Intermittent Fasting is currently one of the most popular diet. People try out intermittent fasting for both losing weight and even improving their health. Studies have shown that it is very beneficial for your body and can even extend your lifespan. While you are fasting, you are not suppose to eat or drink anything that has calories. The good thing is, the calories in chamomile tea is low to the point where it is negligible and therefore you are allowed to drink chamomile tea while intermittent fasting.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is technically not really a diet. Instead, it is more of like an eating pattern in which you cycle between a period of eating and a period of not eating. It does not limit the type of food or calories you have to eat, but instead focuses on when you should be eating.
One of the most common type of intermittent fasting is the 16/8 fast. This is when you cycle between 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating. This typically means you either skip breakfast or dinner. For example, I usually skip breakfast and start eating at around 12pm and end my eating period at 8pm. This allows for me to include my sleeping hours in my 16 hours fast. It makes it so much easier as part of your fasting period is when you are asleep (which you won’t be eating anyways).
If your goal of intermittent fasting is for weight loss, the idea is that you would reduce your caloric intake because you are decreasing the amount of time you can eat. As long as you do not overcompensate by eating extra during your eating period, you should be cutting down on a bit of calories and therefore helping you lose weight.
In addition, fasting also helps you lower your insulin and increase your human growth hormone levels. This leads to an increased release of norepinephrine, a hormone that helps increase your fat burning. One study showed that the changes in your hormones might have the ability to increase your metabolic rate by around 3 to 14%.
It also has many other health benefits such as lowering your blood sugar levels, increasing your insulin resistance. and reducing the insulin levels in your blood. This helps reduces your risk of type 2 diabetes and could also help improve conditions for those who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Fasting also helps with reducing the inflammation in your body and thereby reducing your risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease. Studies have also shown that intermittent fasting was able to help extend the lifespan of rats. The rats that were given the fasting diet were measured to live around 36 to 83% longer.
Can You Have Chamomile Tea While Fasting?
When you are in the eating phase of intermittent fasting, you are allowed to eat and drink anything you want. This means that you can drink chamomile tea and anything else you would like. However, I would suggest you do not try to overeat or over drink to compensate for the lack of eating or drinking in your fasted period.
Chamomile tea is counted as calorie-free, technically it does have a very low trace amount of calories. However, the trace amounts of calories are so low, it is negligible and therefore it makes the tea to be 0 calories. Since there is no calories, there is no energy source to be put into your body and therefore your body will not need to activate itself to digest it. This means that drinking chamomile tea will not break your fast and change it from a fasted state to a fed state.
If you are like me and sometimes find it hard to just drink plain water, I would suggest you try chamomile tea when you are fasting. It does not break your fast and therefore you can drink a couple cups of it. In addition, it is a herbal tea that is known for being soothing. This makes it a great night time drink for you to help you relax after a long busy day.
Chamomile also contains apigenin, this is an antioxidant that will bind to certain receptors that can help promote sleep and reduce insomnia. Studies have shown promising results on the impact on insomnia, therefore it is worth trying out chamomile tea to help you sleep. The antioxidant apigenin, can also help lower inflammation and even reduce the risk of some types of cancer. However, current research is promising, but more research is still needed to fully confirm the ability of chamomile tea to reduce some types of cancer.
Lastly, if you drink chamomile tea, make sure you drink it straight. This means that you should not put in any sugar, sweetener, milk or plant based milk. This is because you need to keep to 0 calories to make sure you do not break your fast. Drinking plain chamomile tea keeps it at 0 calories, but if you were to add all these additional ingredients, it would add calories into your drink. Therefore, this would break your fast and put you back into a fed state.
When purchasing chamomile tea, make sure you check the ingredients properly. Some teas might have additional ingredients such as sugar or sweeteners. Make sure the ingredients only has chamomile. Give chamomile tea a try, especially if you want to spice it up a little bit. I know drinking water during your fasting state can get a little boring. Trying out chamomile tea allows for a little flavour without the calories to break your fast.