but hope that this is somehow better for your diet.

Unfortunately, grilled pineapple will still generally not be keto-friendly.

In fact, it will generally be even worse than the regular raw fruit since you are removing some of the water.

Is pineapple juice keto-friendly?

As mentioned above, pineapple juice contains around 12.7 grams of net carbs per 100 grams (2).

Since this is relatively high, it is fair to say that pineapple juice is typically not keto-friendly.

Especially if you consider that it is a lot easier to consume half a glass of pineapple juice than 100 grams of the fruit.

Substitutes for pineapple on keto

By now, it should be clear that pineapple is typically not a great idea on keto.

Luckily, there are still a few other fruit options for people who still want something sweeter than the typical keto-friendly foods.

You can find the amounts of net carbohydrates per 100 grams next to the pineapple substitutes (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

Even though these other fruits are lower in carbs than pineapple, you still want to keep your portion sizes in mind if you want to stay in ketosis.

How to avoid eating too much pineapple on keto

Something else you can consider is making the amounts of pineapple you eat so small that you can stay in ketosis.

Slicing up an entire pineapple and just hoping that you won’t eat too many carbs is typically not a keto-friendly strategy.

Instead, try following some of these tips to keep your pineapple consumption under control:

Figure out in advance how many grams of pineapple would be possible on your keto diet
Put this many grams of pineapple aside
Don’t eat unlimited amounts of pineapple while doing other things like reading a book
If you really crave pineapple too much you may need to buy smaller or no portions

Keep in mind that your initial predictions will not always be perfect. If you get out of ketosis while eating pineapple you likely need to consume smaller portions.

Why do you want to stay in ketosis?

Even small portions of pineapple can increase your carb intake to a point where you are not able to stay in ketosis.

Whether this is an issue and to what extent depends on your reason for following a ketogenic diet.

For example, pineapple can be good for weight loss and decent for health even if it raises your carb intake too much.

On the other hand, there are people who need/want to stay in ketosis every minute of the day. These individuals likely want to stay away from pineapple.

Something else that is worth noting is that pineapple juice is not that good for weight loss and health.

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FAQ

Is pineapple OK on a low-carb diet?

Raw pineapple contains around 11.7 grams of net carbohydrates per 100 grams. In turn, it is fair to say that pineapple is typically not OK on a low-carb diet.

Do pineapples have carbs?

Yes, pineapples have carbs. More specifically, 100 grams of raw pineapple contain around 13.1 grams of carbohydrates (including 1.4 grams of fiber).