Is NumNum Sauce Keto?

The Ingredient Breakdown

As a food scientist, I always look at the ingredient deck to understand the chemistry of a sauce. NumNum Sauce is essentially a tomato-based condiment with a unique savory depth, but it relies on sweeteners that make it incompatible with keto.

The primary issue lies in the sweeteners: cane sugar and honey. Both are pure forms of carbohydrates that are rapidly absorbed. Honey, in particular, is often marketed as a 'natural' sweetener, but metabolically, it acts almost exactly like table sugar (sucrose) regarding its glycemic impact. On a keto diet, even a tablespoon of these ingredients can consume a significant portion of your daily carb allowance (typically 20-50g).

Additionally, the sauce contains tomatoes. While tomatoes are a healthy whole food, they naturally contain sugars (fructose). In a sauce reduction like this, the natural sugars concentrate, adding to the total carbohydrate load. While not as high in carbs as the added sweeteners, they contribute to the total count that makes this product unsuitable for ketosis.

Nutritional Value

While specific nutritional labels for NumNum Sauce can vary slightly by region, the presence of cane sugar and honey high on the ingredient list indicates a high sugar content per serving. For a ketogenic diet, the goal is to keep net carbohydrates low enough to maintain a state of ketosis (where the body burns fat for fuel instead of glucose).

Even if the fat and calorie count are relatively low, the carbohydrate density is the deciding factor. A standard serving of a sauce containing these sweeteners likely contains 3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates or more. While 5 grams might not sound like much, it represents 10% to 25% of a strict keto dieter's daily limit. There are zero fats in this sauce, which means it offers no 'keto bonus' to offset the carb load. It simply adds empty carbs to your meal.