Do Sweeteners Break a Fast? The impact a sweetener has on an intermittent fast depends largely on the specific sweetener. In particular, whether the sweetener contributes to a negative blood glucose/insulin response, activates the digestive system, or triggers growth pathways that would shut down autophagy. Fasting can be tricky for anyone with a sweet tooth….
Like magnesium, Sodium is an essential nutrient, meaning you have to get it from food or supplements, your body can’t make it on its own. Your body needs sodium to maintain fluid volume and blood pressure, to transport other nutrients, to keep your muscles contracting and functioning properly, and to send signals from your nervous system.
Adjusting to a lifestyle that incorporates intermittent fasting can take time and trial and error. One challenge new fasters face is learning what you’re “allowed” to consume during a fast, especially amidst a sea of “calorie-free” or “zero calorie” products. Many people consider zero-calorie or calorie neutral beverages that contain artificial sweeteners, such as diet…
When it comes to health and longevity, you’ll find people on both sides of the nature-versus-nurture aisle. But what if it isn’t one or the other, and both sides are right? Epigenetics is a field of study that blurs the lines of this age-old debate, and describes how our health behaviors — how we eat,…
Life gets hectic. And the more hectic it gets, the easier it can be for your health goals to start slipping — often without you even noticing. The solution is to check on your habits every so often. To check on your nutrition habits, for instance, “conventional wisdom” (a la, the diet industry) would have…
Fasting has long been recognized as a powerful practice for improving overall health and well-being. Beyond its effects on weight management and metabolism, fasting offers specific benefits for resetting and rejuvenating the digestive system. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons why fasting is considered an effective method to restore digestive health and promote optimal…
My mother was a classic ’90s-era dieter. She read the magazines. She checked labels. She bought low-fat and fat-free versions of whatever she could. And while she never taught me any of this explicitly, I absorbed implicit lessons about my own weight and how I ought to manage it — namely as a math equation….
As interviewed by Nicole Grant, RDN Cynthia Thurlow wants you to know that intermittent fasting can change your life. And also: You probably need to eat more protein. Cynthia Thurlow, NP, is a world-renowned fasting and nutrition expert. As a clinician, author, and podcaster, she educates and empowers people around the world — especially women…
Unless you are plucking carrots from the ground and gathering eggs straight from the chickens’ roost, you are likely relying, at least in part, on processed and even ultra-processed foods. In fact, in the United States and other high-income countries, the majority of calories now come from this category. These highly processed foods have been…
Whether you’re brand new to fasting or a seasoned veteran, you’ll likely run into questions over whether a certain food or drink is fast-friendly. Can you put butter in your coffee? In fact, can you drink coffee at all? The answer depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your fast. In this article, we…
