Dr. Mario Ost is a renowned nutrition scientist, researcher and lecturer, deeply invested in enhancing our basic understanding on mitochondrial fitness, muscle health, and endocrine organ crosstalk in sports, aging and metabolic diseases. He's a founder of a young athlete health academy and serves as a scientific advisor at Fastic, focusing on personalized nutrition concepts, fasting-mimicking food-components (autophagy-inducers) and benefits of exercise for metabolic homeostasis and healthy aging. As a devoted father and pioneer, Dr. Ost is shaping a future where elite athletes achieve peak performance and obese patients regain their metabolic and muscle health through an evidence-based approach on personalized training and nutrient timing.
Chewing gum with sugar can break your fast, especially if you chew multiples of it. Sugar-free gum has no sugar, so you can chew it while fasting. Gum may help control hunger while fasting and freshen your breath.
Gum contains calories, especially those that contain sugar. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), a stick of gum contains an average of 10.8 calories and nearly 2g of sugar.
Is this enough to break your fast? Not really. But if you’re using intermittent fasting to lose weight, you must strictly avoid anything with fast-digesting sugar.
It’s also worth mentioning that some gums are high in sugar, especially those fruity-flavored ones. Chewing sugary gum may break your fast and promote an undesired insulin response.
If you struggle to track your eating and calorie intake when following an intermittent fasting diet, the Fastic app can help you. Its cutting-edge technology based on nutritional research can help you plan fasts according to your needs and avoid mistakes that break your fast.
Unlike gums that contain sugar, a sugar-free chewing gum won’t break your fast. They have minimal calories (less than 6 calories) and no sugar. So chewing sugar-free gum won’t stimulate insulin production.
You can chew sugarless gum while fasting and not worry about your body going out of ketosis. That said, you don’t want to overdo it, as sugar-free gum has a few calories. Chewing too many during your fast is less than ideal.
Pay attention to the nutritional facts on the back of the pack of gum and look at both carbohydrates and sugar content. Avoid anything with sugar and more than 2g of total carbohydrates. Finally, keep in mind the potential negative effects of higher doses of non-nutritive sweeteners on your gut microbiome.
Chewing gum while intermittent fasting may have some benefits. Of course, there’s fresh breath, which is typically the reason why many people want to chew gum in the first place. But there’s also evidence that chewing gum may make your fast easy by satiating your hunger.
The mere act of chewing may help people satiate their hunger but also take their minds off it. So, if you’re new to intermittent fasting and find yourself thinking about food during the fasting period, chew some non-sugary gum.
It’s not unusual for your breath to smell bad during a fasted state. That’s primarily because of dryness in the mouth, as saliva production reduces when you’re fasting. A lack of saliva may allow bad-smelling bacteria to make a home in your mouth, causing your breath to smell unpleasant.
Even if you drink plenty of water and stay hydrated, longer periods of fasting can increase acetone in your blood and breath. That’s actually a sign that your body is in ketosis, i.e., burning mostly fat to provide energy for the body. And this smell isn’t bad per se, it’s fruity and feels unusual.
Smelly breath is one of the reasons why people tend to chew gum while fasting so their breath can smell fresh.
If you’re experiencing bad breath and want to chew gum during intermittent fasting, ensure that you’re only chewing sugar-free gum.
Also, remember that certain foods can make your breath stink. So, if you ate such foods before starting your fast, that may be the reason. This is why knowing which foods are best for your intermittent fast is the key.
The Fastic app is the answer if you want to track what you eat while fasting. You can get customized advice on meals down to the calories.
Don’t let unpleasant breath keep you from reaping the benefits of intermittent fasting. There are plenty of ways you can freshen your breath without breaking your fast:
Drink water regularly to keep your mouth wet
Chew sugar-free gum
Use a tongue scraper to clean your tongue
Drink calorie-free tea with mint
So there you go, you can chew gum carefree during an intermittent fast if it’s sugar-free. Although most gums contain only a few grams of sugar, you don’t want to risk breaking your fast by adding sugar to your system. This is all the more important if you’re fasting for weight loss.
Disclaimer: It is advised to speak with a health professional before beginning intermittent fasting or a diet program. There may be side effects for people with certain medical conditions.
With Fastic, millions of people have achieved their desired weight, overcome disease and regained their quality of life.
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