Moroccan Muslims, like countless other Muslims around the world, follow a religious tradition of serving dates (tmar) at their Ramadan iftar table, with many making it a point to actually to break their fast with them.Dates are not only associated with Ramadan, however.The fruit is mentioned more than 20 times in the Quran, and they're favored by many Muslims for tahneek, the tradition of. If you’re in doubt and want to make sure that you’re not breaking your Fast, then do not take BCAAs while Intermittent Fasting. The general rule to remember when it comes to working out what breaks your fast or not is that if it contains calories, it will probably bring you out of the fasted state.
Fasting is becoming a popular lifestyle choice.Fasts don’t last forever, though, and between fasting periods you will add foods back into your routine — thus breaking your fast.It’s important to do this carefully, and certain foods are better than others.Additionally, some foods, beverages, and even supplements can unintentionally break your fast, while others don’t have much impact.This article covers which foods, beverages, and supplements are less likely to affect fasting periods and which are best when you’re ready to break a fast. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates periods of eating with periods of either not eating or taking in minimal calories.
It emphasizes when you eat rather than what you eat.Even though it has recently gained mainstream attention, isn’t new. People have practiced periods of fasting throughout history, such as for spiritual, health, or survival reasons ( ).The intent of intermittent fasting isn’t necessarily only to restrict calories, but also to allow your body to focus on maintenance and recovery, rather than digesting.Many incorporate regular 12- to 16-hour periods of fasting into each day, while others include fasting for 24 or 48 hours once or twice per week.When you fast, your body undergoes a number of metabolic changes.
After some time, fasting causes your body to enter ketosis, a state in which fat is used for energy when carbohydrates are unavailable (, ).Furthermore, fasting causes insulin levels to decrease. It also promotes autophagy, the process by which your body rids itself of unneeded, damaged, or harmful cells (, ).There is evidence that intermittent fasting for weight loss, lowering blood sugar, improving heart health, reducing inflammation, and reducing your risk of chronic diseases (, ). SummaryIntermittent fasting rotates periods of fasting and periods of eating.
It’s often used for health purposes like weight loss and chronic disease prevention, though it’s been used historically for other reasons. By definition, fasting means refraining from eating food. However, you may be able to consume some foods and beverages while still preserving the benefits of fasting.Some experts say as long as you keep your carbohydrate intake below 50 grams per day during a fast, you can maintain ( ).Below are some foods and beverages you can consume while fasting.
Water. Plain or carbonated water contains no calories and will keep you hydrated during a fast. Coffee and tea. These should mostly be consumed without added sugar, milk, or cream. However, some people find that adding small amounts of milk or fat can curb hunger.
Diluted apple cider vinegar. Some people find that drinking 1–2 teaspoons (5–10 ml) of apple cider vinegar mixed into water can help them stay hydrated and prevent cravings during a fast. Healthy fats.
Some people drink coffee containing MCT oil, ghee, coconut oil, or butter during their fast. Oil breaks a fast, but it won’t break ketosis and can tide you over between meals.
Bone broth. This rich source of nutrients can help replenish electrolytes lost during long periods of only drinking water.Remember that foods and drinks containing any calories — like and the healthy fats listed above — will technically break your fast.However, small amounts of these low-carb, high-fat, moderate-protein foods won’t throw your body out of ketosis ( ). SUMMARYSome people choose to consume small amounts of certain foods and beverages while fasting, such as bone broth or healthy fats.
Others consume calorie-free beverages. Becoming while fasting is unlikely, but it depends on how restrictive your fast is and how long it lasts.Some people choose to take supplements while fasting to ensure adequate vitamin and mineral intake. Fasting too frequently could lead to nutrient deficiencies if your diet is already low in vitamins and minerals ( ).If you supplement while fasting, it’s important to know which supplements could break your fast. This will help you decide if you should take them with a meal or during your fasting period. Supplements more likely to break a fast.
Gummy multivitamins. These commonly contain small amounts of sugar, protein, and sometimes fat, which could break your fast. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Appear to trigger an insulin response that opposes autophagy ( ). Protein powder. Protein powder contains calories and triggers an insulin response, telling your body that you’re not fasting ( ).
Those containing certain ingredients. Supplements that contain ingredients like maltodextrin, pectin, cane sugar, or fruit juice concentrate contain sugar and calories that could break your fast.Supplements less likely to break a fast. Multivitamins. Brands that don’t contain sugar or added fillers should contain few or no calories.
Fish or algae oil. In regular doses, these supplements contain few calories and no digestible carbs. Individual micronutrients. This includes supplements like potassium, vitamin D, or B vitamins (although fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K will be best absorbed when taken with food) ( ). Creatine.
Is calorie-free and does not affect insulin response ( ). Pure collagen. This may slightly impair autophagy but shouldn’t significantly affect ketosis or fat burning during a fast ( ). Probiotics and prebiotics.
These typically contain no calories or digestible carbs ( ).SUMMARYSupplements may be used during fasting periods, although some may be better absorbed with food. Supplements that contain calories or sugar are more likely to break your fast. To break your fast, start by eating gentle foods and be sure not to overeat.
Gentle foods to break a fastWhen you’re ready to break your fast, it’s best to ease out of it. Toward the end of your fast, you might want to introduce small portions of foods that are more easily digested, so you don’t overwhelm your digestive system.Breaking your fast with foods that are especially high in fat, sugar, or even fiber can be difficult for your body to digest, leading to and discomfort.Foods and drinks that can be even more shocking to your system after a fast include those like a greasy cheeseburger, slice of cake, or soda.
Even high-fiber raw produce, nuts, and seeds may be difficult to digest.On the other hand, nutrient-dense foods that easy to digest and contain a bit of protein and some healthy fats can break your fast more gently.Below are a few examples of what to eat to break your fast. Smoothies. Blended drinks can be a gentler way to introduce nutrients to your body since they contain less fiber than whole, raw fruits and vegetables. Dried fruits. Dates are a concentrated source of nutrients frequently used to break fasts in Saudi Arabia. Apricots and raisins may have similar effects ( ). Soups.
Soups that contain protein and easily digestible carbs, such as lentils, tofu, or pasta, can gently break a fast. Avoid soups made with heavy cream or a large amount of high-fiber, raw vegetables. Vegetables. Cooked, soft, starchy vegetables like potatoes can be good food options when breaking a fast. Fermented foods. Try unsweetened yogurt or kefir.
Healthy fats. Foods like or avocados can be great first foods to eat after a fast.Breaking your fast with healthy foods that may be better tolerated can help replenish important nutrients and electrolytes while easing food back into your diet.Once you’re tolerating gentler foods, add in other healthy foods — like whole grains, beans, vegetables, nuts, seeds, meat, poultry, and fish — and return to eating normally. Be mindful not to overeatIt can be easy to overeat between fasting periods.Although fasting doesn’t emphasize what you eat as much as when you eat, it’s not designed to be an excuse to eat unhealthy foods.and eating junk food between fasting periods can cancel out the health benefits of fasting. Instead, choose minimally processed, as much as possible for the most overall health benefits. SUMMARYWhen you’re ready to break your fast, start with foods and drinks that will be gentle on your digestive system. Avoid foods that are especially high in sugar, fat, and fiber.
Additionally, take care not to overeat. When fasting, it’s important to be aware of which foods and supplements may break your fast. You can then decide whether to consume them during or between fasting periods.During a fast, choose calorie-free beverages and supplements, if any.Some people choose to eat small amounts of certain foods to curb cravings, which may break your fast but still keep you in ketosis.When you’re ready to break a fast, focus on easily tolerated foods that don’t contain high amounts of sugar, fat, fiber, or complex carbs that could be difficult to digest.You can then ease back into a normal, healthy eating pattern.
These days when trying to find information about fasting on the web, I feel more and more like reading rocket science articles. It feels like you should do so many things if you want to fast the right way.
Eat the right food in the right amount before, complements during fasting with nutrients, amino acids, break a fast this way and that way and give your digestive system time to adapt to food again, etc.
The problem I have with all this is:
- It makes fasting look hard, strenuous and strict, which it is not
- If you do intermittent fasting with 16 to 24h fasts, you don’t really need all this information
I’ve been intermittent fasting for several years and I’ve sometimes broken my 24h fast with 5 beers, bread, and sausages. It was stupid of course, but what I mean to say is: there is no great health risk from doing that occasionally.
And breaking a 24h fast shouldn’t suddenly become really complicated. When you do one meal a day, you just want to get one good, healthy, filling meal. With meat, carbs, vegetables, etc. You shouldn’t break your fast every day with junk food, but again, you won’t suddenly catch fire if you do. Hell, you’re not eating for the whole day, you might at least get pleasure from the only meal you get, don’t you?
So, I really want to emphasizethat these best foods to break a fast are:
- Good practices that will help your body adapt and won’t put too much strain on your digestive system
- More relevant when doing longer fast, say several days. Then what you eat to break the fast is important if you do not want to get constipation, stomachache, etc.
To summarize, what are the best foods to break a fast? You should start with apple cider vinegar diluted in water before actually breaking the fast. It’ll help stimulate the digestive tract. Afterward a bone broth, some eggs and some spinach or kale in a small, no more than 500 calories, meal, would be ideal to replete your minerals and nutrients deficiencies.
But that’s not all there is to it, you’ll see there are many more foods that would also work great to break a fast and each one has its own benefits and nutrients. Here are what I’ve found to be the 11 best foods to break a fast.
1. Apple cider vinegar (ACV)
This is the new kid on the block when it comes to health. This new magic drink (which is actually an ancient remedy, like most of the new magic healthy food) improves overall health in many ways:
- Balances alkaline PH levels: Most of the time, we’re more acidic than alkaline, due to alcohol, bad diet, etc. ACV might be acidic, but when consumed it actually becomes alkaline.
- Kills off bad bacteria gut: ACV will help good gut bacteria and kill bad one since it has the ability to inhibit fungal and bacterial overgrowth
- Stabilize blood sugar: ACV lowers blood sugar and insulin levels and it might even make you feel fuller combined with eating
ACV is preventive. You can take a few tablespoons diluted in water during your fast. ACV does have a few calories, so on a technical level, it can break a fast. But at this dosage, it really won’t hurt and its benefits will far outgrow this technicality.
I would advise you to take some before breaking your fast. This way you’ll have two added benefits before your forthcoming meal:
- It will stimulate the digestive tract
- Help improve digestion on your first meal
- Make you feel fuller when eating. Even though you most likely won’t eat too much when breaking a fast, it’s a sure way to avoid this
Here’s a recipe for a non-breaking fast ACV drink you can have while fasting, courtesy of Thomas DeLauer.
- 10 to 12oz water
- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt
- The juice of 1 whole lime or 2 tablespoons of bottled lime juice
- Possible to add stevia to taste
Living in Switzerland I have to say I never found the cream of tartar in local stores. So, I tried this several times without, sometimes replacing lime with lemon.
The smell of ACV is quite strong, to the first few sips might be hard. But overall, I really like it and it’s a big change of taste from coffee, tea, and water you usually drink on fasting. Plus, all the added benefits!
If you’re not a fan of the taste but still want to get the benefits of apple cider vinegar, you can also check out these apple cider vinegar capsules (with added salt and added MCT Oil for improved consumption).
2. Bone broth
Why bone broths? Because it tastes really good, that’s why! Other than my personal taste, bone broth is excellent after a fast since it contains lots of electrolytes.
You’ll find magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium in bone broths since one of the main challenges when fasting is mineral depletion. Your gut’s been cleaned by the fast, drinking bone broth will help utilize the nutrients from the broth and the food you’ll eat afterward.
Other advantages of bone broths include:
- It’s rich in collagen, which will help you keep healthy bones, teeth, and nails
- It’s rich in glycine which might help with sleep quality. Since intermittent fasting and keto are known to disturb sleep, that can become handy
- It contains many amino acids that are anti-inflammatory
- It’s very low carbs of course.
You can get bone broth either as liquid broths or as a powder, both have to be mixed with water.
3. Spinach, kale
It might seem like an easy one and, yes, it is. When fasting, you might be depleted of some nutrients and vitamins. Kale and spinach are full of them, including:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin K
- Manganese
- Folate
- Magnesium
- Iron
- Copper
- Calcium
- Potassium
You could either have them mixed in a smoothie, raw or cooked. I’ve seen many times people advocating for eating them raw, but I haven’t found actual data to back this up. So, I’d say eat them as you wish.
They are known to:
- Help digestion
- Prevent constipation
- Maintain blood sugar
Another thing, you could try and buy already made kale smoothies, even if I’d advise you to make your own (so that you actually know what it contains). But you can find good, all-natural ones like this kale powder from Koyah or this organic kale and avocado drink from Medlie.
4. Eggs
Eggs are a great way to get lots of proteins with a small amount of food. It’s great when breaking a fast because:
- The protein can help prevent muscle loss. If you exercise during the fast, that shouldn’t have too much of an impact, but you never know
- Eggs are leucine-rich. Leucine is one of the amino acid responsible for muscle grow
Eggs are easy to digest, low in calories, protein-rich and it can a great way to reduce appetite with a small amount of food. Especially when eating boiled eggs.
5. Nuts, chia seeds
I could have added almond, flax seeds, helm seeds, pecan to this list. Again, you’ll be depleted of nutrients, so getting vitamin-rich food such as nuts and seeds is a great way to restore nutrient balance.
For example, chia seeds include manganese, phosphorus, copper, calcium, magnesium, iron and selenium.
Seeds are rich in good healthy fat, proteins, and fibers.
6. Fish
For a first meal, if you want to thread things lightly, you could try to have a fish broth instead of fish meat.
But eating fish on your first meal shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It won’t be hard on your digestive system and fish is a great source of:
- Healthy unsaturated fat with a lot of omega 3
- Proteins
- Vitamin D
7. Broccoli, cauliflower
Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts are all cruciferous vegetables, and they’re particularly rich in fiber, nutrients, and vitamins.
As with fish, I would recommend eating them mixed or cooked. Of all of the cruciferous vegetables, I would advise you to mainly eat broccoli, which is the most digestible one.
And cruciferous vegetables are also packed full of minerals and vitamins including vitamin C, K, B2, B9, A, B5, B6, iron, magnesium, manganese, etc.
8. Watermelon
First off, I’m not a huge fan of fruits to break a fast. I love fruits, but they contain fructose. Even though, when breaking a fast with fruit, your body will actually break down the fructose to restore your glycogen stores, since they’ve been emptied by the fast, it’s still not the best source of energy.
That being said, while I would advise when eating fruit to get something that’s also rich in fiber, like an apple, watermelon could be a great way to break a long fast with semi-solid food.
Watermelon is more than 91% of water. Thus, making it really easy to eat and digest and it could be a great way to gradually starting to eat again.
9. Banana
As I said earlier, fruit might not be the best way to break a fast, because of the way fructose is metabolized in our body. But after some reading, I can say that banana could be a good food to break a fast.
If you’re not doing keto, Banana is rich in good healthy carbs to kick you out of ketosis the right way, it’s also rich in fiber, some of them like butyrate might actually be good for your gut bacteria and it includes several vitamins and minerals like potassium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C.
Since it’s high carb and pretty high sugar, bananas could help raise blood sugar after a long fast, especially if you’re feeling down or tired from ketosis.
10. Unsweetened Yogurt, Sauerkraut, Kimchi
Fermented foods are great for your gut bacteria. After fasting for a few days, eating fermented foods will help your digestive tract to be repopulated with good bacteria and enzymes that it was stripped off from the fast.
It’ll make it easier for you to digest food, thanks to these probiotics. Maybe start with fermented kale such as Kimchi or sauerkraut. If you opt for Kimchi don’t make it too spicy since it could upset your stomach.
Wait until you feel ready for dairy before eating yogurt.
11. Avocado
Avocado is known to be the world’s fattiest fruit and, yes, it’s a fruit, not a vegetable. It’s actually a large berry.
Avocado is great for breaking a fast, since it’s really low in calories, but rich in healthy omega-6 and omega-3 fat. Avocado is full of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins including:
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin C
- Copper
- Potassium
- Folate
Moreover, it has a huge amount of pantothenic acid, which is a complex B vitamin and one of the most important ones. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to use macronutrients as efficiently.
When you break a fast with avocado, you get all those nutrients, a high dose of pantothenic to help you use them as energy, a lot of good healthy fat (similar to MCT oil)
I read in an article that avocado could sometimes be hard on the digestive system. It may come from fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs), which are short-chain carbohydrates.
Some people are sensitive to FODMAPs and will have a hard time digesting it, causing stomachache, bloating and other unpleasant symptoms.
Other than that avocado is a very easy fruit to digest, if you’re not sensible to FODMAPs.
Conclusion
There are definitely wrong ways to break a fast and the longer the fast, the more you have to be thorough on your research on what to eat when breaking it.
Breaking fast the wrong way can be hard on your digestive system, stomach, intestines and even your energy levels and overall mood. You should not eat whatever you want when breaking a 7 day fast for example.
What I’d advise you is to take all these different types of food into account and:
- Cook the ones you like the most (since it’s important to enjoy your meal too)
- Eat the ones you’re sure will not put a strain on your digestive system. I personally know I better avoid cauliflower on my first meal
Your first meal should be light, around 500 calories, and it could depend on your habits and why you’re fasting. If you do a lot of exercises, maybe you’ll prioritize keeping and growing muscles, so the first food you might go to will be eggs and maybe bone broth.
To me the 3 foods I would always recommend when breaking a fast will be apple cider vinegar before the end of the fast, bone broth and eggs. With these 3 I don’t think you can go wrong, everything everywhere indicates that it’s a great way to break your fast.
If you did a really long fast (more than 10 days), then maybe I’d tell you to skip the eggs and replace it with a kale/spinach smoothie or a watermelon.
As always, you’re also free to experiment, everybody’s different, but based on nutritional facts, this list should be pretty accurate!