Intermittent fasting has witnessed a meteoric rise in popularity as an effective approach to brain function, reducing cardiovascular stress, promoting self-healing (autophagy), lowering blood sugar, decreasing inflammation, improving gut health and make your metabolism more adaptable with fitness icons like Jennifer Aniston and Halle Berry swearing by the lifestyle ritual. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this trend, intermittent fasting is a diet strategy in which you intentionally alternate a period of eating with a period of fasting. While we do this already when we sleep, intermittent fasting tends to expand on the normal fasting window by making the fasting part of your day longer or by alternating days of fasting with days of eating throughout the week.

According to Alexandra King, Wednesday Cleanse Day Certified Nutritionist, intermittent fasting has been shown to increase the diversity and number of microbes within the gut, and also allows the gut lining time to repair while reducing inflammation. Furthermore, practicing intermittent fasting allows enough time between each meal for the food to be digested and moved along the digestive tract efficiently, which improves the overall composition of the gut microbiome, digestive function and absorption of nutrients.

But as with any popular trend, there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about the dietary pattern. To help you sort facts from fiction, here Alexandra debunks the top three myths when it comes to intermittent fasting.

#1 I can eat anything I want during my eating window.

The eating window is not a time to overindulge because you have fasted for a certain period, it is also not a time to restrict calories. If you want to reap the benefits of intermittent fasting it is important to maintain a healthy diet within your eating window, this means ensuring you get enough quality protein such as lean meats, eggs, fatty fish, wholegrains and fresh fruits and vegetables.

#2 Intermittent fasting means skipping breakfast.

No. Breakfast is still exactly as it sounds, it is breaking the fast, and whether that is at 8am or 10am it is still breakfast. As I mentioned previously the eating window is not a time to restrict calories so you would still have your three main meals, the timing of these is just slightly altered, depending on the fasting you are doing.

#3 You can’t drink water whilst you are fasting.

Intermittent fasting is abstaining from food for a certain period, this does not include water. It is important to stay hydrated and continue drinking adequate water in your fasting window. Water is essential as it assists in the removal of waste products and toxins, regulates body temperature and transports nutrients and oxygen to the cells.

By incorporating Wednesday Cleanse Day to your fast, the nutrient-packed tonic will assist your body and give it what it needs to reset and restore whilst defeating any feelings of sluggishness. With 100% natural ingredients like collagen peptides, Siberian ginseng, peppermint, watercress, aloe vera and organic stevia, you’ll get a morning boost – just drink one sachet a day, in the morning, before you break your fast.