5 Foods That WON'T Break Your Fast!

- Now fasting is all the rage, but it doesn't have to

mean total deprivation. In fact, there are a few

smart things you can consume that won't break your fast and may even make your

fast more effective. Whether you're fasting to

support your gut burn fat, improve mental clarity, or extend your health span,

this episode is for you. I'll walk you through the surprising foods and drinks that won't

disrupt your fasting window, and a few sneaky ones that

might just break your fast. Plus, I'll share some tips on how to fast, smarter, not harder. But before we get into

it, please don't forget to like this video. Subscribe and share it with someone who needs a little fasting clarity. Now, a big question is,

does whatever you're going to put in your mouth

stop ketone production? And quite frankly, that's all you should

be paying attention to. The reason you are doing

a fast, an effective fast, or what I call time restricted eating is to spend more time in a 24 hour period where you producing ketones. Now, ketones are a fuel that's for cells, but ketones really are

useful for one thing and one thing only. Ketones tell your mitochondria your energy producing organelles in

almost all of your cells to waste calories, to uncouple, to repair themselves, and simultaneously to

make more mitochondria to help with the efforts. So anything that we can do to produce ketones for a longer period of time during a 24 hour period is a good thing in my many

other people's opinions. And that's where the entire

idea of time controlled eating or time restricted eating came about. So here's the good news. Black coffee or tea with no

sweeteners are the real deal. These can actually help with energy and mental focus while fasting. Black tea and coffee have polyphenols, which actually helps further mitochondrial and coupling without being in ketosis. So black coffee, black

tea, green tea, great. Now, the problem with milk in your coffee or tea is that milk contains sugar. But good news, heavy cream has no sugar and heavy cream will not break a fast. But unfortunately, heavy cream cancels out

the polyphenol availability and you can add allulose or monk fruit. That doesn't break the fast either. Just remember, in general, fats do not spike insulin fats have no effect on insulin production. And just as a refresher, course sugars promote insulin production. Proteins promote insulin production, and anytime your insulin rises, that shuts off the flow of free fatty acids out of fat cells. And with rare exception,

it shuts out the production of ketones in your liver. Now, there's one exception MCT oil, but the great news is that

MCT oil, unlike any other fat, is absorbed directly through

the wall of your intestines and goes directly to your liver where it actually promotes

ketone production regardless of what your insulin level is. Now, this is in a way miraculous because adding MCT to your regimen will guarantee that you will manufacture ketones. Now what I like people to do

is stick with small amounts. Initially you wanna start with a teaspoon and work your way up to a tablespoon. And preferably you want to

have about three tablespoons of MCT oil per day, and particularly look for MCTC eight MCT. That's the most ketogenic of the MCT oils. Good news, my very popular

product MCT Wellness doesn't break your fast, but we'll discuss more

about that in a minute. Basil seeds. Now, while I haven't seen any

research saying they won't, I suspect basil seeds

will not break your fast. Now, here's why. Basil seeds

basically expand in water very much like chia seeds, but they have even more fiber, meaning that when you eat basil

seeds, they're great for making you feel full

and staying hydrated. The great thing about it is

that basil seeds are eaten by your gut microbiome, the good guys, and they actually tell your

brain that they're getting what they like to eat. And you don't have to be hungry. You don't have to look for anything more. Similarly, cilium husk. Now cilium husk is basically

pure soluble fiber. Now this supports digestion

without breaking your fast. So it's easy to use, put in water or tea, please don't put it

in juice or use sweeteners. It will absolutely keep you

feeling full and curb cravings. Now, there's a study that I've mentioned in

the last couple books that is really exciting to me and there's a theory called The Gut Centric Theory of Hunger. The Chinese took volunteers and put them on a water

fast for two weeks. All they got was water. Half the group got a

hundred calories per day of non-absorbable soluble fiber. We can't adjust it, we

can't absorb it as a fuel, but our gut buddies think it's delicious. That's their fuel. The group that just had water

were obviously very hungry. The group that got the a

hundred calories a day of mycelium powder had no hunger

for two weeks on a water fast. Why is that? Because their gut

buddies got what they wanted to eat and they literally sent text messages up to the brain. Like for instance, GLP one that says, Hey, our needs are met. You don't need to go look for

anything else. We're fine. And the more we study the

really deep connection between the good guys in our gut and our hunger centers

in our brain, we realize that it's the gut bugs

that are driving hunger, not stretching out your

stomach, not bulking up. It's what these guys want to eat. So if you're struggling

with going a longer time between meals, don't be afraid. Please add these soluble fibers. They won't break your fast and they'll support

that you're not hungry. Okay, what else? Works nuts. Work. Now this is controversial,

but my friend Dr. Volter Longo's research in humans show that in small amounts like

a handful of pistachios, macadamias, or Brazil nuts are okay during fasting mimicking protocols. Now, he gave people who were fasting a one of his nut bars and it's called the Fast

bar for their morning meal. The other group had to wait

until lunch for their first meal and he studied ketone production and that bar did not

break ketone production. Now that's the only study that I know that's ever been done in humans. So you can decide if that's enough, but please avoid flavored

nuts like salt and pepper or chili nuts or sugar nuts. Almost all of these have hidden

sugars in the ingredients. And remember, sugar and or protein will break your fast. It will stop ketone production. Alright, let's talk about supplements. Now, I love hearing from you. I get these questions all the time about what will break fast, what doesn't. Now supplements like

electrolyte powders are great and they do not break a fast, but please avoid anything

sweetened with sugar or oftentimes fake sugars. Now, my MCT wellness are Vital Reds, which I'm right now are just fine. If you're using another brand

of powder supplement, here's what to watch out for that will kick you out of a fasted site. Just look for hidden sugars or proteins. I get asked all the time

about gummy supplements. Now, for the most part, you

should skip these as a majority of them have sugar in them. Now, I'm happy to say that our Gundry MD gummies

do not break a fast because they use prebiotic fiber as their sweeteners, and that gives your gut

buddies something to eat. Now, natural sweeteners like Stevie or Monk fruit probably don't break a fast, but it's always something up to watch for. Other things to watch out for. Chewing gum, yes, even sugar

free activates digestion and actually may pull you

out of a fasted steak. And be wary of healthy fasting drinks that contain collagen protein or flavor boosters with

sugar or amino acids. You have to remember that not only does sugar up your insulin production, but also

protein consumption ups your insulin production. And once insulin arises, insulin shuts off release of

free fatty acids from cells. And without the release of

free fatty acids from cells, you are not going to make

ketones, with the exception of if you're consuming MCT oil. So use these fasting safe

options strategically to help you push through

your non eating window, especially if you're doing

longer fasts, like 16 plus hours. Now, these tricks I've found with my patients really help first time, time restricted eaters ease into the habit of shortening their eating window and lengthening their non

eating window without crashing or stressing the body. And please remember, fasting

should support your health, not stress your system, and you really need to adjust when needed. Now, I just wanna reiterate

what time controlled eating or fasting actually is. Remember, the object of the game is this is

not personal suffering. You're not going on a religious quest. What I get from my patients

is not about being hungry or being a monk in a monastery. Fasting means that you are

going to limit the amount of time during a 24 hour period when you are not eating. That's what that means, going

24 hours without eating, going 48 hours without eating, going two weeks without

eating more and more. We're realizing that's not

a good idea for reasons that I've gone into on another podcast. But the more we can stay

in a continuous period of fasting beyond about 12 hours, the more benefit we get from mitochondrial and coupling, which may be

the greatest health span longevity trick there is. The good news is that once we stop eating about eight hours later, if you are metabolically flexible, you will start making

ketones as a natural process of not eating. So that means, let's suppose

you stop eating at eight o'clock at night and you go to bed at 10, about four o'clock in the morning, you will start making ketones and you will start uncoupling mitochondria and you'll start getting the

benefits that ketones give. But if you start eating at eight o'clock, you only got about four hours of benefit. If you start eating at nine

o'clock, you get five hours of benefit, 10 o'clock, six

hours of benefit, 11 o'clock, seven hours of benefit

noon, eight hours of benefit of being in ketosis. So the longer I can push that out, the better you're gonna do. And this has been

confirmed in human studies, particularly the Italian athlete studies who a seven hour window

had remarkable benefit in reducing insulin like growth factor in improving performance. So the more I can get you to a six to eight hour eating window,

the better you're gonna do. And again, you don't want

to do this overnight. You don't want to dive into the deep end of the pool without learning how to swim. And that's why taking baby

steps of pushing break fast a little farther each morning each week is gonna make a big difference. And know the tricks. When you are not doing well, when your brain isn't working well, when you're getting hangry,

you can give your gut buddies what they want to eat and keep going. And so these tricks that we've just talked

about are a good way of getting food into your stomach that isn't gonna break your fast. So if you really want to do Dr. Longo's a fasting mimicking diet, you know that a week long vegan fast

once a month works wonders compared to daily time restricted eating. And I have that vegan week long fast in multiple of my books. You just have to eat vegan for five days. That's pretty dog uneasy. So with the right tools, you can make fasting more sustainable

and more powerful. So stick to this, listen to your body, and as always, let your gut be your guide. More amazing episodes

just like this one, watch. Now, time restricted eating or intermittent fasting is

such an effective treatment for so many diseases.