#120 What Breaks a Fast While Intermittent Fasting

Siim Land (0:00)

One of the most common questions people who do interpretive fasting is, what breaks a fast? That's a very nuanced question, and it depends upon the situation. In this episode of the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast, I'm going to play you Chapter 20 of my book Metabolic Autophagy, the Audiobook version.

And if you want to get access to the rest of the Audiobook, then head over to the show notes, and you'll find the link over there.

SPEAKER_2 (0:29)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (0:33)

Body Mind Empowerment.

SPEAKER_2 (0:35)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (0:40)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_2 (0:42)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (0:46)

What Breaks a Fast?

Every fool can fast, but only the wise man knows how to break a fast. George Bernard Shaw.

You can find many questions on Google about what breaks a fast while intermittent fasting. Can I drink coffee while fasting? Will lemon water kick me out of a fasted state? Do 100 calories break a fast? What about eating Snickers bars and cursing? Those are all great questions and you may get many different answers from different people. There are several ways people do intermittent fasting and for many reasons. What counts as breaking a fast depends on why you are fasting for and what you are expecting to gain from it. In this chapter, I am going to go through all the scenarios and questions in regards to does this break a fast?

The biggest beneficial effects of fasting come from three things, autophagy, ketosis and hormesis. IF promotes all of them to a certain degree depending on how long you have been put in a fasted state. The key trigger is energy deficit and glycogen depletion. Eating just 50 calories or even as little as 2-3 grams of leucine can already ease mTOR and put you into an anabolic state.

Fat doesn't raise insulin significantly and it keeps mTOR suppressed in small amounts. Endogenous ketone bodies from your own body fat will stimulate autophagy which can promote brain macroautophagy as well. However, high amounts of ketones and fatty acids in the blood can still make you raise insulin. If there's too much energy circulating the body, then that's a signal to stop autophagy and trigger mTOR. Exogenous ketones can also be insulinogenic. In a study done on rats, they found that exogenous ketones promote insulin secretion when blood glucose was greater than 5 millimoles or 90 milligrams per deciliter. If you're a healthy person who is very lean and low on body fat, then your blood glucose will probably drop below that. If you already have excess energy stored in your body fat, then it's a signal that there's plenty of energy already around and any form of calories, whether that be from bulletproof coffee or exogenous ketones, will most likely inhibit autophagy.

It means that you shouldn't have small snacks like an almond. Well, okay, probably a single almond won't break autophagy, but you'd still be better off by skipping it all together.

There are some ways to trigger autophagy that you can consume while fasting. Green tea has polyphenols and other ingredients like EGCG that stimulate autophagy. Black tea, herbal teas and others like chamomile are also okay. Coconut oil or MCT oil can also stimulate autophagy in very small amounts by raising ketones. However, as we found out, too much fat and too much energy in the system will raise insulin. Any more than one teaspoon will probably have a counterbalancing effect.

Reishi mushroom extracts are shown to increase autophagy and inhibit breast cancer growth as do others like chaga and cordyceps. You can take maybe one teaspoon of reishi or chaga but not anymore.

Coffee stimulates lipid metabolism through the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in mice. However, excess caffeine consumption may lead to higher blood glucose and insulin levels because of overstimulating cortisol. That's why drinking too much coffee may actually interfere with the fast. You shouldn't drink any more than two to four cups a day.

Apple cider vinegar has trace amounts of micronutrients and bacterial residue, but it most likely isn't enough to kick you out of a fasted state. It may actually boost autophagy by promoting the cleaning process. You can use the distilled apple cider vinegar during the fasting window and opt for the one with the mother when you're eating. To be safe, you could just drink water and salt. However, things like green tea and black coffee are great for enhancing the effectiveness of fasting by promoting autophagy. That's why it's okay to be consuming them in moderation.

There's a lot of conflicting research around artificial sweeteners. Some are shown to be horrible for your health, while others can cause an insulin response. Can you add some artificial sweeteners to your drinks while fasting?