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Intermittent fasting is quickly becoming one of the most useful and effective diet strategies around. A lot of research still needs to be done and there is a lot of misinformation out there surrounding it in general. Particularly when it comes to what you can drink when fasting.
Obviously, water is the number one choice for most people who practice intermittent fasting but sometimes you want a little more. Something with a little bit of flavor that can help drive off those unwanted hunger pangs that crop up from time to time.
One of the best and healthiest drinks on earth is Green Tea. But Can You drink green tea while intermittent fasting? Green tea will not break your fast. So you can absolutely drink green tea while in your fasting window. Additionally, there are many factors that make green tea one of the most ideal drinks to have while you fast.
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Green Tea Is Calorie Free(Nearly)
This is one of the main reasons green tea works so well when you are fasting. It contains nearly no calories. I say nearly because technically there are trace amounts of calories in a cup of green tea but not enough to pull you out of your fast.
Having no calories is essential for anything you drink while fasting. This is the essence of a true fast. You simply cannot take in any measurable amount of calories if you want your body to stay in a fasted state. Trace amounts might be fine, more study is needed but calories must be kept as close to 0 as possible for your fast to work.
If we look a little deeper into green tea’s lack of calories we, of course, find that there are no carbohydrates in green tea. This matters for a couple of reasons and not necessarily for your fasting window. During the fasting window you have no calories, so of course no carbs.
However, during your feeding window, you can also use green tea to limit the number of carbs coming from your drinks. This is a huge benefit as limiting your carb intake can help you transition from a fed state to a fasting state and get to those intermittent fasting benefits much quicker.
The caveat of all this goodness is that you cannot add any calories to the tea either. One of the fastest and worst ways to ruin green tea during a fast is to put even a tiny amount of sugar into it. You simply cannot add sugar or honey or any sweetener to your green tea.
Even artificial sweeteners are a bad idea since your body might think they are sugar and raise your insulin and take you out of the fast. Other things you want to avoid adding to your green tea are any type of fruit or juice, cream and milk are also big no-nos during a fast.
It might not seem like much. But adding just 20 or 30 calories of milk or cream to your green tea will end your fast. It really is that simple. Green Tea is great. Green Tea with any calories added is going to cause problems for your fast.
Green Tea Can Help Reduce Hunger
Green tea can actually help reduce your feelings of hunger. That would seem like a pretty great thing to have handy when you are going long periods of time without eating anything. There are 2 major reasons that green tea is believed to suppress hunger.
Caffeine and Catechins. Caffeine has long been studied for a variety of reasons. Some good, some bad. It is a drug that helps your body suppress hunger and help you control your appetite more effectively. This is ideal when fasting and a huge bonus for green tea.
Similarly, Catechins seem to boost metabolism and help reduce fat in your body according to studies. The reduction of fat is one of the biggest reasons to use intermittent fasting as a dietary strategy.
The ability of green tea to reduce fat in your body makes it such an ideal and wonderful drink to have at any time but makes it particularly great to drink during your fasting window. Many other studies have helped to confirm this link between catechins and reducing fat.
Feel the Burn
Green tea could help you burn more calories. Sounds crazy but that might just be the case. That makes drinking green tea even more effective for fasting since you want to get into your fasted state a quickly as possible after you finish eating.
Burning more calories is incredibly from simply drinking green tea. With your body not taking any calories during the fast, this amplifies the effectiveness of the fast.
The Antioxidants
Antioxidants are green tea’s secret weapon that makes it the great fasting drink that it is. Along with the aforementioned Catechins, it also contains a large number of Polyphenols. These are antioxidants that protect your body from free radical damage and help with the aging process. They may also help with overall heart health. It also makes green tea one of the best liquids to detox with.
Green Tea And Intermittent Fasting
There might not be a more perfect match for any food and diet. Not only can you drink green tea during intermittent fasting but it might be the ideal drink to have while you are in a fasted state. There are, of course, other contenders that need to be considered. Other teas and coffee, in particular, could be great alternatives.
But can they really push past this remarkable wonder food and replace it as the go-to drink for a fast. It is tough to say, but for now, there are few things more satisfying than a cup of green tea. Secure in the knowledge that it will not only taste great but work in harmony with your fast to produce some of the best results possible.
The health benefits and overall greatness of tea get reinforced day by day. And not just for green tea. But for all teas and many herbal infusions as well. They are incredibly versatile.
Low-Carb Diets? Green Tea is great.
Fasting? Green Tea Is Great.
Keto? Green Tea is Great.
Low-fat diets? Green Tea is Great.
There seems to be a pattern forming here. Green tea is great for just about any diet, in any situation. So fast away and drink up this miraculous thing we call green tea with the confidence that it will have lasting benefits for you when you drink green tea while intermittent fasting.
Thank you for visiting and as always have a wonderful day.