Fasting is a fantastic way to meet your health goals! Fortunately for all of us coffee lovers, incorporating coffee enhances fasting benefits.
When we look at the broad picture of coffee and intermittent fasting, coffee is a valuable tool to help you reach your fasting goals.
Fasting has been shown to improve brain function, reduce inflammation, lower blood sugar and reduce the risk of heart disease. Now that I have hopefully convinced you to fast...find out how coffee plays a role:
Coffee and Fasting:
- Coffee allows you to extend a fast thereby prolonging benefits, especially those of detoxification. To learn more about how coffee can help us detox see: "Coffee Takes on Another Role in the Body: Detoxification".
- Ketosis - You can drink black coffee and remain in ketosis (ability to burn fat for fuel). Not only that, the caffeine from the coffee significantly increases ketones. Increasing ketones is linked to improved brain function. Additionally, the nutrients in coffee won't cause the body to utilize insulin, thereby aiding metabolic health.
- Caffeine - For many people, caffeine suppresses appetite so it will stave off hunger pangs during a fast.
- Brain boost - Intermittent fasting and coffee work together to reduce the risk of mental decline from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
- Clearing out old cells - In addition to fasting, coffee also increases autophagy. Autophagy is a natural detoxification process by which the body cleans out damaged cells to allow for regeneration of newer, healthier cells.. You are really getting a double whammy with coffee and fasting when it comes to benefits!
Fasting Tips:
Remember to drink your coffee black, but if you must add something, add about 1 tsp of MCT oil and blend well. When we extend a fast, we are experiencing more and more benefits by the hour, so using a great quality coffee as a tool is very beneficial. For more on intermittent fasting and heart health see Is Intermittent Fasting Bad For Your Heart?
