Does Green Tea Break a Fast?
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The intermittent fasting lifestyle can sometimes be daunting to dive into. Knowing what you can or can’t consume during your fasting window takes a lot of trial and error.
But what about green tea?
Many people wonder whether or not drinking green tea is considered breaking a fast.
We’ll take a deep dive into intermittent fasting, the health benefits of green tea, and the burning question: does green tea break a fast?
What Is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting (IF) is a health and diet trend that is quickly gaining popularity. It’s a great way to minimize your lifestyle, get your health on track, and even lose weight.
IF isn’t just a diet – you don’t change what you eat; you change the way you eat.
IF uses an eating pattern with an “eating window” and a “fasting period.” The most common pattern is the 16/8 method, where people often skip breakfast and eat for an 8-hour window between 1 PM to 9 PM. Then, they fast for the remaining 16 hours.
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There are other eating schedules for IF, but 16/8 is the most common method.
Get Started With Intermittent Fasting
If you’re looking to get started with your weight loss journey and IF but don’t know where to begin, you might want to look at an app specifically designed to help people keep on track with their fasting.
DoFasting is an IF app that allows beginners and veterans to turn their smartphones into a personalized fasting app. Because IF is not fit for a “one size fits all” option, DoFasting allows users to curate their fasting window and eating windows to their lifestyles.
Your Personal Intermittent Fasting App
- Progress tracker and calendar
- Calorie tracker
- More than 5,000 healthy recipes
- Training routines
- Daily motivation and tips
- Water intake targeting
- Daily caloric intake tracker
Intermittent fasting & green tea: Can you drink it?
The short answer: Yes! You absolutely can drink green tea while fasting. Green tea does not break a fast as it is a zero-calorie drink.
Having a cup of green tea might actually help you if you’re just getting started with intermittent fasting, as green tea can actually help curb your appetite and fill your empty stomach during your fasting window.
How Much Caffeine Is in Green Tea?
Caffeine is naturally occurring in green tea. Because of this, the amount of caffeine in each cup of green tea can vary. It all depends on the plant, how it was grown, and how the tea is brewed.
But, in general, the average amount of caffeine in an 8oz cup of green tea is usually around 35mg. It’s healthy for most people to have less than 400mg of caffeine every day, so a cup of green tea has far less caffeine than your 8oz cup of black coffee.
3 Health Benefits of Green Tea
Green tea isn’t just good for keeping you feeling full during your fasting window. Green tea has a variety of benefits for your health. Let’s take a look at all of the healthy ways a cup of green tea a day can benefit you.
#1 Encourages fat burning
Having a cup of green tea every day can help increase your metabolic process and encourage your body to burn more fat. Plenty of diet supplements boost the ability to burn fat, and green tea is usually on the ingredient list. Why not go straight to the source?
#2 Improves blood flow
Several studies have shown that a cup of green tea a day can help people improve their blood flow, which can help with many heart-related issues. Green tea has been shown to help prevent high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and lower cholesterol.
#3 Reduces stress
There’s a natural chemical in green tea known as theanine, and it can help reduce stress and encourage our brains to calm down. Stress can cause some health issues, and taking the time to relax by brewing tea is one of the best ways to combat stress.
What Other Tea Can I Drink While Fasting?
Green tea isn’t the only type of tea you can drink while fasting. There are a variety of other herbal teas that allow you to curb your hunger pangs without actually breaking fast.
As long as you don’t add sugar and milk, most teas are great for an IF diet.
Here are the other teas that are generally accepted and won’t break your fast:
Black tea
Black tea lowers your cholesterol, boosts your antioxidants, and has been shown to improve gut health. If you’re looking for a good tea to have while you’re fasting, black tea is on the list.
Ginger tea: Does Ginger Break Intermittent Fasting?
No, it doesn’t! This herbal tea is another delicious tea that won’t break your fast. This tea has many health benefits, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, anti-nausea properties, improved heart health, and lowered blood sugar.
A Word From our RD
Tea is a great way to get various benefits for your health while still sticking to the strict intermittent fasting plan that you’ve picked out for yourself. And thankfully, the experts all agree: drinking tea won’t break a fast.
Whether you’re into fasting for weight loss or another health reason, taking a tea break with some green tea or any other calorie-free teas will keep you right on track. And because of the low caffeine, you’re not drinking too much caffeine and causing adverse effects.
When you drink tea, you not only give your immune system a boost, but you help your body lower blood pressure, encourage skin health, lower cholesterol, promote a healthy heart, and even help your body burn fat and encourage weight loss. It’s a great jumpstart to a healthy lifestyle.
Conclusion
So, does green tea break a fast? Nope! You’re welcome to enjoy all the green tea you want, as long as you make sure that you do not consume more caffeine than is recommended for the day.
Intermittent fasting is a jumpstart to a healthy diet, and green tea is a great way to support that effort.
Even without fasting, green tea is good for your health. If you’re still trying to get your fasting right, you could still get many benefits from adding a cup of green tea to your diet.
Herbal teas, black tea, and ginger tea are excellent beverages to aid one’s health.
Edibel Quintero is a medical doctor who graduated in 2013 from the University of Zulia and has been working in her profession since then. She specializes in obesity and nutrition, physical rehabilitation, sports massage and post-operative rehabilitation. Edibel's goal is to help people live healthier lives by educating them about food, exercise, mental wellness and other lifestyle choices that can improve their quality of life.
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