A morning cup of coffee is something that most people are unwilling to give up – and believe me I can appreciate this! But what if your morning coffee could be used as a means to enhance the benefits of intermittent or full-day 24-hour fasting.

First Step: Test Yourself to Determine Coffee’s Effect on Your Body
Coffee can have a negative effect on some people when fasting as coffee can increase cortisol, which in turn affects your glucose readings. The best way to find out how coffee affects you is to test your blood sugar before drinking it and again 30 minutes afterward.

If your glucose readings are higher at the 30 minute reading then, sorry to say this, but consuming coffee while fasting is not for you! If your glucose reading is the same, or lower, then coffee while fasting is for you!

This test should be done first with black coffee. Then repeat with each individual ingredient you add to see how those affect your sugars when combined with coffee – creamer, butter, oils, stevia, etc.

Health Benefits of Drinking Coffee While Fasting?
Coffee is certainly a unique food product – some say it has incredible health benefits while others say it could have negative effects on your health. Just as corn-fed red meat has been connected to increased heart disease while grass-fed red meats to its decrease, coffee also carries a possible dark twin. I am convinced that coffee can qualify as a healthy superfood – as long as it comes from a non-toxic organic and laboratory-verified mold/yeast/biotoxin free source.

Currently, there are more than 19,000 studies on coffee, suggesting that it is in a class by itself as a food product when it comes to health and wellness.

Here are some of the stats on the health benefits of 3-5 cups of coffee per day, courtesy of Purity Coffee.

• 40% reduced risk of liver disease
• 30% reduced congestive heart failure
• 24-40% reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes
• 30% reduced risk of Parkinson’s Disease
• 22-25% reduced risk of stroke
• 15% reduced risk of prostate cancer
• 65% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
• Overall reduction in risk of mortality

What’s in Your Coffee?


The aforementioned health benefits can easily be negated when using a coffee that is toxic. Most commonly the mass-produced commercial coffees you find in the grocery store, and even many organic brands, carry a level of unwanted toxic by-products. The most common include:

• Ochratoxin A. Ochratoxin A3 is a mold toxin that is commonly found in coffee. Mold can grow on any food substance and this toxin carries carcinogenic properties.
• Acrylamide is a naturally occurring chemical, found in coffee, which has been shown to cause several types of cancer in animals. Acrylamide levels increase as the roasting time increases, a common practice with dark roasts and to enhance shelf life.
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAH’s are found during roasting and brewing, typically when high temperature roasting for darker roasts. PAHs are suspected to be carcinogenic and mutagenic.
• Pesticides (also known carcinogens) are found in 95-99% of non-organic, and even some organic brands of coffee.

Coffee While Fasting
Assuming you passed the “Coffee Blood Sugar Test” and that you have a clean cup of coffee then by all means – enjoy your coffee while fasting. Consider also doing a fatted-coffee fast either intermittently (as your morning meal) or via a 24hr full day liquid fasting.

Simply melt into and blend thoroughly 1/2 to 1 tbsp of MCT oil, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter/ghee into each 16-20oz cup. This has been shown to not only provide satiety during fasting but can also increase your overall fat metabolism (ketone bodies) – assisting with energy production, anti-inflammation and a boost to your metabolism.