What Do You Drink When Fasting?

hey Dr David jockers here today I'm  talking about one of the most popular  questions that I get what can I actually  eat or drink while I'm fasting and so I  get this question all the time and so as  many of you guys know I'm a huge  advocate of intermittent fasting and  also extended fasting and so me  personally what do I do I actually  typically do a 18 hour fast on a daily  basis meaning I eat my meals I eat  usually two meals sometimes like a third  little snack in between but usually I'm  eating at one o'clock and roughly around  six o'clock I'm finishing by seven  o'clock each day so at 18 hour fast I'm  typically fasting from 8 PM I'm sorry 7  P.M until 1 pm the following day and  then one day a week I usually do  somewhere around a 20 to 24 hour fast  just a deeper level of fasting that  triggers more autophagy and cellular  healing now during the fasting window to  get the best benefits of a fast you want  to keep any sort of calorie consumption  to a minimum certainly nothing you know  if you consume more than about 20  calories that will you know it will slow  down autophagy right meaning your body's  ability to break down and scavenge old  damaged cells and old damaged cellular  organelles and take the raw materials  and turn them into new healthy cellular  organelles so you really want to avoid  calories you know as much as possible  however for some people consuming some  of the right types of calories helps  them feel better during the fast and  helps them be able to fast longer and  that may be more benefit than if they  were to try to kind of strictly do no  calories while they fast so when we're  looking at this when we're fasting  these are the things that I consume I  consume a lot of water okay so we really  want to be consuming at least half of  our body weight in ounces of water daily  water keeps our body moving like a river  helps flush toxins out you know we  should be peeing and pooping our way to  good health and so we want to be  hydrating well flushing out toxins  keeping things moving like a river  rather than a stagnant pond so I'm a  huge fan of drinking water you know a  lot of good water when you're fasting  you can also add in salt or electrolytes  salt itself is amazing in fact a lot of  people notice if they're fasting and  they just feel a little bit low energy  or just not as mentally clear just  taking a little bit of salt putting it  on your tongue and you'll notice energy  coming right back up why because salt is  critical for all the electrical  functions that go on throughout the body  right so really we're hydroelectric  beings meaning that we produce rampant  amounts of energy through just water and  electrolytes right that's what conducts  neurological activity in our body so we  can actually thrive  off of water and salt for you know a  good period of time because our body has  a lot of energy reserves meaning that  we've got fat we can burn for fuel we've  got stored sugar that we can burn for  fuel but you got to get the water and  the electrolytes you gotta you know  pretty much continually replace those we  can also do herbal teas right I'm a huge  fan of herbal tea I enjoy it myself I  drink probably one to two cups a day of  some sort of you know good quality tea I  like cavity for relaxation stress relief  I like bedtime tea at night which has  things like chamomile and passion flour  which are all Gaba agonists they help  improve Gaba levels which is like the  breaks on your brain which helps calm  anxiety helps induce better sleep so  herbal teas are fantastic you can do  green tea you know throughout the day  that's obviously got some caffeine in it  so you wouldn't want to do it at night  but doing a little bit of that during  the day can be fine ginger tea which is  great for Digestive Health so a lot of  different teas teas are great no  calories is there you're going to do  fantastic apple cider vinegar  some people have you know online will  say well apple cider vinegar if you take  that during a fast that is going to  break your fast but this isn't actually  true apple cider vinegar doesn't have  any meaningful calories in it and it has  a lot of acetic acid and enzymes that  actually help support your gut  microbiome the post-biotic right so  we've heard of prebiotics we've heard of  probiotics right probiotics is good  bacteria postbiotics are a byproduct of  bacterial metabolism so the postbiotic  it's called acetic acid that's in  vinegar actually helps strengthen your  gut microbiome help strengthen the gut  lining itself and prevent against leaky  gut syndrome and inflammation and so ACV  is fantastic you can take a tablespoon  of that in your water really the only  downside of apple cider vinegar unless  you are you know very sensitive to it  the only downside is that it can damage  the enamel of your teeth so you want to  make sure you rinse it out of your mouth  after you consume it don't take it just  straight up it's way too harsh  you know I think anybody that's  experienced that knows that don't drink  vinegar straight up dilute it in water  right take one tablespoon for example  put it in four six to eight ounces of  water and drink it like that and you can  have a lot of great benefits for a lot  of people that are having cravings when  they're fasting they know if they take  the apple cider vinegar and water it  reduces the Cravings why is that because  again the post-biotic a lot of times the  Cravings we're experiencing are actually  coming from our gut microbiome right  from the bacteria in our gut and we  provide this post-biotic it calms them  down we no longer experience the the  same Cravings so apple cider vinegar  works great lemon and lime also work  good there's very very small amount of  calories in there I I don't worry about  it so if you do like some lemon juice  and water or lime juice right or squeeze  a lemon or lime should be totally fine  the citric acid that's in there the  vitamin C the uh the bioflavonoids that  are in there amazing for your body and  postbiotics they help calm down the gut  microbiome  they're great for the skin great for  cleansing your body great for your liver  so a lot of really good benefits there  of doing lemon and lime and water and  again you shouldn't notice you know an  increase in Cravings or anything like  that and that's really one of the  telltale signs that you're looking for  if you consume something during a fast  like for example some of the things out  of this maybe list that we're going to  get to next like Stevia or a sweetener  and you notice you have more Cravings  let's say you know a few hours  afterwards that's a sign that you had a  blood sugar and an insulin response and  now your body's responding to that it's  saying okay give me more give me more I  want more sweetener okay so we want to  avoid that we don't want to get to that  place fasting can be very very  comfortable if we're not stimulating  blood sugar and insulin and stimulating  this sort of craving response so that  goes hand in hand with black coffee  right most people do great with coffee  right when they take a little bit and  you know some people are faster caffeine  metabolizers than others I'm a slower  caffeine metabolizer meaning I can't  handle as much caffeine so I will take  maybe like a half a cup of coffee and  make it last for you know all through  the morning for example kind of slowly  sip on it as opposed to chug it right  whereas other people they can just drink  caffeine and their body their liver  metabolizes it really really quickly so  after a few hours they need more right  or they they feel like they go down  their energy goes down they have brain  fog and then they need more caffeine to  pick them up so just depends on the  individual metabolism can be different  but in general if you're drinking the  right amount of caffeine and coffee for  you okay and coffee is actually a very  rich source of polyphenols  chlorogenic acid and cafeic acid that  are great for blood sugar stability  great for stimulating autophagy which is  one of the great benefits we get from  fasting so coffee believe it or not can  actually enhance the benefits of fasting  as long as you tolerate it well  so drinking coffee is fine but again you  shouldn't notice any cravings for some  people drinking coffee even black coffee  will trigger more Cravings they'll  notice that their energy goes down  they'll notice that they feel more  fatigued or maybe they have more joint  pain or whatever it is  if you're noticing unwanted symptoms you  want to avoid that coffee in general  should be a performance enhancement tool  should help you focus concentrate have  more energy more mental Clarity if  you're not noticing those benefits then  coffee is not doing what it needs what  it should be doing for you and you  should avoid it so that's the black  coffee okay so it is okay as long as  you're doing okay with it now the maybe  list  MCT oil  Stevia or any sort of sweetener butter  and cream and collagen these are all on  the maybe list and the reason why  they're on the maybe list is  if doing a fast like just a water fast  or just doing these things  only allows you to fast let's say 14  hours and then you just hit the wall  okay like you and dinner at 7 pm  and then at 9 00 a.m you're just like oh  my gosh I have to eat something even  though you're hydrating even though you  know you're following the principles I  already talked about  if taking a little bit of MCT oil which  turns right into ketones which gets  across the blood-brain barrier and  provides a fuel source for your brain  and triggers satiety if that can help  you actually have more energy better  mental Clarity and be able to fast  longer without noticing hunger then it  could be beneficial for you right there  there's a benefit to that right it  allows you to go a little bit longer  it's going to blunt some of the  autophagy but because it's not a protein  or a carbohydrate you'll still get a lot  of great fat burning a lot of great  autophagy growth hormone signaling stem  cell production that you wouldn't  normally get you know if you ate you  know a standard breakfast so adding in a  little bit of MCT oil and for some  people some butter and cream  now butter and cream will have a little  bit more of an insulin response so  longer chain fat so you get a little bit  more of an insulin response so it'll  blunt a little bit more of the autophagy  than if you just did like a straight MCT  oil  but again if it allows you to go longer  right and we talk about like a fatty  coffee or a you know a lot of people put  it in their coffee they'll do a  bulletproof coffee or a fatty coffee  where they've got butter they've got MCT  oil in there right in the coffee  if that allows you to fast longer save  off satiety or save off any sort of  cravings and allows you to go longer and  tighten your eating window when you  actually are eating then there could be  great benefit to that if that's your  goal right so that I'm open to that  collagen now what about collagen because  some people like to put collagen in  their coffee as well  um and this is this is becoming more and  more common  collagen is not going to break autophagy  as much as if we ate like a lot of sugar  or if we ate like a big piece of protein  right if we ate a protein Source other  than collagen we would break autophagy  right meaning that our body wouldn't be  able to undergo autophagy because we  would have too much leucine in our blood  and leucine is what stimulates muscle  protein synthesis collagen is low in  leucine  so it's possible we could do a little  bit of collagen but you aren't going to  get the 100 of the effects of what  you're trying to accomplish in the fast  if your main goal is just fat burning  weight loss you will still burn fat and  you'll still you know possibly lose lose  weight or transform your your physique  get rid of a lot of the fat fat weight  right or the uh your overall body fat  percentage you'll reduce that and um and  you know preferentially favor your  muscle mass which is which is a great  benefit but you won't get quite as much  of the deep cellular healing if you're  adding in the collagen Stevia or any  sort of sweetener Stevia  theoretically doesn't impact your blood  sugar right there's no carbohydrates in  it  however  a lot of us we have this response right  where if we're taking in anything that's  sweet our body expects our blood sugar  to go up so it goes ahead and produces  insulin right and so this is a cerebral  brain-based response that says okay  there's something sweet coming in I'm  going to produce more insulin which  drives down your blood sugar and if  you're already fasting your blood sugar  is probably you know within a healthy  range or possibly even low and so that  can bring down your blood sugar even  more which can then trigger hypoglycemic  like responses  um or you're irritable you have more  Cravings you don't sleep as well you  have more anxiety so you really have to  be careful here with stevia so these are  the big things okay  in general everybody does great with  water you know a little bit of salt  possibly some herbal teas particularly  non-caffeinated herbal teas most people  are doing well with apple cider vinegar  lemon lime  most people do well with black coffee  but you know just be aware gotta see how  it works for you  and then these are maybes depending on  how your body is responding and you  don't necessarily need to do like a  straight water fast every time you do  intermittent fasting okay you're going  to get a lot of great benefits if you  just do intermittent fasting three or  four days a week and then you may want  to do you know a fatty coffee or a  Bulletproof Coffee on the other day and  you know in in instead of like a  traditional breakfast and so you may  want to vary it up just depending on you  and how you feel and what's going to  work best for your schedule during the  day but this is where you're going to  get the best benefits of fasting staying  with these things this is going to take  away from some of those benefits but  could be used like I've talked about  strategically to help you have a longer  better uh you know just a more  comfortable fast more comfortable period  of time restricted feeding throughout  the day so hopefully this is beneficial  and you guys got a lot out of this if  you haven't subscribed to our Channel  now is the time to do it thanks so much  we'll see you guys in a future video be  blessed everybody