Can I Drink Green Tea On A Water Fast? A Helpful Guide

If you’re trying to stick to a new fasting strategy, you may be wondering how tea - or more specifically green tea - fits into your daily plan.

Everyone knows how drinking tea is such a relaxing, enjoyable, and even healthy experience, it would be wonderful to know if it can be enjoyed when you’re water fasting.

So in this article, we’re going to explore if green tea can be enjoyed as part of water fasting.

Let’s start off by taking a look at the short answer as to whether you can drink green tea on water fast, or if you’re thinking of embarking on water fasting and want to add green tea into the mix.

Can I drink green tea on a water fast? Green tea, along with black and white tea is not allowable on a water fast. However, it is ok on an intermittent fast as it can provide extra nutrients. Do not take milk, sugar or cream with your tea. It’s important to remember not to fast for periods longer than 72 hours without medical supervision.

With a new surge in popularity in Australia, people fast for many reasons including weight loss or just simply to kick start your metabolism and give your body a rest from the trials of digestion!

Green tea is known to have a wealth of wonderful properties and is a choice of many, as teas taken with milk and sugar, fall ever more out of favour with today’s modern consumers.

If you’re just looking to get straight on with green tea that will most likely benefit you alongside your water fast, then you can check out our green tea here.

Now we’ve seen the short answer, in order to help you more easily understand whether it’s ok to take green tea when you’re water fasting - let’s look below at exactly what a fast is before we delve a little deeper.

What is fasting?

A fast is defined as abstinence from all or some foods and drinks for a particular period of time. In general, most types of fasts are performed over 24–72 hours.

Generally, those who would like to enjoy the benefits of fasting will fast using two main methods.

If you choose to not consume food or water for selected periods of time you are said to be ‘intermittent fasting’. This is where you shorten your eating periods and lengthen your fasting periods. The second way is what we commonly know as water fasting.

What is water fasting?

Water fasting is a type of fast that restricts all foods except water. It’s become more popular in recent years as a quick way to lose weight

Generally, those looking to benefit from water fasts will follow the plan between 24–72 hours. The water fast is followed by a post-fast phase. If you’re new to water fasting, you might want to spend 3–4 days preparing your body to be without food by reducing your portion sizes or fasting for part of the day.

During the fast, most people drink two to three litres of water per day.

It’s important to understand that you should not follow water fast for longer 72 hours without medical supervision.

“Water fasting is a type of fast that restricts everything except water.”

Water fasting also may help to lower the risk of certain chronic conditions such as cancer or heart disease. In one study of 30 healthy adults, following a 24-hour water fast, participants reported significantly lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. These are two big risk factors for heart disease.

So now we’ve looked at what a water fast is, let’s take a look below at how tea can fit into your fasting program.

Tea in water fasting

Tea is a great option while you’re fasting on an intermittent fast, However, it’s important to remember that you must take your tea without cream, milk or sugar. Starting a ‘no sugar’ regime in your tea when you’re fasting can really help you to keep up the good work when you begin to eat normally again.

Taking tea of any kind, without the added extras can be an excellent new lifestyle choice, which enables you to enjoy all the benefits of tea without the calorie hit.

In fact, experts have shown a connection between fasting and health benefits including a lower risk of certain cancers, heart disease, and diabetes.

So you might be wondering how to know if it’s ok to drink green tea while fasting? What are the benefits of drinking it?

What are the benefits of green tea?

To help us more easily understand the benefits of green tea, let’s take a look at the different kinds of tea that many people commonly enjoy and how they are produced.

• White tea, this is made from unoxidized buds,
• Oolong tea stems from particularly oxidized leaves,
• Black tea is made when completely oxidized leaves are steeped in hot water.

Green tea, on the other hand, is made with unoxidized tea leaves and contains powerful catechins which can help to burn calories. All teas, including Green varieties, also contain flavonoids that have been shown to reduce coronary inflammation which can lead to heart attacks.

According to a 2005 scholarly review published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Green tea, has been shown to naturally contain the highest amount of flavonoids of the four varieties.

Which is the best green tea to drink when fasting?

Matcha green tea

If you want the best possible benefits from drinking green tea on an intermittent fast, matcha green tea is a good option. Matcha green tea is the richest green tea source of nutrients and antioxidants.

The reason for this is because as opposed to other types of green tea, the leaves are first steeped and then consumed, the whole leaf is ground in matcha green tea.

Now we’ve seen matcha tea is the most nutrient-rich tea you can drink during your water fast, another question you might have is how you can take green tea during a fast? Let’s take a look.

What are the different ways I can take Green Tea when fasting?

• Try loose leaf green tea - Taking green tea as a loose-leaf option, tea is a much better option than green tea bags. It has more nutritional value and a more intense flavour. The leaves in most tea bags are actually the dust and fannings from broken tea leaves. When steeped in hot water, they release more tannins than loose leaf tea or whole leaf tea, which can result in a much more bitter or astringent taste.

• Iced tea - Another great way to enjoy the benefits of green tea when fasting is to make a sugarless iced tea infused with mint and lemon.

• Drink green tea warm, not hot - Drinking your green tea when it is super-hot not only makes it tasteless but can end up hurting your stomach and throat. Have your green tea warm for best results.

• Don’t steep the green tea leaves for too long - Steeping green tea leaves for too long will not extract more nutrients from the leaves than it already contains. This is not only toxic but will also turn the flavour of your tea bitter.

And finally…

Green tea can be a great addition to your intermittent fast although is not generally taken on a water fast program. When intermittent fasting, it can help you to reap many of the benefits related to cleansing, detoxing and a great healing mechanism for your body.

If you’re considering green tea, for water fasting or other health benefits, then don’t forget to check out our green tea here!