Can you drink coffee on a fast and while doing keto? Heck yeah. While some IF diets might call for zero coffee during a fasting period, sneaking in a cup or two won’t totally undo the benefits as long as it’s black coffee. But there’s the problem for many: coffee upsets their stomach….at least traditionally roasted coffee does.
First here’s our story
KETO and Intermittent Fasting (IF) are the new wonder drugs for Type II Diabetes among other ailments! My wife and I have been faithful to Keto and IF for over a year and have seen phenomenal results. My fasting glucose went from 115 (pre-diabetic for sure…and I’m an avid runner) down to 82 today. My wife and I together have lost over 70 pounds! Oh and she has been on levothyroxine for her hypothyroid disease for about 10 years but here most recent blood work after a year of IF has her thyroid number down below 1, basically normal. Of course she is still on her meds but at the lowest dose and her physician is considering allowing here to go off it for a while then retest! Reversal of hypothyroidism in her future? Wow.
A short background on IF and KETO
The key to success with IF initially in our case was a mental block we had to get over: Not eating three meals a day! We have all been brainwashed by the big-pharma machine and the absurd high carb food pyramid over the past 30 or so years. NOw our bodies are on 3 meals a day autopilot or worse snacking all day. But that is changing. My wife was concerned because she often wakes up very hungry. I rarely do. But I digress…
You just have to get a little creative. As you may or may not know, intermittent fasting will not slow down your metabolism. That’s an urban myth to scare you away from fasting just as the eat-less-move-more protocol has been all but vaporized as more research comes out. Eating less doesn’t work.
Intermittent fasting on the other hand isn’t about eating less, but rather about restricting your feeing periods or “feeding window” only. You’re welcome to eat 2000 calories a day and you will still lose weight…if you stick to your feeding window.
So how does coffee play into this? Well coffee has a lot of polyphenol benefits but has also been proven in meta analysis studies to improve cognitive function, athletic performance, curb hunger and more.
Enter: LOW ACID COFFEE
But as people consume more coffee on their fasts and as a perfect KETO beverage, many people complain of upset stomachs and other digestive concerns all alleviated if coffee acids are the issue by switching to low acid coffee.
So what is low acid coffee exactly?
Well green coffee beans have about 700 flavor components that add to it’s flavor and aroma. As you roast them some can be lost or to the other extreme exaggerated. The roasting method determines that to a great extent. Acidity is one of those components.
There is “acidity” or brightness. The acid that produces that favorable flavor characteristic is cholorogenic acid. The other acids, like formic, malic and acetic and a few others can combine to cause that unpleasant stomach irritation so many people.
SO the question is how to get those out of the coffee without affecting the flavor