Tapatio Hot Sauce is one of the most popular hot sauce varieties in use today, but is Tapatio keto? For all you spice lovers out there, we’ve got good news – Tapatio sauce is VERY keto-friendly. Unlike many other sauces, you can use Tapatio while adhering to a keto diet without paying much attention to the serving amounts. Here’s why.
What is Tapatio?
Tapatio, while often associated with Mexican food due to its name, is a type of American hot sauce (it was conceived and is produced in California).
The founders, however, originally hail from Guadalajara, so if you wish to preserve authentic Mexican flavors in the food you’re cooking – Tapatio is still a solid choice.
The big distinct characteristic of Tapatio sauce is its bold peppery taste. The recipe doesn’t contain any vinegar, unlike many other hot sauces, which makes the red pepper taste more distinct.
Aside from red peppers, the sauce contains garlic, salt, and a variety of spices to highlight the taste, along with acetic acid, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate for preservative purposes.
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 Tapatio Sauce?
Here’s the nutritional value of Tapatio sauce per serving, which is defined by the producing company to be 1 tsp (5g):
- Carbs: 0 grams
- Protein: 0 grams
- Fat: 0 grams
- Fiber: 0 grams
- Sugar: 0 grams
- Calories: 0
*What’s frustrating about these macros is that 0 value makes it impossible to calculate how the macros increase if we increase the serving size.
We do know that red hot peppers themselves contain around 3g of net carbs per 100g, so we can assume the macros wouldn’t be exactly 0. However, changes being substantial are highly unlikely.
How Many Net Carbs are there in Tapatio Sauce?
Luckily, Tapatio sauce is one of those products that don’t require you to do any math before including it into your daily macros calculation.
Tapatio sauce – per a couple of servings at least – doesn’t contain any carbs, fiber, or sugar. So no need to calculate net carbs either. There are none.
Is Tapatio Keto Friendly?
All of the above mentioned makes Tapatio sauce one of the most keto-friendly mass-produced sauces out there.
Not only does it have zero net carbs, but all of the ingredients are also keto friendly.
You can include it in your diet to your heart’s desire.
Are There Any Tapatio Sauce Varieties That Aren’t Keto?
Nope. Mainly due to the fact that there are no varieties of Tapatio sauce.
While you may encounter different packaging for Tapatio sauce – like the 50th-anniversary black label and Dia de Los Muertos purple label – it’s still all the same sauce, with the recipe staying unchanged.
As with any other mass-produced product you should always veer on the safe side and check the label of the product you’re purchasing. But Tapatio becoming an unsafe option on keto isn’t a very likely scenario in the near future.
Tapatio Sauce Hot
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 Tapatio Keto?
So, in summary, is Tapatio keto? Yes, it is! Not only does it contain no net carbs per serving, but it is also full of keto friendly ingredients, meaning that you can enjoy this hot sauce on the keto diet.
