Artificial sweeteners on a fast?

[Annalisbeth74]

I’m starting my first extended (probably 3 day) fast today. Are artificial sweeteners a bad idea? I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize or sabotage my fast.
TIA.

[MarkGossage]

Possibly… a lot of people (me included) try to avoid them most of the time and I would say a fast is probably the best time to avoid them. What were you thinking of having them in?

[Annalisbeth74]

I was thinking of the occasional saccharin added to my tea. But if it’s best to avoid it, I will.

[BillJay]

I’m starting my first extended (probably 3 day) fast today. Are artificial sweeteners a bad idea?

I use artificial sweeteners sparingly during a fast, but Dr. Jason Fung claims that many of them raise insulin and he mentions sucralose raising it by 20% and recommends against them in The Obesity Code, but in other places he also says that to take what you need to get through a fast, so using AS won’t completely sabotage a fast although they will work against lowering insulin if you’re sensitive to it.

Currently the standard measurement for gauging the effectiveness of a fast is the Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) and when I’m fasting and testing, my GKI is below 1, which is considered extremely good.

If you can consume something with AS during a fast and it doesn’t trigger hunger and cause you to end the fast then you can probably tolerate it enough to get the benefits of the fast.

[MarkGossage]

Well we’re all unique… maybe try it towards the end of your fast and see if it gives you any problems then it won’t be so bad… if you can avoid it I think it would probably make the fast easier… good luck with your first EF!

[Annalisbeth74]

Currently the standard measurement for gauging the effectiveness of a fast is the Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) and when I’m fasting and testing, my GKI is below 1, which is considered extremely good.

If you can consume something with AS during a fast and it doesn’t trigger hunger and cause you to end the fast then you can probably tolerate it enough to get the benefits of the fast.

Good to know! Thanks!

I’ve been able to resist so far, but I might break down and have just 1 tomorrow.

[BillJay]

I’ve been able to resist so far, but I might break down and have just 1 tomorrow.

One of the reasons I stay keto is pain from inflammation and one of the subjective ways I can tell if my insulin is rising is increased pain since insulin is pro-inflammatory.

In the post below I attributed the increase in ketones from testing with sucralose to be from a cephalic insulin response, but it could’ve been a direct insulinogenic effect of the sucralose itself.

ZipFixx Experiment

Perfect, that’s exactly the kind of objectivity and analysis I was looking for and I agree that the results are somewhat inconclusive because the underlying readings are just too inconsistent. So, taking the BG mean values despite the variability of the individual readings within the sample set being large, the drops in the mean at subsequent times don’t seem to be enough to infer an insuligenic effect from the sucralose itself, but are more in line with the cephalic release of insulin, ie. “a…

[Daisy]

Best avoided but everyone’s fast is their own and whatever gets you through is good enough. I think @MarkGossage’s suggestion of trying towards the end is a good plan. The only way to tell if it is OK for you or not is to try it. Logically, my feeling is that it would stimulate appetite which would probably be the last thing you need!