Is Ponzu Sauce Keto? This is another one of those, ‘yes’ and ‘no’, answers. Technically, Ponzu is not keto friendly as it contains soybeans and wheat, however, if you are eating a dirty keto diet, you may be able to incorporate this into your macros. If you don’t want to miss out on your Ponzu, you can always make your own at home following our simple substitutions.
What Is Ponzu Sauce?
Ponzu sauce is a flavorful and citrusy sauce commonly found in Japanese cuisine.
Ponzu is often mixed with soy sauce to create a brown sauce served with many Japanese dishes. Ponzu on its own tends to be quite tart, and doesn’t have much color to it.
Ponzu sauce is usually made by mixing rice vinegar, mirin, bonito flakes, and seaweed. Most people enjoy it as a complement to sashimi. It is also readily available in bottled form at many grocery stores and Asian markets.
A Keto-Cap (aka A Keto Recap!)
If you’re new to keto and want a bit more information, check out our keto beginners guide.
As a quick summary, if you need it, the keto (also known as the ketogenic diet) is a low-carb, high-fat diet.
The whole concept of the keto diet is that your body transitions from burning glucose, in simple terms, sugars or carbohydrates, to burning fat as its primary fuel source.
For a keto diet, people will restrict their macros to eating;
- 70% of their calories from fat
- 25% from protein
- 5% from carbohydrates
Sticking to these macros for a period of time will put your body into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is when your body has transitioned from burning carbohydrates as its primary fuel source to burning fat for fuel. It is at this point that you will start to see and feel the benefits of the keto diet.
There are a lot of new terms and abbreviations that you may come across, sometimes it can feel like a new language that you need to learn. In order to help you out and keep you on the right track, we have created a keto terms and keto abbreviations guide, bookmark these to make your keto journey easier.
Some people can be put off the keto diet because of the side effects, however, these are only short-lived and the health benefits of keto far outweigh the side effects.
One of the main benefits which attract people to the keto diet is that it can cause significant reductions in insulin levels (by up to 75%) and blood sugar levels, which can be attractive to those that struggle with diabetes, amongst other health complaints.
What Is The Nutritional Value Of Ponzu Sauce?
Being that there are so many interpretations of ponzu sauce, nutritional value might vary between products or recipes. However, your typical nutritional contents of a one tablespoon serving of ponzu sauce are:
- Carbs: 2 grams
- Fiber: 0 grams
- Fat: 0 grams
- Sugar: 1.6 grams
- Calories: 11 calories
However, we now need to look at the ingredients in your standard shop bought Ponzu sauce. Most shop bought sauces will contain wheat and soybean, which are not keto friendly ingredients.
However, if you are going to make this at home following a recipe such as this one, you can substitute out the sugar for erythritol and make your own keto freindly version on ponzu sauce.
How Many Net Carbs Are There In Ponzu Sauce?
In a typical serving of shop bought ponzu sauce, you will be looking at between 1 and 2 net grams of net carbs per serving.
Is Ponzu Sauce Keto?
If you are eating dirty keto and you are not particularly bothered about the quality of ingredients you may want to incorporate small amounts of ponzu into your diet.
However, if you are living a clean keto diet, you will want to stay away from shop bought ponzu and, instead, make your own.
Eitherway, it’s a great condement to have with pork or seafood.
Is Ponzu Sauce Easy To Make At Home?
Ponzu sauce is fairly simple to make at home, even for those who aren’t professional chefs.
The only difficult part might be sourcing some of the ingredients used in traditional ponzu sauce.
However, if you have an Asian market nearby, it should be easy. If not, we have lined up some of the main ingredients below;
- Citrus Juice
- Zest from one lemon
What Does Ponzu Taste Like?
Ponzu has a very obvious citrus flavor, but it can also be a little bit sweet depending on what you add to it. The citrus fruit you choose to use in your ponzu sauce will also have an effect on its taste.
Ponzu is most traditionally made with yuzu fruit, but you can also use lemon, orange, or grapefruit if you prefer.
If you are trying to keep your ponzu keto friendly, you are better off staying with the lemon flavor as it is lower in carbs, and then you can add erythritol for sweetness if required.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Ponzu Sauce?
Unfortunately, ponzu sauce does not offer much in terms of any nutrients, vitamins, or minerals. The only thing it really contains is sodium, which is important to any diet in the right amount.
However, ponzu sauce is very low in calories, carbs, fat, and sugar, so it can be a healthy addition to your diet.
Staying hydrated on the keto diet is really important, for more on how much water you should be drinking, check out our guide to staying hydrated on the keto diet.
If you’re planning on dehydrating yourself(!) and drinking alcohol on the keto diet, check out our ultimate guide to drinking alcohol on a keto diet. Also, you may be interested in, how to recover from a cheat day.
Summary: Is Ponzu Sauce Keto?
In summary, if you are eating a strict keto diet, ponzu is probably not for you. If you are eating a dirty keto diet and you are not to bothered about the small amounts of soybean and wheat in ponzu you may be able to incorporate this into your keto diet. However, you can always make your own at home and you can soon make keto friendly ponzu.
