Intermittent Fasting: Does Bone Broth Break a Fast?
If you are just getting started on your intermittent fasting journey, know this; you don't need to survive off water and air during your fasting window. There are several beverages, supplements, and vitamins you can take without breaking your fast to maintain a healthy balance in your body.
Fasting is not for everyone because people with certain health conditions or expectant and breastfeeding women should not skip meals, or fast. However, if you are a good candidate, taking bone broth is ideal for a fast as it contains both micronutrients and macronutrients.
What Is Bone Broth Fast?
Bone broth fast includes taking bone broth throughout your fasting window without eating any other solid food. Bone broth has been consumed worldwide in different forms and recipes using animal parts, which in modern times are discarded. You can make bone broth from tendons and ligaments, bones and marrow, skin and feet. All these parts are independently edible, but make a nutrient-packed stock when simmered together.
Bone broth is slowly boiled over several days, and you may add fresh herbs and vegetables along with animal parts. Some types of broth include beef bone broth, chicken bone broth, and fish broth.
Does Bone Broth Break a Fast?
Taking anything with calories can break a fast, especially if you are fasting for autophagy (the body's mechanism of degrading unnecessary or dysfunctional cells for optimal health). Bone broth contains 40 - 50 calories per cup; therefore, it will break your fast. However, just because bone broth breaks a fast doesn't mean it's a bad inclusion during intermittent fasting.
Taking bone broth during intermittent fasting can help you enter a metabolic state known as ketosis. Bone broth will facilitate your body to convert its own fat to ketones for energy, as it only supplies your body with protein and fat, not glucose.
Benefits of Bone Broth During Intermittent Fasting
Bone broth fast is an excellent way to obtain collagen– a type of protein that creates healthy tissues throughout your body. A jar of Healo Foods bone broth contains 14 - 17 grams of pure collagen, which is recommendable for pregnant women. Other benefits of taking bone broth during intermittent fasting include:
- Improves your digestive functions, including detoxifying the liver
- Supplies essential minerals for ongoing energy
- Enhances the skin's elasticity, providing a youthful appearance
- Helps prevent muscle atrophy (thinning or wasting of muscle mass)
- Boosts immunity by increasing beneficial bacteria in the gut
- Full of amino acids that help improve memory, sleep, and cognition
Intermittent fasting with bone broth will teach you how to survive without a large amount of food per day, helping you achieve your healthy lifestyle goals, and receive all the needed nutrients.
How to Use Bone Broth for Intermittent Fasting
Drinking bone broth during intermittent fasting provides you with dual benefits. The bone broth diet, or bone broth fast, is an intermittent fasting approach that requires you to fast for longer. During your fasting window, you can drink bone broth and collagen to receive equal benefits as a strict fast.
Since bone broth contains calories, it's advisable to complement your diet with less strenuous physical activities, like walking. Here are various ways to approach a bone broth fast, from beginner to advanced.
- Meal skipping - If you have never tried intermittent fasting, start by replacing a meal with a single cup of broth, and resume your regular eating schedule.
- The 16/8 method - Take bone broth with extra collagen for 16 hours per day, and during your eight-hour eating window, eat fermented foods to support your gut health.
- 24-hour bone broth diet - For 24 hours, only drink bone broth and collagen, but no more than once per week.
- Twice per week fast - This is an advanced approach where you only drink broth and collagen twice per week. During your fasting days, consume fermented vegetables, collagen, gelatin, and different types of bone broth.
Disclaimer: Bone broth fast is administered as an elimination diet, where you discover foods that negatively impact your digestive system. Work with an ancestrally-inspired nutritionist before starting the elimination diet.
3 Exciting Bone Broth Recipes to Include During Your Fasting Window
Drinking or eating bone broth during intermittent fasting doesn't have to be boring. You can customize bone broth to fit your goals and needs. Even those around you, including older adults, can take advantage of the bone broth's availability to enjoy its benefits.
Here are some must-try creative bone broth recipes.
1. Asian Bone Broth Soup
This Asian bone broth soup is absolutely healthy but slightly spicy. It's made from beef bone broth, ginger, spinach, sesame oil, onions, and pho (rice noodles).
It's an uber-nutritious dinner choice, especially for beginners in intermittent fasting. Of course, your portion depends on your goals. To make the soup, boil your beef bones for at least 24 - 48 hours.
After boiling the bones, cook your rice noodles in sesame oil with onions and grated ginger. Then, take your cooked pho, add your cooled bone broth; season it with baby spinach and some onions and enjoy.
2. Roasted Garlic Chicken Bone Broth Soup
The roasted garlic chicken bone broth soup is a soothing bowl packed with all the right nutrients.
It's made of roasted garlic, root vegetables such as carrots, scallions, and fresh herbs. You can make this broth at home by having enough chicken bones to fill your pot, ¼ cup of apple cider, salt, pepper, root vegetables, and salt.
Cook your broth in a low setting heat for two days, then let it cool. Sieve to separate your broth into mason jars and store in the fridge.
3. Vegetable Mineral Broth
Vegans in the building don't have to feel excluded. You can use Healo Foods vegetable broth that has been simmered and slow-cooked for over 20 hours, using a century-old tradition and natural ingredients.
This 6-pack vegetable broth has a rejuvenating combination of superfoods, and it's chock-full of sodium, magnesium, and potassium, that helps your body refresh and rebuild itself.
Start Your Intermittent Fasting With Healo Foods Bone Broths
Healo Foods makes broth from scratch to guarantee a jar of healthy bone broth high in collagen, fatty acids, and protein. Bone broth fast is an excellent way to work your way through healthy eating. Contact us today for more insights on intermittent fasting with bone broth, or to make your bone broth order.
