Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
It doesn’t matter if it’s a lazy Saturday or a bustling Wednesday, you start every single day with a steaming hot mug of coffee. You need the caffeine to energize you for the day ahead. You’ve just committed to fasting, and in a few days, you’re going to start. If you regularly use Stevia as your coffee sweetener, do you have to give it up while you fast?
Stevia does not cause an insulin response when consumed, numerous studies have shown. That makes it a safe sweetener to use on a fast. Some experts even believe that your insulin sensitivity can increase by ingesting Stevia.
In this article, we’ll talk more about whether Stevia and other sweeteners are allowed in your coffee on a fast, whether you can drink tea, and which beverages won’t break your fast. If you’re new to fasting, you’re not going to want to miss it.
What Is Stevia?
You know that Stevia is a sweetener substitute, but what really is it? Stevia comes from the Stevia rebaudiana, an Asteraceae family member that belongs to other sunflowers. Nicknames for the Stevia plant are the sugarleaf, sweetleaf, and candyleaf, each attributable to the natural sweetness of this plant.
Growing natively in Paraguay and Brazil, the Stevia plant produces pretty white flowers, but it’s harvested more for its leaves. Those leaves enter manufacturing, and during extraction, the steviol glycosides are removed. These glycosides include rebaudioside and stevioside, both of which are up to 150 times, sometimes even 300 times sweeter than table sugar.
Other benefits of the steviol glycosides in Stevia is they don’t ferment, they have a stable pH, and they don’t degrade in heat. Since the glycosides aren’t metabolized, that’s how Stevia can get away with its zero-calorie labeling.
Consuming Stevia in great quantities might bring out its aftertaste, which some say is reminiscent of licorice. Its onset in the body is delayed compared to sugar, and it lasts longer in the system too.
What about the nutrition facts of Stevia? There’s not much to see, as a 1-gram serving–which is a packet–has no calories, fat, protein, sugar, fiber, carbohydrates, or sodium. Well, at least on the labeling, that’s what Stevia’s nutritional information looks like.
What we do we mean by that? Each packet does indeed contain carbs, but only about 1 gram per serving. Considering a single packet of Stevia tends to be insufficient in sugaring up coffee and other beverages, you could be ingesting 2 to 4 grams of carbs each time you drink a cup of coffee.
Can You Drink Coffee with Stevia When on a Fast?
When you go on a fast, during your fasting window, you’re supposed to refrain from caloric intake. Intermittent fasts, a type of on-off fasting, do generally allow for eating periods. One of the more beginner-friendly intermittent fasts is the 2:5 diet, where you only spend two days a week fasting. Even then, you can eat during those days, but only 25 percent of your normal caloric intake.
The 16:8 diet is also generous for beginners, as you can eat for eight hours every day and then fast for the other 16 hours. As you get into alternate-day fasting (24 hours fasting, 24 hours not fasting) and water fasting (where you consume mostly water), the fasting rules are stricter.
When you fast, you’re attempting to rid your body of its supply of glucose, a natural sugar you get from food. Glucose becomes glycogen in the body, then it goes to the liver for storage. As your energy levels sag, the liver releases glycogen.
With no glucose from food, your body begins burning fat instead. This can accelerate your weight loss results on a fast. The reason you have to be so careful about what you eat and drink on a fast is that flooding your body with calories and carbs can activate an insulin response. This causes your liver to release more glycogen so your body shifts back to burning sugar instead of fat.
That’s precisely why you can’t drink regular coffee when fasting. If you sip more than one cup and add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 ounces of cream, you’re ingesting 24 grams of fat and 300 calories. This would definitely break your fast, and with only two cups of coffee!
Black coffee, which is allowed on a fast, is still caffeinated so you’ll get your daily boost of energy. A cup, which is 270 grams, contains 1 calorie, 0.3 grams of protein, zero sugar, zero fiber, zero carbs, 6 milligrams of sodium, and zero fat.
What about when you add Stevia to the mix? We already know the sweetener is calorie-free, so you wouldn’t have to worry about breaking your fast that way. The carbs in Stevia may seem concerning, but they’re not. To keep burning fat, you want to consume under 50 grams of carbs a day when fasting, according to Healthline. You’re well under that with Stevia, even if you use a few packets per cup of coffee.
Many scientific studies back this up too. In a 2010 publication of Appetite, the researchers looked at Stevia as well as other artificial sweeteners such as sucrose and aspartame to see how they affected insulin levels, postprandial glucose, satiety, and food intake. Postprandial glucose, by the way, is a form of testing your blood glucose and plasma content after you’ve eaten.
In the study, all participants consumed preloads with various artificial sweeteners. The caloric content of the Stevia preload was 290 calories, about on par with the other artificial sweetener preloads. The researchers notes that Stevia decreased the participants’ postprandial glucose readings, especially in comparison to sucrose.
A 2018 report from the American Diabetes Association concluded the following: “Stevia does not affect in acute glycemic and insulin responses to OGTT in obese patients.” OGTT stands for oral glucose tolerance testing.
The ADA study involved obese participants, 20 in all, who were fed a pill that was either a placebo or contained Stevia, 200 milligrams. Then, at varying intervals, the researchers tested the blood glucose of the participants. Their blood glucose didn’t fluctuate much between ingesting the placebo versus the Stevia.
While the results of the study are promising, even the ADA says they must do a study for a longer period to confirm the results. Also, the study did have a small sample size.
Finally, a 2003 publication of the journal Metabolism states that “Stevia does not increase blood sugar and appears to improve insulin sensitivity in the pancreas.”
Although more research would help drive the point home, drinking black coffee with only Stevia as a sweetener shouldn’t cause an insulin response that would break your fast.
Are Other Coffee Sweeteners Allowed While Fasting?
Stevia is far from the only sugar alternative on the market. If you’re considering using other sweeteners to make that cup of black coffee more palatable, would those be okay to consume on a fast? To answer that question, let’s go one by one over today’s most popular artificial sweeteners.
Erythritol
Erythritol is a type of sugar alcohol that has far fewer calories than normal sugar, only 6 percent of the overall allotment. A teaspoon or 4 grams of erythritol contains zero calories as well as no protein, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, or fat but 4 grams of carbs.
Like Stevia, erythritol does not create an insulin response because the body can’t process it. The sugar goes right to your bloodstream and then is excreted through the urine.
FOS
Fructooligosaccharides or FOS, also known as oligofructans or oligofructose, are a type of oligosaccharide fructans. Compared to commercial syrups, FOS has about half the sugar, sometimes as little as 30 percent of the sugar.
A half-teaspoon serving, which is approximately 1.25 grams of FOS, has 5 calories, 6.1 milligrams of protein, 48 milligrams of total sugar, 3 milligrams of dietary fiber, and 1.2 grams of carbs. Being a sugar bomb as FOS is, ingesting even such a small quantity as half a teaspoon would absolutely cause an insulin response.
Sucralose
Your body also doesn’t digest sucralose upon consumption, much like Stevia and erythritol, which makes this another low-calorie sugar alternative. A packet has 3.4 calories, 0.8 grams of sugar, 0.9 grams of carbs, and no protein, sodium, or fat.
According to this 2020 press release published in EurekAlert!, even a small sampling of sucralose can increase insulin levels and blood glucose, says University of Illinois researchers. The scientists also said sucralose can activate a metabolic effect despite its low caloric content.
Since sucralose could cause an insulin response, this is one sweetener you want to steer clear of when fasting.
Xylitol
Another artificial sweetener you might add to your black coffee is xylitol, a vegetable and fruit alcohol that’s often found in candy, mint, and chewing gum that’s sugar-free. This sugar source is also used medicinally in some applications.
Xylitol slices the calories of traditional sugar up to 40 percent. A teaspoon serving size, which is 4 grams, contains 10 calories, 4 grams of carbs, and no protein, sugar, sodium, or fat. Due to its lower glycemic index rating, it may cause an insulin response if ingested in large enough quantities though.
Sorbitol
Sorbitol, also known as glucitol, is another type of sugar alcohol that’s used as an artificial sweetener. A teaspoon of sorbitol has 15 calories, 4 grams of sugar, 4 grams of carbs, and no sodium, protein, or fat.
The slow absorption rate of sorbitol may not cause an insulin response if consumed in moderation, but be careful not to overdo it.
Maltitol
What if you like maltitol? This is yet another sugar alcohol that tastes a lot like sucrose, with up to 90 percent of the same sweet properties. Like sugar, maltitol contains some calories, 35 per packet. You’re also ingesting 9 grams of carbs, 30 milligrams of sodium, and no protein, sugar, or fat.
That’s a pretty high number of carbs, and the calories in maltitol are a bit high too. If you must use it, stick to a single packet per day or you could break your fast.
Aspartame
The last sweetener we want to discuss is aspartame, a non-saccharide that’s even sweeter than your standard table sugar, at least 200 times more. A tablespoon serving, which is 10.5 grams, contains 38.3 calories, 8.5 grams of sugar, 9.4 grams of carbs, 0.2 grams of protein, and zero sodium and fat.
We probably don’t have to tell you this, but you shouldn’t consume aspartame when fasting. On that note, you might not even want to eat this sugary substitute when not fasting, as it may contribute to brain damage in some people.
Can You Drink Tea While Fasting?
What if you’re more of a tea drinker than a coffee person? Which teas if any can you sip while you fast? You have more options than you might have thought, including the following beverages.
Black Tea
A single cup of black tea contains 2.4 calories, 0.1 grams of protein, 0.1 grams of fiber, 0.4 grams of carbs, no sugar, no fat, and no sodium. You can drink black tea throughout the day on a water fast to sate you without worrying about breaking your fast.
Black tea is incredibly beneficial for your health, as it could lower your cancer risk, control your blood sugar, and reduce bad cholesterol. Other benefits of black tea include improved gut health as well as reduced stroke risk.
Green Tea
If you like the taste of green tea more, then you’re in luck. A cup of green tea has 2.5 calories, 0.5 grams of protein, 2.5 milligrams of sodium, no sugar, no carbs, and no fat. You could switch between green and black tea to add some variety to your water fast or just stick with green tea.
You’ll enjoy a slew of benefits through green tea consumption, among them a lower risk of developing conditions like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Green tea can even accelerate fat burning, so it’s a type of tea you definitely want to drink when fasting!
White Tea
The Camellia sinensis, the plant in which most teas are sourced from, goes through the least amount of processing to make white tea. That allows the tea to retain that trademark hue. A cup of white tea has 0.3 calories, 0.1 grams of carbs, 2.7 milligrams of potassium, 0.3 milligrams of sodium, no sugar, no protein, and no fat.
The high quantity of antioxidants in white tea makes it a favorite. It might ward off the signs of skin aging, keep your teeth safeguarded from dangerous bacteria, and speed up weight loss. It’s another great type of tea to augment your intermittent fast then.
Conclusion
Stevia is a sugar alternative that’s calorie-free and contains so few carbs that it won’t trigger an insulin response that breaks your fast. You can’t say that about all the other artificial sweeteners we’ve discussed, especially aspartame.
If you drink black coffee with some Stevia on your fast, you should continue burning fat instead of glucose. You can also enjoy green, black, or white tea. Best of luck on your fast!