Is Quest Pizza Keto Friendly?
At the time of writing this post, I’ve been on the ketogenic diet for over five years and logged over 250 blood ketone tests in an effort to estimate the effects of food and ingredients on my ketosis, including those in Quest Pizza.
Quest Pizza is the first low carb store-bought frozen pizza attempt I've ever seen, I'm definitely interested to see how well they do, and just how keto friendly they are. A lot of Quest Nutrition products are not as keto friendly as most keto dieters seem to think, but are Quest Pizzas an exception? In this post I'll evaluate Quest Pizzas, give them keto friendly grades, and see how they might fit into a keto diet!
Savage Fuel Keto Friendly Grades:
A: Completely compatible, positive or no impact on ketosis.
B: Highly compatible, but don't go too crazy.
C: Moderately compatible, be mindful and limit intelligently.
D: Barely compatible, detrimental to ketosis and not recommended.
F: Not compatible, overdo it just a little and kiss your ketosis goodbye.
Keto Friendly Grading Factors:
Net Carbs per Serving: How many carbs are in this thing?
Net Carbs per 100 calories: Since serving sizes often vary significantly, a net carb per 100 calorie ratio is a more consistent measure of keto-friendliness than net carbs per serving. Lower ratios are also an indicator of higher fat content because fat has more calories per gram than protein and carbohydrates.
Sugar: Sugars have a higher glycemic index and larger negative impact on ketosis than other carbohydrates.
Hidden Carbs: Hidden carbohydrates are based on the caloric values and glycemic indexes of ingredients sometimes classified as fibers or sugar alcohols.
Easy to Overeat: Some foods are easy to over-eat and require extra willpower to limit overeating which is an important factor to consider.
Nutritional Density: Foods that are relatively high in net carbs per 100 calories but are high in nutrition per calorie can still be worth eating like broccoli and cauliflower.
RULE of thumb for net carbs per 100 calorie ratio:
0-1 great, 1-2 ok, 2-3 caution, 3+ red alert
Quest Pizza Keto Friendly Grades:
Overall factors: 18g of soluble corn fiber per half pizza although I'm not going to count any as hidden carbs because there's too little information available. Easy to overeat, low nutritional density.
Uncured Pepperoni: C-
6g Net carb per 340 calorie 162g half pizza
1.8g Net carbs per 100 calories (Yellow)
3g Sugar
4-Cheese: C-
6g Net carb per 330 calorie 156g half pizza
1.8g Net carbs per 100 calories (Yellow)
3g Sugar
Supreme: C-
5g Net carb per 260 calorie 128g 1/3 pizza
1.9g Net carbs per 100 calories (Yellow)
2g Sugar
Quest Pizza Keto Friendly Conclusion:
Quest Pizza is actually pretty impressive remaining below 2 net carbs per 100 calories. As long as you treat them as an occasional treat and not an everyday meal you should be fine with them. You might want to keep the rest of your days food low in carbs and consider a side of heavily buttered low carb veggies to increase the meals fat and fiber content too.
In conclusion, Quest Pizzas are keto friendly in moderation, so if you're really craving a pizza and you can find them locally or want to order online, go for it! Just don't go too crazy and eat two in a sitting or eat them everyday.
Also check out our Keto Shop for more expert selected keto friendly products or my first YouTube video “5 Tips to Get Back Into Ketosis Fast” below!