Is Tapioca Flour Keto or Full of Empty Calories?

Many keto dieters are already well aware that you have to get used to cooking/baking with some pretty interesting alternative flour choices in order to keep your meals and baked goods low carb and keto-friendly. Today, we’re going to be taking a close look at one such alternative flour: tapioca flour, also commonly known as tapioca starch. Is tapioca flour keto? Let’s find out.

What Makes Tapioca Flour Such a Popular Choice for Low Carb Diets?

The first thing that we’ll be taking a look at today is just what it is that makes tapioca flour such a popular pick with low carb dieters in the first place. In no particular order, here are three of the main reasons why it’s so popular:

• Tapioca flour is a low calorie starch flour (only 93 calories per ¼ cup serving size) that is extracted from the cassava root, a tuber plant native to South America.
• Tapioca flour is both a gluten-free and grain-free flour option.
• Since its a starchy flour, tapioca flour can be either used as a direct flour substitute when baking or as a thickening additive.

Is Tapioca Flour Keto?

Unfortunately, tapioca flour isn’t really an ideal flour choice for keto dieters.

While it’s true that it’s low in calories, grain-free, and gluten-free, tapioca flour is basically full of empty calories.

There is no protein or dietary fat content to speak of, and the carb content is rather high at nearly 25 grams of carbs per ¼ cup serving size. That’s literally the exact opposite of what keto dieters are looking for when it comes to dietary macros.

At the end of the day, there are simply far better low carb flour options available to keto dieters. Options like almond flour, coconut flour, and even something like pumpkin seed flour are all incredibly nutrient-dense, offering plenty of protein, fiber, and heart healthy dietary fats.

If you’re looking for a high quality keto flour, then we recommend avoiding tapioca flour and sticking with one of the aforementioned options.

Tapioca Flour Nutrition Facts

Here is the approximate nutritional breakdown for a ¼ cup serving size of tapioca flour:

• 93 calories
• 0 grams dietary fat
• 0 grams protein
• 23.5 grams carbs
• 0 grams dietary fiber
• 0 grams sugar
• 0 mg cholesterol
• 0 mg sodium
• 6 mg potassium

Keto Tapioca Flour Substitutes

Since tapioca flour is unfortunately not really a keto viable flour, here are our top picks for keto approved flour alternatives:

• Almond flour
• Coconut flour
• Flax meal
• Sunflower seed flour
• Pumpkin seed flour

(Learn more: Is Cassava Flour Keto?)