Does drinking tea with sugar break the fast?

[turboEDvo]

I dunno, I don’t like penny-pinching on the fasting business and 1-hour rule. I just don’t drink anything but water on fast days. And, I fast an hour before Mass, rather than the Eucharist, so I’m sure. I’ve sat next to people who watched their watches to make sure they got 1 hour between food and Eucharist. But, I don’t think that’s really the spirit of the rule. I always figured the idea was to have your attention and consideration directed toward God.

Eamon

 

[drforjc]

Please be informed that sugar (sucrose, fructose, dextrose, et. al.) is a carbohydrate
and therefore a food, which stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes. Sugar (in the
form of dextrose) is also contained in those Sweet 'n Low and Equal packets. Even
unsweetened tea and coffee have traces of carbohydrate in them, whereas PLAIN
water does NOT.

Hence, tea, coffee, and even water that is sweetened with sugar, Sweet 'n Low or
Equal or even Splenda is definitely a food, albeit a liquified one.

For purposes of the Eucharistic fast, true, but not for the Lenten fast. For purposes of the Lenten fast, it is the common perception of the liquid (especially, but not limited to, its texture) by society rather than the technical biochemical properties it possesses that determine whether it is considered a food or not.

 

[fcfahs]

Dear drforjc,

Forgive me for not stating it, but I was indeed referring to the Eucharistic fast and
NOT the Lenten fast.  But, it would seem that the issue is the same, regardless of
the occassion for fast, that being "a sacrifice, through mortification of the body's

annoying call for nutrition."

Although some may consider food to be "loaves and fishes,"  food is actually any
substance, solid or liquid, which supplies energy building, tissue repairing nutrients
to the body and thereby removes the physiological symptoms of hunger.

Any food, with a reasonable moisture content (e.g. fruits and vegetables), can be
converted to liquid by extracting the undigestible pulp and fiber with a good juicer.
And, the liquid derived will carry all the energy rejuvenating, tissue repairing, and
appetite appeasing nutrients (carbohydrates, fat, proteins, vitamins and minerals) 
of the originally solid food. To be sure, one can live quite healthfully and without
hunger on a totally liquid diet.  That being said, I ask "Does restricting oneself to
such a diet constitute fasting or a sacrifice in any way?"  Not really, unless you're
addicted to chewing!

Is a person really sacrificing if he or she gives up cigarettes for Lent, but wears a
nicotine patch for the entire month?  I would say "No" because the person is still
getting the nicotine drug and all its tranquilizing effects,  abeit through an alternate
delivery system.

Given that eating a handfull of after dinner mints would break a Eucharistic fast,
would one's fast not be broken if he or she instead dissolved the mints in a glass
of water and then drank the water?

I venture to say that if Jesus had been adequately quenching himself with apple,
orange, cranberry, carrot, tomato and other vegatable juices, together with lots
of honey sweetened milk during his 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, he
would NOT have been fasting  and  would NOT afterward have been hungry (as in

Matt: 4:2).

And so, quite the contrary to your claim, it is indeed the "technical biochemical
properties a liquid possesses that determine whether it is considered a food or
not" and whether or not ingesting it serves to adulterate one's fast and sacrifice,
regardless of what society perceives to be food and "non-food."