Does pickles break a fast?

USDA data list dill pickles at 12 kcal and 809 mg of sodium per 100 g. That puts a 28 g (1 oz) spear at about 3 kcal and about 230 mg of sodium. Dill pickles are cucumbers cured in salty brine with dill. A spear holds well under 1 g of carbohydrate, too little sugar or starch to matter.

On the four goals this site uses to sort answers, a dill pickle is safe for weight loss. It sits far below the common 50-calorie rule of thumb, which is not an official limit. Blood sugar is safe too, since a dill spear has too little carbohydrate to matter. A pickle is a solid food you chew and swallow, though, so it breaks a fast for autophagy and gut rest.

Sweet pickles change the answer. USDA data for sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles included, list 91 kcal and about 18 g of sugar per 100 g. A 28 g (1 oz) serving comes to about 25 kcal and 5 g of sugar. That sugar breaks a fast for blood sugar, and two servings come to about 50 kcal. Check the ingredients for sugar before you eat a sweet pickle during a fast.

Salt is the other thing to count. WHO advises adults to keep sodium under 2,000 mg a day. As a worked example, four dill spears at about 230 mg each add about 900 mg of sodium, close to half that daily limit. Pickle juice is the brine itself, so it is salty too. Read the label for its sodium per serving before you drink any.

Some people need to watch salt more closely. If you have kidney disease, high blood pressure or heart failure, check with your doctor before adding salty foods such as pickles to a fast. Do the same if you take water tablets.