It can be difficult to understand what you can and cannot consume while fasting.
You could specifically wonder if chewing gum will end your fast. If you’re fasting, should you chew gum? This article examines the evidence in more detail.
The majority of gum varieties often have some calories.
For instance, a stick of sugar-free gum has six calories while a stick of conventional gum has roughly eleven.
Any calorie intake technically breaks your fast for more stringent fasting regimens like water fasts.
This is especially true if you choose a gum variety that has a lot of sugar or if you chew many sticks of gum each day.
In fact, if you chew multiple pieces during the day, some varieties of bubble gum can have up to 30 calories per serving, which can add up rapidly.
Chewing a stick or two of sugar-free gum every day won’t likely have a substantial impact on your fast, though, as many other varieties have incredibly low-calorie counts.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
✅ According to some research, chewing gum may not raise insulin or blood sugar levels, which suggests that it may not be necessary to break your fast.
✅ Gum without sugar has little impact on insulin levels and has very few calories, so it won’t likely cause you to break your fast.
✅ However, more stringent variations of fasting can forbid ingesting any calories at all.
✅ Additionally, if you chew several sticks of gum throughout the day, some varieties of gum contain a lot of sugar and may cause you to lose your fast.
✅ If you decide to chew gum to help control your appetite and cravings, make sure to stick to sugar-free flavors and use it sparingly.
Gum chewing could decrease hunger
Gum chewing has been demonstrated to reduce appetite and hunger, which may be especially helpful during a fast. In one small trial, chewing gum for 30 minutes while fasting boosted feelings of satiety and stabilized levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in the blood.
In a different study, chewing sugar-free gum for one hour during a fasting period decreased appetite and the amount of food consumed during the following meal.
Additionally, chewing has been proven to reduce desire and focus on stimuli connected to food, which may help prevent impulsive eating. As a result, chewing a stick or two of gum might help you feel less hungry and help you keep your fast.
Insulin is barely impacted by gum
The hormone insulin is in charge of moving sugar from your bloodstream to your cells where it may be used as fuel.
The levels of insulin drop during a fast. This may be especially true if you experience ketosis, a metabolic condition where fat is burned by your body as opposed to carbohydrates for energy. Longer fasts could result in ketosis.
Some people think that many of the metabolic advantages of intermittent fasting are caused by ketosis.
One study found that chewing sugar-free gum for 30 minutes while fasting had no impact on the insulin levels of the 12 participants. According to research, chewing gum may not have an impact on insulin or blood sugar levels, indicating that it may not be necessary to break your fast with gum.
Chewing gum following a meal had no effect on blood sugar levels, according to a different study including 59 pregnant women with gestational diabetes.
However, bear in mind that this could not apply if you choose gum variants with a lot of added sugar or if you eat several sticks at once.