To stay in ketosis you have to pay attention to what you eat. Find out whether salsa dip is keto-friendly and what low-carb foods you can dip it with.
The first thing to note is that salsa dips can vary a lot in terms of ingredients and in turn, amounts of carbohydrates. Ideally, you want to figure out the carbs in the dip you are considering.
That being said, one example of salsa dip contains around 4.7 grams of net carbohydrates (total carbs minus fiber) per 100 grams.
While there are lower-carb foods too, you can still say that salsa dip is relatively keto-friendly.
At the same time, it is important to note that even small amounts of carbohydrates are sometimes enough to kick you out of ketosis. You may need to limit your portions of salsa dip anyway.
Additionally, many store-bought salsa dips contain ingredients like added sugar. These are typically a lot less keto-friendly.
Because of this, you want to check the nutrition label of the salsa dip you are considering or make your own keto-friendly salsa dip with the recipe below.
Keto-friendly salsa dip recipe
There are many different recipes for making salsa dips. The ratio of ingredients below is a keto-friendly example.
This salsa dip recipe is definitely not unique. You can likely find other keto-friendly ones too.
An example recipe for a keto-friendly salsa dip would be:
- 2 medium tomatoes (8.7 ounces/246 grams)
- 2 jalapeño peppers
- 2 tablespoons onion (0.7 ounces/20 grams)
- 2 tablespoons coriander
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 teaspoons raw lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt (1.5 grams)
This article will use the nutritional values of a slightly different recipe that has similar nutritional values to the ingredients above (1).
Carbs in salsa dip
To figure out whether salsa dip is keto-friendly in your situation and in what amounts, you need to know how many carbs it contains.
100 grams of the example salsa dip contain the following amounts of carbs (1):
- Total carbs: 6.3 grams
- Of which fiber: 1.6 grams
- Net carbs: 4.7 grams
Because 4.7 grams of net carbs is somewhat low, it is fair to say that salsa dip can be keto-friendly in reasonable amounts.
At the same time, you need to keep in mind that this amount can be enough to kick you out of ketosis in combination with many diets.
One ounce of the example salsa dip is about 28 grams and contains the following amounts of carbs:
- Total carbs: 1.8 grams
- Of which fiber: 0.4 grams
- Net carbs: 1.4 grams
As you can see, making your portions of salsa dip smaller will also help you consume fewer carbs. This would make it easier to fit this food into a ketogenic diet.
Other nutrition information salsa dip
Many people fall into the trap of only focusing on carbohydrates when following a ketogenic diet.
However, other nutrients like fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals can also influence whether you stay in ketosis and how good salsa dip is for goals like losing weight and getting healthier.
100 grams of the example salsa dip contain the following nutrients (1):
- Calories: 27
- Protein: 1.5 grams
- Carbs: 6.3 grams
- Part of the carbs that is fiber: 1.6 grams
- Fat: 0.2 grams
- Sodium: 25% of the DV (Daily Value)
- Vitamin B6: 9% of the DV
- Potassium: 8% of the DV
- Copper: 7% of the DV
- Vitamin A: 6% of the DV
And some other vitamins and minerals in smaller amounts.
The extra fiber, vitamins, and minerals in salsa dip are welcome but not that impressive either.
You can still add salsa dip to your ketogenic diet but you will also need other nutritious foods to hit your daily nutrient goals.
Why you can not always eat salsa on keto
Salsa dip can be relatively keto-friendly but at the same time, there are situations where it can kick you out of ketosis. To avoid this happening it can be helpful to recap the keto fundamentals.
Ketogenic diets are ways of eating where you get and stay in ketosis. This is a state where you mainly burn fat as fuel (2).
To get and stay in ketosis, you need to keep your carbohydrate intake low enough. Just how low depends on details like your weight, muscle mass, and workout habits.
This principle makes ketogenic diets somewhat more confusing but there are still general recommendations. These are not perfect but help you get an idea of how many grams of salsa dip and carbs you can eat.
A typical guideline to stay in ketosis is getting 55%-60% of your calories from fat, 30%-35% from protein, and 5%-10% from carbohydrates.
If you do the calculations, you will likely get that you can eat around 20 grams to 50 grams of carbs a day.
Something to note is that you typically don’t include the fiber in salsa dip and other foods in these amounts, even though it is a category of carbohydrates. Your body deals with fiber in different ways.
How to avoid eating too much salsa dip on keto
If you keep your portions of salsa dip small enough, you can stay in ketosis while eating this food.
Having a big bowl of salsa dip with your favorite dip foods near you will generally not be a successful strategy for keeping your portions under control.
Instead, you can try following some of these tips:
- Plan how many grams of salsa dip you will eat in advance
- Weigh out this amount of salsa dip and put the rest somewhere out of sight
- Don’t eat unlimited amounts of salsa dip while doing other things like watching a sports game
- If you really crave salsa dip too much you may need to buy small portions or none at all
Keep in mind that your initial estimations about how many grams of carbs your body can deal with can be suboptimal.
If you notice you get out of ketosis, you may need to eat smaller amounts of salsa dip.
What to eat with salsa on keto
Most people don’t eat salsa dip by the tablespoon. You typically use salsa as a dip or spread for other foods.
The challenge is that more traditional dip foods tend to be too high in carbohydrates for ketogenic diets.
Luckily, you can also consider eating some of these more keto-friendly foods with salsa:
- Pork rinds
- Cheese crips
- Low-carb crackers or chips
- Celery sticks
- Cucumbers
- Mini peppers
Many of these keto-friendly dip foods do still contain small amounts of carbohydrates. You may still need to implement some portion control to stay in ketosis.
Why do you follow a keto diet?
By now you likely understand that even small amounts of relatively keto-friendly foods like salsa dip can sometimes increase your carbohydrate intake too much.
Whether this is an issue and to what extent depends on why you want to stay in ketosis.
For example, you may need/want to stay in ketosis 24/7. In a situation like that, you want to be very careful about your salsa dip portions.
On the other hand, salsa dip can still be good for weight loss and health even if its small number of net carbs kicks you out of ketosis.
Ketogenic diets have their benefits but they are generally not the only way to achieve these health goals.
- Total carbs: 6.3 grams
- Of which fiber: 1.6 grams
- Net carbs: 4.7 grams
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FAQ
Are there carbs in salsa?
Yes, there are typically carbs in salsa. Exactly how many can vary from recipe to recipe but in one example, 100 grams of salsa contains around 6.3 grams of carbs (including 1.6 grams of fiber).
Is salsa high-carb?
100 grams of one example of salsa contains around 6.3 grams of carbohydrates (including 1.6 grams of fiber). This means salsa is typically not considered to be high-carb.
