You are practising intermittent fasting but want to add a healthy daily dose of collagen into your life. Does collagen break a fast? Which types of fast allow collagen? And can you take marine collagen supplements when on a Paleo or Keto diet?
What do we mean by fasting?
Fasting is when we abstain from all or some kinds of food and drink for some time. The best example of a fast is when we go to bed at night and refrain from eating or drinking until the following morning. Most of us break our fast with breakfast!
What are the possible health benefits of intermittent fasting?
- Reduced insulin levels
- Weight loss
- Reduction in visceral fat (the unhealthy fat that lies deep around our abdominal walls and surrounds the organs of our body)
- Reduced inflammation
- Improved sleep function
- Detoxification
- Rejuvenation of the body’s cells
It is important to note that fasting is not for everyone. Anyone who experiences detrimental health effects during a fast should abandon it immediately.
Which types of fasting and diets allow collagen supplements?
Firstly, we should discuss the difference between a zero-tolerance fast, where no calorie intake is allowed, and a healthier fast, where a minimal ‘sensible’ few hundred calories are permitted. Consuming 200 or 300 calories of vitamin pills and supplements can bring us many health benefits while not technically breaking a fast as we remain in a fasting state. Any calorie intake at all will indeed spike your blood sugar levels. However, adding a sachet of collagen to your morning coffee or lunchtime glass of water does not undo the benefits of a fast. A single serving of Col Du Marine™ collagen is just 5g, so the spike in blood sugar is small, while the benefits of collagen intake are great.
The 5:2 fast
The 5:2 intermittent fast is extremely popular today. If you decide to try it, remember it is to improve your health, not as a punishment or endurance test! The main idea of the 5:2 fasting diet is that you eat as you want for five days per week. For the other two days in the week, you fast. However, this does not mean a zero-calorie intake. It is sensible to take in minimal calories. The typical number for this is 200 or 500 calories in a day. When you consider that the average calorie intake is 3885 calories per day in Ireland and even 2737 calories in Burkina Faso (numbers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), you will appreciate that restricting your daily intake twice per week to just 200 or 500 calories is most definitely what we would consider a fast to be. Moreover, if your daily calorie count is 200-500 calories during a 5:2 fast, then a sachet or scoop of pure Col Du Marine™ peptides collagen powder in a glass of water is the perfect thing to add!
What is a Paleo diet? And can we take collagen with a Paleo diet?
The change of pace in modern life is hard for most of us to keep up with. Technology advances every month. Even food is changing, from genetically modified seeds to processed foods. Many doctors and dieticians argue that the human body has been unable to adapt to these modern changes in our diet and is better suited to the diet humans were used to for hundreds of thousands of years.
With obesity, diabetes and heart disease rates exploding across most of the developed world, it isn’t a crazy stretch of the imagination to conclude that modern diets make us sick and overweight. Now is probably a good time to look to the past to understand what makes a healthy diet.
We name the Paleo diet after the Paleolithic era. The modern Paleo diet means lots of fruit, vegetables, fish, meat and nuts. Think hunter-gatherers for a better sense of what this diet consists of.
A Paleo diet is a natural way of sourcing collagen in your diet. Additionally, if you wish to add collagen peptides to your diet, you can do so because collagen peptides are a healthy part of any Paleo diet.
What is a Keto diet? Is collagen Keto-friendly?
A Keto diet - also known as a Ketogenic diet - is low in carbohydrates but high in fat. The benefits of this diet include better metabolism, protection against type 2 diabetes, and a reduction in excess body fat loss. When we drastically reduce carbs intake, we burn off lots of unhealthy fat. This metabolic state is known as ketosis. Is collagen Keto-friendly? How does collagen affect the Keto diet? These are popular questions that pop up again and again in Google searches. The fact is that collagen peptides are perfect for a Keto diet and are a healthy way of increasing protein intake.
The good news is you can add collagen to your intermittent fast and Paleo and Keto diets!
Collagen peptides taken in pure form do not break an intermittent fast where a calorie intake of 200 or 500 calories is allowed. Indeed, consuming a few dozen calories of collagen is a healthy way of supplementing such a fast.
And let's not forget that collagen brings many health benefits, including stronger bones and joints, improved skin health, and more vibrant-looking hair!
When it comes to Paleo and Keto diets, adding a daily collagen sachet is a complete must!
What brand of collagen is best when fasting?
Adding collagen to your intermittent fast is a wise way of slipping in a nominal number of healthy calories. When choosing which brand to use, choose one that is natural and does not include additives and colouring. The best and most natural brand on the market is Col Du Marine™.
Col Du Marine™ is a pure Marine Collagen Peptides powder. The secret to its success is that it is micro-granulated, with low molecular weight. Additionally, Col Du Marine™ is neutral in taste and is 100% soluble in your morning smoothie.
