Is sake keto? Let’s find out! Despite being made out of rice, yeast, and water, a lot of the carbs are burned off during the fermentation process, making the finished product low in carbs. This means that you can enjoy sake on keto without burning through your carb allowance.
What Is Sake?
Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage, often referred to as rice wine.
The process of creating sake is quite intricate, and common ingredients include rice, yeast, and water. The mixture is fermented and the yeast helps convert the contents of the rice into alcohol.
Sake has been a part of Japanese culture for centuries and is typically enjoyed with others for celebrations, special occasions, and commemorative events.
You can drink sake hot or cold, and find sake that is low quality and inexpensive, or luxurious and expensive.
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 Sake?
In one ounce of sake, you will find:
- Calories: 39 calories
- Carbohydrates: 1.5 grams
- Fiber: 0 grams
- Fat: 0 grams
- Protein: 0.1 grams
A typical serving within a traditional sake cup will be between one and three ounces. The nutritional values within your serving of sake might vary slightly depending on the variety of sake you consume.
How Many Net Carbs Are There In Sake?
When looking at a serving of sake from a sake cup, there will be about 1.5 to 4.5 grams of net carbs per serving.
Is Sake Keto Friendly?
At first glance, sake seems like it must contain a lot of carbs. However, due to sake’s unique fermentation process, many of the carbs within the specific ingredients are broken down and reduced.
Therefore, sake can be included in a keto friendly diet.
Are There Different Varieties Of Sake That Are Not Keto Friendly?
Sake is not meant to be consumed in large quantities, as you might do with beer or wine. It is a sipping alcohol that is to be enjoyed in a traditional sake cup.
Therefore, you can curb the number of carbs you consume when you drink sake responsibly. With there being different types of sake, the carbs can add up fast. Consider looking for sake with lower alcohol content, such as ginjo-shu or honjozo-shu sake.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Sake?
When you compare sake to other types of alcohol, it is one of the best choices in terms of limiting any adverse health effects. This is due to its lower alcohol content and its simple ingredients. However, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
You can find varieties of sake that do not contain any alcohol. If you enjoy the taste of sake but don’t want to drink a lot of alcohol, you might enjoy this as an option from time to time.
Sake also contains amino acids, which are proven to have incredible health benefits.
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 Sake Keto?
In short, yes, sake can be enjoyed on a keto diet. Although it is made with carb-heavy ingredients, the fermentation process processes these off making sake fine to consume on a keto diet. Just enjoy responsibly.
