What breaks a fast? There's been so much conflicting information out there
so people are confused and asking what do I do
so today we're gonna talk about what breaks a fast coming right up
the quick answer to that question what breaks a fast is really really simple
okay fasting is when you don't eat so if you put something in your mouth and
swallow you're breaking the fast that's the simplest strictest explanation so
what we really want to ask ourselves is why are we fasting and for most people
who watch this or doing intermittent fasting or concerned with what breaks a
fast I think what they're really asking what can I eat what can I drink and not
compromise the benefits of the intermittent fast okay so we could do a
spiritual or religious fast and some of those they say don't eat or
drink anything and then that's kind of their letter of the law they just
dictated that's the way it is don't eat or drink anything so some spiritual
religious fasts might allow nothing or they might allow water
some people might fast for gut health if you have a leaky gut if you have a
really upset stomach that just reacts and blows up and explodes no matter what
you put in there fasting is a great way to allow you gut some time to heal and
then you're not really concerned with anything other than giving the gut some
nutrients that help heal it and don't put anything in that irritates it so
bone broth would be excellent water would be totally okay herbal teas and so
forth totally all right so we're gonna leave those behind and we're gonna talk
about what I believe most people ask that question for because they're doing
intermittent fasting most of those people are trying to lose
weight and or reverse diabetes and insulin resistance so we're going to
assume that that's the goal to reverse reduce insulin resistance so I'm going
to put these in four different categories and we'll talk about this so
if you're trying to reduce reverse insulin resistance then everything is
okay you're still technically fasting for
insulin resistance purposes if you don't put anything in that triggers insulin if
there is no insulin response if there are no nutrients in there things like
coffee and tea then they're totally fine black coffee black tea green tea herbal
teas that aren't sweet they're totally fine they're not going to have any
influence on your insulin so from an insulin resistance perspective you're
still fasting because you're not changing that trend things that are not
okay things that will affect insulin and break your fast are things like sugar
juice honey and agave okay no matter what the amount they're really gonna
mess you up and even though honey and agave don't
have much of an insulin response they're very very low bligh semuc index because
they're mostly fructose fructose is the main reason that people are insulin
resistant in the first place because fructose can only be metabolized through
the liver so the fructose kind of Jam packs that liver full of sugar and it
develops fatty liver and insulin resistance that the honey and agave is
full of fructose which as at the core of the mechanism that develops insulin
resist all kinds of sugars and juices fruits stay away from them so then I
want to introduce something that a lot of people would say is breaking the fast
but if we stick to the letter of the law yes they break the fast because they
might have a little bit in response however I call them one
percenters because they have such a slight insulin response that it is
insignificant for the purposes of reversing insulin resistance so when you
don't eat your insulin is going to go down the longer you don't eat the more
your insulin is going to go down so if it helps you not eat for a very long
time if it helps having a few things to sort of get you through the day then
that is still going to assist you it's still going to help you with that
intermittent fast and whenever you have something that has what I call the 1%
response your insulin is going to drop and then you have that 1% response so
you get a little blip but they're so little
there's so little substance there's such a small response that your insulin just
keeps on dropping so for the purposes of reversing insulin resistance it still
keeps going so these things are not really going to hurt you in small
amounts ok so good fats those are things like MCT oil coconut oil and butter ok
they do have some calories technically there'll be a tiny little insulin
response but not so much that it really matters what's more important is that
you can sustain that fast if that helps you
herb teas are fine as long as they're not sweet if they're made with fruit and
they taste a lot of sweet they probably have a little bit of sugar in them and
then they would be in the no category lemon water now lemon does have a tiny
tiny little bit of sugar but it's so miniscule that if you put a teaspoon of
lemon in some hot water you're gonna be fine
it's going to be a tiny tiny little blip apple cider vinegar totally fine and
cream in small amounts I would also say is fine so a teaspoon a tablespoon and
some coffee or tea is going to create a tiny little blip and then you'll get
right back into getting more insulin sensitive again now that doesn't mean
you can drink a bottle of whipping cream because that's a meal okay then that
totally breaks the fast but so all of these are quantity dependent all right
just like insulin responses are quantity dependent these things also a quantity
dependence the only other thing to keep in mind is that if you're doing it for
weight loss and you are fasting to burn off fat then obviously you don't want to
eat so much fat that the body doesn't need to burn the fat off the body if you
supply enough fat in the diet it's going to burn that first and it'll never get
around to burning the fat on the body so again that's a quantity issue then I'm
going to quickly address something that most people on keto don't talk about and
that's poison because there are certain things that may help you stay in ketosis
or in fasting but if they're poison you're not getting healthier and what's
the point of losing weight if you're going to get sick
okay that's not why people do this they try to lose the weight because they want
to get healthy and we want to get healthy first so that we can lose the
weight so things like aspartame sucralose margarine and bad fats they
are poison they interfere with the balance and health and function of your
body so just stay away from them they're man-made they're chemicals they're made
in a laboratory or a factory chemical factory so don't ever touch those don't
doesn't matter if it helps you stay in ketosis or not there are good fats and
there are healthy non calorie sweeteners so so stick with those on that note
though I want to mention something else and that is when you eat something or
even when you don't eat something and you have an insulin response so how does
that happen well sweet taste so it's not just what
you ate what you put into your mouth and swallow it's what your brain perceives
there's a cephalic effect so anytime you eat something you taste something your
brain starts sending signals to your pancreas to make insulin long before
that food ever hits the stomach just having it in your mouth so you haven't
ingested any nutrients and yet your pancreas is producing insulin why is
that because the body is so smart it anticipates so they have found that
things that take that have a sweet taste even though they have no nutrients no
calories no technically no blood sugar impact stevia erythritol
any sugar alcohols I little maltitol etc and some of the sweet herb teas if you
perceive a sweet taste chances are you're making insulin in the pancreas
okay so it's very hard to quantify this because it's a subtle effect but I would
encourage people as much as possible if you do in keto if you're doing
intermittent fasting try to get away from the sweet taste because the sweets
is sort of what got you in trouble in the first place and if your body is
wired to make insulin based on that that can get you in trouble so everyone is
different and because this is sort of a non-material effect then it just depends
on how you're wired so the depend the responses could vary widely and I also
said that you might actually have an insulin response from not eating
something well how would that work well stress actually produces cortisol
whenever you're stressed your body senses that hey there's danger here I
need to mobilize resources so that I can deal with this danger
and now your core your adrenals release cortisol and the cortisol raises blood
sugar and when blood sugar goes up so does insulin so cortisol can actually
drive insulin resistance and has been proven to drive insulin resistance so
merely the fact of being stressed could actually break a fast so to speak so
keep all these things in mind sometimes it's not just about following the letter
the the the tighter you follow the letter isn't necessarily the best thing
if something helps you stay in fasting state or almost fasting state longer
such as here then then it's a good thing and you can consume a few hundred
calories in a day of non insulin triggering fats and and still get the
benefits so don't look too closely on on the technicality of it ask yourself why
you're doing it and learn what how insulin responses affect you so the
things that are off is anything that has significant calories any sugar any carbs
any protein because they definitely will trigger a significant insulin response
but the one-percenters and the coffee and the tea are in my opinion gonna be
safe bets just don't overdo these keep them in moderation and you'll be alright
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