Spinach is one of the lowest-carb vegetables you can eat. A full cup of raw spinach contains just 1 gram of carbohydrates, making it an excellent choice for low-carb, keto, and blood sugar-conscious diets. Even in larger quantities, spinach barely registers on the carb scale.
Carbs in Raw vs. Cooked Spinach
Raw spinach is almost carb-free in practical terms. One cup (about 30 grams) has roughly 1 gram of total carbohydrates. You could eat several handfuls in a salad and still stay well under 5 grams.
Cooked spinach tells a slightly different story, but only because of volume. Spinach shrinks dramatically when heated, so a cup of cooked, boiled spinach represents a much larger amount of leaves. That cup of cooked spinach contains about 6.75 grams of total carbohydrates, but it also packs 4.32 grams of fiber. Subtract the fiber (which your body doesn’t absorb as sugar) and you’re left with roughly 2.4 grams of net carbs per cup of cooked spinach. That’s still remarkably low for a full cup of a cooked vegetable.
How Spinach Fits a Keto or Low-Carb Diet
Most ketogenic diets cap daily carbs at 20 to 50 grams. With raw spinach at 1 gram per cup, you could eat an entire large salad bowl and use only a fraction of that daily budget. Per 100 grams, baby spinach has about 2.4 grams of carbs and mature spinach about 2.6 grams, both with 1.6 grams of fiber. Medical News Today lists spinach alongside celery, tomatoes, and mushrooms as a top keto-friendly vegetable.
For anyone tracking net carbs specifically, spinach’s fiber content works in your favor. About three-quarters of the fiber in spinach is insoluble (2.1 grams per 100 grams), with a smaller soluble portion (0.7 grams per 100 grams). Neither type contributes to blood sugar spikes, which is why net carbs stay so low.
Spinach vs. Other Leafy Greens
Spinach is low in carbs, but it’s not the absolute lowest among leafy greens. Here’s how common options compare per 50-gram portion:
- Arugula: 2 grams of carbs
- Iceberg lettuce: 2 grams of carbs
- Spinach: 4 grams of carbs
- Kale: 5 grams of carbs
Arugula and iceberg lettuce edge out spinach on carb count alone, but the differences are small enough to be irrelevant for most people. Even kale, the highest on this list, has only 4 grams of net carbs per half cup cooked. All leafy greens are solidly in low-carb territory, so picking between them based on carbs alone isn’t necessary. Choose whichever you enjoy eating.
Blood Sugar and Glycemic Impact
Spinach is classified as a low glycemic index food, meaning it scores 55 or below on the GI scale. In practice, the glycemic impact of spinach is nearly negligible. The combination of very few digestible carbs and a high proportion of fiber means spinach causes virtually no blood sugar spike. For people managing diabetes or insulin resistance, spinach is one of the safest vegetable choices available.
What You Get Beyond Low Carbs
Part of what makes spinach stand out isn’t just its low carb count but what it delivers for those few calories. A single cup of raw spinach provides 145 micrograms of vitamin K, which is well above the daily recommended intake for most adults. That same cup also supplies over 2,800 IU of vitamin A and 58 micrograms of folate, a B vitamin important for cell function and especially critical during pregnancy.
All of that comes in a package with about 7 calories per cup. Few foods match spinach’s ratio of nutrients to carbohydrates. You’re getting a dense concentration of vitamins and minerals with almost no metabolic cost, which is why spinach appears on nearly every “best vegetables” list regardless of the dietary approach.