If you’re trying intermittent fasting — for your overall health, bettering your focus, or weight loss — you know how challenging it can be to navigate the ins and outs of what “counts” as fasting. When you’re pushing your eating period to later in the day, it may feel nearly impossible to cut out your favorite morning beverages in addition to your breakfast. This is especially true if you’ve created a routine around your beverage habits, like a morning coffee while reading the paper, or a morning tea during your meditation session.
While most beverages (especially ready-to-drink canned or bottled drinks) are still out of the question during your fasting period, there are some exceptions. We’re going to walk you through all the ways you can still keep up your morning beverage routine, without breaking your fast.
The Basics of Intermittent Fasting
Before you embark on an intermittent fasting journey, make sure to chat with your physician to see if this is the right choice for you. While many enjoy the benefits of intermittent fasting, it isn’t right for every individual.
Once you learn if fasting is right for you, you will have to choose your fasting and eating window. For example, many choose a fasting window of 16 hours a day, and an eating window of 8 hours per day. This means that during these 16 hours (including sleep, of course), you are not consuming anything that could take your body out of its fasting state. When you’re in a fasting state, your body breaks down stored fat as an energy source because it does not have easily accessible carbohydrates to break down.
Breaking a Fast
“Fasting” and general hunger are not synonymous. You may think that your daily oat milk latte is fine to consume while fasting, because it is just a liquid and certainly isn’t curing your hunger pangs. However, your favorite oat milk latte likely comes in at around 120 calories and will break your fast. This means that, when sticking to your daily latte routine, your body will not experience the benefits of fasting.
As a general rule of thumb, any calories at all can break your fasting state. The research is still mixed on extremely low-calories items (say, a 2-5-calorie cup of tea). But several anecdotal intermittent fasting reports have concluded that anything above 50 calories will spike your blood sugar and take your body out of the fasting state. It will start to burn the calories you intake, rather than burn stored fat.
Does Tea Break A Fast?
So what does this mean for tea? The typical cup of tea is either calorie free or between one and three calories before additives. Drinking tea as-is is a great way to get your morning beverage in, without breaking a fast.
But before you whip up your black tea with cream and sugar, it’s crucial to remember that additives can quickly change the fate of your fasting state. A plain cup of green tea or black tea is either calorie free or contains only a single calorie, but a cup of sweet tea could contain around 80 calories or more.
This may sound simple: all you have to do is avoid adding anything to your cup of tea. However, there may also be some things hiding in your tea bag or tea powder mix that could also break your fast.
Does Herbal Tea Break a Fast?
Typically, herbal teas are calorie free. But there are still some exceptions. Herbal tea is made with different kinds of fruits, spices and herbs. If your herbal tea is packed with fruit, the sugars in the fruit could break your fast.
Some great options of herbal teas that won’t break your fast are single-ingredient herbal teas, like peppermint tea, chamomile tea, or ginger tea.
Does Green Tea Break a Fast?
Generally, green teas are also calorie free. But many enjoy their green tea with honey to break through the bitter flavor of the tea. If you enjoy matcha, you may even be consuming a matcha latte, which often contains milk and a simple syrup or vanilla syrup.
Drinking green tea plain, or drinking matcha tea without adding milk and sweeteners, is a great option to enjoy during your fasting window. Also, many store-bought matcha powders are actually matcha latte powders, which means they contain milk powder and sugar. These will break your fast, and are also a lower quality option. To avoid breaking your fast, make sure to look for a high quality matcha green tea, as opposed to a matcha latte mix.
If you are someone who typically enjoys a sweet matcha beverage in the morning, we recommend our Vanilla Matcha. While this includes the sweet flavor of rich vanilla, it remains calorie free because it does not contain any sweeteners.
Which Sweeteners Break a Fast?
If you have a sweet tooth, but you’re still attempting intermittent fasting, the idea of having plain tea without your typical dash of sugar or honey may be daunting. Luckily, there are options of sweeteners that will not spike your blood sugar levels — and still satisfy that sweet tooth.
While artificial sweeteners are controversial, they are generally deemed safe when consumed in moderation. Stevia is a great, natural option that is calorie free. If you add stevia to your tea, remember that it is actually sweeter in taste than sugar, and should be used in moderation.
Many also enjoy yacon syrup in their tea. Unlike simple syrups or maple syrup, yacon syrup is low in calories (around 20 calories per tablespoon) so it will keep your tea under the 50-calorie limit.
Is It Better to Drink Coffee or Tea During a Fast?
Another option for a beverage during your fasting period is coffee. Coffee, like tea, contains only a few calories on its own. However, coffee is often sweetened with sugar and milk or a milk alternative. This makes it a higher calorie Choice that cannot be consumed during your fasting periods.
If you find it challenging to enjoy your cup of coffee without additives, we recommend trying a cold brew coffee during your fast. Coffee brewed cold is often considered a much smoother option than hot brewed coffee, and even cream fanatics often enjoy cold brew black.
The Mosi all-in-one infuser includes a sieve attachment for cold brew coffee, which makes brewing your cold brew incredibly easy. All you have to do is fill the sieve with coffee grounds, fill the infuser with water, switch up the lock on the lid and flip your infuser upside down over night. In the morning, you’ll have cold brew coffee ready to enjoy during your fasting period and take on the go.
Caffeine and Intermittent Fasting
If you’re looking to satisfy a caffeine fix during your fasting period, we recommend either looking to green tea, black tea or coffee — all without any additives. Coffee will provide the greatest amount of caffeine, but green tea and matcha are also great options to enjoy during intermittent fasting. Matcha has a high level of l-theanine, which helps stabilize your energy and focus.
High Quality Tea Makes All the Difference
For intermittent fasters who are usually reliant on the addition of sugar, honey or milk to their morning tea, coming off of this habit may be challenging. The true key to making a fasted beverage routine work for you? High quality tea. Milk and sweeteners are usually used to hide the taste of a lower quality tea — but loose leaf, garden-picked tea may just change the game for even the most diehard additive addicts.
With the Mosi All-in-One infuser, you can even brew a cold brew loose leaf tea or cold brew coffee overnight to take on the go in the morning, so your hangry self doesn’t have to go through extra labor for your morning sips.
Tea Recipes to Enjoy During a Fasting Window
If you still want to enjoy tea during your intermittent fasting period, we have a few recipes to try:
Coconut Lime Morning Black Tea
Ingredients- 1 tsp Mosi Morning Black loose tea leaves
- lime slice
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut water
- Stevia or calorie free sweetener of choice
- ice cubes
Tools + Equipment
- Mosi All-in-One infuser to combine all the ingredients easily
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
Directions
STEP 1: Fill the silicone sieve with Mosi Morning Black tea and secure it to the infuser lid.
STEP 2: Pour water (about 185 degrees which has small boiling bubbles) into your infuser through the spout.
STEP 3: Attach the lid, switch up the lock, and flip the infuser upside down for 2-4 minutes. Flip over and let the tea sit for 15 minutes or until it is cooled off.
STEP 4: Meanwhile, add ice cubes, lime slice, sweetener, and coconut water to a glass.
STEP 5: Pour the tea into a glass, stir and enjoy!
Note: This recipe is best enjoyed cold/over ice. Please be aware you should not pour boiling hot water into a glass as it can break — wait until your tea is cooled off before adding it to a glass!
Lemon-Ginger Green Mint Tea
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Mosi Green Mint loose leaf tea
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 inch ginger, sliced thin
- mint leaves
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
Tools + Equipment
- Mosi All-in-One infuser to combine all the ingredients easily
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
- Citrus juicer to squeeze lemon
Directions
STEP 1: Fill the silicone sieve with Mosi Green Mint tea and secure it to the infuser lid.
STEP 2: Pour water (about 185 degrees which has small boiling bubbles) into your infuser through the spout.
STEP 3: Attach the lid, switch up the lock, and flip the infuser upside down for 2-4 minutes then flip over.
STEP 4: Meanwhile, add your ginger, lemon juice, and mint leaves to a mug.
STEP 5: Pour the tea into a mug, stir and enjoy!
Rooibos Lavender Tea Lemonade
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Mosi Rooibos Lavender loose leaf tea
- 1 cup water
- lemon wedge
- 1/2 lemon - juiced (add more if desired)
- lavender for garnish (optional)
Tools + Equipment
- Mosi All-in-One infuser to combine all the ingredients easily
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cup
- Citrus juicer to squeeze the lemon juice, optional
Directions
STEP 1: Fill the silicone sieve with Mosi Rooibos Lavender tea and secure it to the infuser lid.
STEP 2: Pour water (about 200 degrees - small rolling bubbles) into your infuser through the spout.
STEP 3: Attach the lid, switch up the lock, and flip the infuser upside down for 2-4 minutes. Flip over and let the tea sit for 15 minutes or until it is cooled off.
STEP 4: Meanwhile, add ice cubes, sugar and lemon juice to a glass.
STEP 5: Pour the tea into a glass, garnish with lavender, stir and enjoy!
Note: This recipe is best enjoyed cold/over ice. Please be aware you should not pour boiling hot water into a glass as it can break — wait until your tea is cooled off before adding it to a glass!
