Does Prebiotic Fiber Break A Fast? - A Complete Guide

Intermittent fasting is an increasingly popular dietary choice amongst health-conscious individuals for its remarkable benefits to the body.

It is believed to help you lose weight, reduce insulin resistance and inflammation, improve heart and brain health, lower cancer risk, and even help you live longer ¹. It’s no wonder it is a go-to dietary choice for many people!

But during periods of fasting, you are not providing your body with the necessary nutrients. Supplements such as prebiotic fiber can help improve nutrient absorption and gut health, but will they break a fast? Here, we reveal all.

Supplements While Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) involves cycling between periods of eating and periods of abstaining from food or drinks that contain calories, known as fasting. Common eating patterns include fasting for 16 or 24 hours a day or twice a week.

You are not restricted on what food you should eat during eating periods, which is one reason why IF is such an attractive and more sustainable diet for many! Weight loss, better overall health, and eating what you want - what’s not to love?

Depending on the type of fasting method you are practicing, generally, you should not consume any calories during a fast.

This is because the benefits of fasting are linked to a switch in metabolism where the body begins to burn fat for energy once sugar stores are exhausted. Consuming calories tops up these sugar stores, stopping this metabolic switch from occurring.

Many people take supplements while fasting to prevent nutrient deficiencies and improve nutrient absorption. But some supplements contain sugars and proteins which provide calories and will break a fast.

Prebiotic supplements do not contain calories and are fine to take during a fast. But it’s important to make sure your source of prebiotics does not come from prebiotic-containing food, as this will contain calories.

Benefits of Prebiotic Fiber

As gross as it may sound, your gut consists of trillions of different microorganisms that make up what’s known as your gut microbiome. Some microbes are harmful to our health, while others are beneficial and necessary.

Scientists have extensively studied bacteria in the human body and estimate up to 1,000 different species living in our gut microbiomes! ² Each type of bacteria has its own role to play in the body.

The “good” bacteria are extremely important for our health and help regulate digestion, nutrient absorption, energy, and mood while supporting a healthy immune system. While the “bad” bacteria are associated with weight gain, inflammation, and an increased risk for disease.

A highly diverse microbiome that contains a good balance of harmful and beneficial bacteria is considered the most beneficial to our health ³. When this balance becomes disrupted, known as dysbiosis, and you don’t have enough good gut bacteria, your health suffers.

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The food you eat greatly impacts the composition of your gut bacteria. Prebiotic fiber is found in many fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains.

It is indigestible, so it makes its way through your digestive tract to the large intestine. Here, it is broken down by the “friendly” bacteria, enabling them to thrive while promoting the growth of other beneficial microbes.

However, following a fasting diet, you will want to avoid these prebiotic-containing foods, as they will break your fast. For this reason, taking prebiotic dietary supplements is the best course of action.

Performance Lab Prebiotic provides calorie-free prebiotic fiber to stimulate the growth of good bacteria in your gut, benefitting your overall health and wellbeing by:

Promoting weight loss: Multiple studies have found that probiotics and prebiotics taken together can promote weight and fat loss in overweight or obese individuals ⁴.

Improving heart health: Unhealthy gut bacteria can contribute to heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke. While good bacteria can benefit the heart by helping reduce cholesterol ⁵

Lowering blood sugar: Prebiotics have been found to help reduce blood sugar and fasting insulin levels, which is especially beneficial for individuals with diabetes or prediabetes ⁶.

Improving brain health: The brain and gut are closely connected. Good bacteria in the gut help produce essential brain chemicals, such as serotonin, which regulate mood. According to research, a lack of healthy bacteria can contribute to anxiety and depression ⁷.

Improving gut conditions: Prebiotic fiber can improve gut health by feeding probiotics responsible for helping to alleviate irritable bowel syndrome symptoms and constipation ⁸.

Reduce inflammation: Inflammation underpins nearly all chronic diseases. Prebiotic fiber can help reduce inflammation by improving the health of the intestinal lining and inhibiting the action of inflammatory molecules ⁹.

Conclusion

Fasting provides numerous health benefits that can prolong our lifespan and reduce the risk of disease. But, during fasting days, you must stick to the rules! Even consuming a few calories can negate the beneficial effects of fasting.

During fasting days, you are not providing your body with the nutrients for a healthy gut microbiome, which should contain plenty of good bacteria. These are essential for maintaining many aspects of health, including the immune system, digestion, metabolism, brain function, and heart health.

Prebiotic fiber feeds the good bacteria and helps them thrive and multiply. Supplements like Performance Lab Prebiotic provide all the benefits of prebiotic fiber obtained from food but don’t break that all-important fasting state.