Sounds like a dumb question, but “What can I eat when fasting?” gets asked a lot.
People still haven’t wrapped their heads around the idea that choosing NOT to eat for a period of time, aka fasting, is good for us. Better still, it can elongate our lives and can take our health to the next level.
So you will get some looks of “you’re crazy” when you tell someone you haven’t eaten for a couple of days. Some people believe it will actually make you sick if you don’t eat or that you must have an eating disorder.
And so they will often ask “what can you eat when you’re fasting?”
And the answer is this:
You cannot eat food when fasting. This is the whole definition of fasting. Consuming anything of a caloric load breaks a fast as it causes insulin to rise.
But you can consume some liquids, so lets discuss this now.
Here is a list of liquids that can be consumed while fasting:
- Water: still, sparkling and soda (with natural flavouring is ok).
- Coffee*: black, no milk/cream and no sweetener.
- Tea*: black, no milks/creams and no sweetener.
- Herbal teas: black, no milks/creams and no sweetener.
To your fasting-fueled health,
Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner
*Caffeine is a tricky one for some and I prefer to fast without coffee as it can cause stress to the body (increased cortisol). Also, it can raise blood glucose levels in some people. So if you choose to have coffee during your fast, keep it to 1 for women and 2 for men.
