Ash Wednesday Fasting

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jmsalvador

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Hi,

Forgive me if this has been addressed. I’ve looked and can’t seem to find anything concrete regarding chewing gum and the Catholic Church’s requirement to fast on Ash Wednesday. Does chewing gum break my fast? Kindly advise and thanks in advance.
  • JoseMari
 
Generally, yes. It contains sugar and thus it’s a snack.

The exception would be some kind of gum for a purpose other than food, like nicotine gum if you’re trying to stop smoking, or the gum with toothpaste in it that some people use when they can’t brush their teeth.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Generally, yes. It contains sugar and thus it’s a snack.
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I think it’s debatable. I found this old article from Jimmy Akin. He says:
Incidentally, for those who may be wondering, gum does not violate the Eucharistic fast, because GUM IS NOT FOOD. Gum is one of those non-food things like mouthwash, toothpaste, medicine, throat losenges, barium solutions, and breathmints that you put in your mouth (and may even swallow) for reasons other than wanting to provide nourishment to your body. It therefore is not food and does not break the fast.
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For me personally, I avoid it anyway on days of fasting (as well as in the fast prior to receiving the Eucharist). But I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say it breaks a fast. As far as I know, there are nor explicit directives from the Church on gum in particular, so that’s why I’d say it still seems up for debate (and probably why the OP hasn’t come across anything concrete).
 
Gum to me is sugar candy, unless it’s medicinal gum which I stated the exception for (would also include a breath mint taken for breath or a throat lozenge taken for cough).
 
And gum that is artificially sweetened with Sorbitol or similar??
 
Look, there’s three things we put in our mouths and chew and swallow at least some of:
  1. Food
  2. Water
  3. Medicine/ hygiene product
If the gum isn’t (3) then it’s (1).
Also, if artificial sweetener didn’t count as food, we could all be drinking 2 liters of diet soda between meals on our fast day, which is absurd.
 
The difference being that diet soda is swallowed whereas gum isn’t. Can something be “food” if it isn’t swallowed? (And let’s not get into tube feeding of the very ill.) Chewing gum produces saliva, which ordinarily is swallowed without breaking the fast.
 
Chewing gum produces flavor that is swallowed, unless you keep a piece of old dead chewed gum around just to re-use on Ash Wednesday.

Anyway, if you want to chew gum all day on Ash Wednesday, I don’t care and Jimmy Akin thinks it’s okay, but I personally don’t eat between meals unless it’s medicine or hygiene product, like if I brush my teeth and swallow a little toothpaste in the process of rinsing, it’s not food.

I also think if a doctor hasn’t prescribed the gum, then a normal person can go without it for 24 hours, so it’s not worth all this thought. Muting this thread now.
 
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Classically speaking, chewing gum was made out of stuff like mastic or pine tar. There was no food value. Modern chewing gum has some food value, but it still is not consumed and does nothing for hunger.

So basically, it is in a gray area, and you can choose for yourself.
 
My thinking on this is that Jimmy Akin is technically correct, it may be used.

However, I view this as a gray area. If one was using sugar-free gum to fight bad breath, then I would think that’s ok.

But if one was using a very sugary gum (like Big League Chew) for a little “pick me up” then I would agree with @Tis_Bearself and argue that it breaks the spirit of the fast.

God Bless
 
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I would agree with this. One of the reasons I don’t have gum on fasting days is because, for me, it would be a way of coping with not eating as much. It would just feel like I was breaking the fast. I don’t think my feelings are good enough reason to hold other people to it, but for me, I can go a day without gum.
 
There is no nutritional substance in gum and I’m sure even if you ate it in skip loads, you’d barely nourish your body with anything beyond a calorie or two (if this is sugar free gum you mean). If a person was on a desert Ireland and all they had to eat was gum,do you (or the above people who have responded) think a person would live longer than split second compared with someone having eaten no gum? It’s absurd to think Gum has nutritonal content but of you usually eat alot then eating none or just one or two peices gives you a great opportunity to abstain for the day too if it is Ash Wednesday or Good Friday
 
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@Tis_Bearself and @Joe_5859: I regret that I have but one “like” to give for that post. I’ve had the internal diet-soda conversation. For me it’s about the spirit of the fast, and the intention of the does-it-sneak-past. And there really is a biological effect for a few people, in that the zero-calorie item takes the edge off the hunger.

(… waits for an equally well-intentioned poster to comment that this is too strict and invites scruples …)

Fortunately I think artificial sweeteners taste vile, and therefore are less of a temptation. If I were to break a fast, accidentally or otherwise, may it be for something I actually enjoy.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
  • Food
  • Water
  • Medicine/ hygiene product
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  1. Non-food items (i.e., having no nutritional value because all the flavoring, including the sweetening, is artificial) that are consumed to provide hydration, put a fresh taste in the mouth. Something that has no nutritional value cannot, by definition, be called food, so there should be four categories.
D
 
Breath mints, etc., are considered to be health and hygiene items, like medicine. Toothpaste, for example.
 
I think too that Jimmy Atkins is technically correct: chewing gum doesn’t break the fast. But for me, personally, I think it would break the “spirit” of the fast. So as a matter of devotion, I abstain from chewing gum while I’m fasting.

Similarly, while having a nice lobster dinner at a fine seafood restaurant on the Fridays of Lent doesn’t break the rule of abstaining from meat on Fridays of Lent, it really does break the spirit and the reason for abstaining from meat on Fridays of Lent.
 
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Perhaps istead of gum, mouthwash?

Which serves the good purposes of gum (except it isn’t as portable) … has none of its questionable qualities … and can be properly regarded as a public service to all persons around me.
 
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