Does Flavored Coffee Break a Fast? [Intermittent Fasting Tips]

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If you like sipping on your morning cup of Joe during your fast, it's important to understand what you can actually add into your coffee that won't break your fast. And that includes flavored coffee. So today, we're diving into whether or not flavored coffee breaks a fast.

Does Flavored Coffee Break a Fast?

Whether or not flavored coffee breaks a fast depends on how the coffee is flavored. For example, flavored coffee beans (such as hazelnut flavored coffee beans) do not contain any carbohydrates, sugar or protein. Because of this, having hazelnut flavored coffee beans black won't break a "true" or "fasting mimicking" fast.

Related: True vs. Fasting Mimicking | Which is Better?

Psssst... curious how long YOUR Intermittent Fast should be? Take my FREE Intermittent Fasting Schedule Quiz by clicking the button below!

However, once you start adding flavors into your coffee, this is where things can get a bit tricky. For example, the vanilla syrup at Starbucks has around 5 grams of sugar per pump. Regardless of if you're using a true fast or fasting mimicking approach, this will certainly break a fast. When looking at the "sugar-free" syrups, the Starbucks vanilla syrup technically has zero calories. But it uses maltodextrin as an ingredient, which has its own problems when it comes to Intermittent Fasting (check out THIS blog post for the details). So even though it's "zero sugar", this still could break your fast.

Does this mean you don't get ANY flavor in your coffee? Not at all! When following a fasting mimicking approach, you can actually be quite flexible with what you add into your coffee. You can find a complete list of what can be added into coffee without breaking a fast with my quick video below.