http://www.livescience.com/17520-chewing-gum-testThere are so many gum flavors out there. From Stride, to Extra, to Orbit, to Juicy Fruit, to Hubba Bubba and of course, my favorite, Five gum. Many may argue that gum chewing can be distracting and annoying. Some teachers in high school and elementary school make their students spit out the gum they are chewing in class. That teacher probably wasn’t aware that not only does gum stimulate the brain, but also researchers have found that gum actually improves test scores. So the next time you go to class, make sure you’re chewing gum, but with your mouth closed.
As mentioned before, many people fail to realize that gum stimulates the brain. Believe it or not, “to the brain, the chewing action means a meal is about to be consumed. So the brain is then tricked into sending signals to release insulin” (Chewing) Then, “the released insulin soaks up any stray glucose or sugar in the blood and makes it ready to be used as energy for any organs or muscles nearby” (Chewing). In addition, researcher have found that gum chewing, “gets blood flowing to the head, and improves memory” (Welsh). It’s truly amazing how chewing gum can not only trick the brain, but trigger something in it. Many people probably don’t realize that the little piece of sugar in their mouth is making a big difference in their academic success.
There have been many studies done that prove that gum chewing can lead to better test scores. For example, there was one study done with 75 participants. All the participants were divided into three groups: one group chewed gym, one pretended to chew gum and the third group didn’t chew anything or attempt to chew (Chewing). All three of the groups were given tests such as, “memory tests of words, pictures or everyday information like a telephone number” (Chewing). The group that chewed the gym had the highest test scores. Another interesting find was that the heart rate of the group that chewed the gym was the highest among all three groups. This may not seem interesting to some, but “increased heart rate is significant because that means more oxygen is being pumped to the brain, in the chewing groups. This oxygen boosts brain power; that much is clear” (Brain Health).
Another experiment was done at St Lawrence University with 224 undergraduate participants. The students there were separated into three groups, “One chewed gum before and during the test, another chewed gum for five minutes before being tested and a third didn’t chew anything” (Welsh). They found that,“a burst of gum-chewing before testing improved a student’s performance on several of the tests, but only for a short period. The effect was strongest right after gum chewing and dropped to normal levels within 20 minutes. The gum chewing helped during recall and memory tasks especially” (Welsh). Also, “the chewing-gum group recalled 25-to-50-percent more items than the controls”( Welsh). This study goes to show that, not only does gum stimulate the brain, it also helps to improve and recall more information.
Gum stimulates the brain and it also improves test scores, so if I were you, I’d start chewing a lot more gum.
Works Cited:
“Chewing Gum Stimulates the Brain.” Chewing Gum Stimulates the Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sep. 2015.
Welsh, By Jennifer. “Gum-Chewing Improves Test Performance, Study Suggests.”
LiveScience. TechMediaNetwork, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
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I’ll never forget the first time I swallowed gum, I was so scared that the doctor was going to need to get it out. I mean, I could try to sit here and explain it to you, but I found this great video on does gum stay in your body for seven-year, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXbEczOB90E. But the bottom line is the gum is sent to the colon tp be produced into waste.
I’m just wandering what happen if you swallow gum. does it stay in your digestive system for nearly a decade? I haven’t done that before ,but one of my friends actually got some hanging out in his stomach .
Alexandra, I never knew that mints help retain memory! But, I guess you learn something new every day. Believe it or not, I am actually highly allergic to things that are mint flavored. All my teachers in middle school made us spit out our gum. I wish I could send them the researcher I found and be like, see you should of let us chew our gum! I found this neat link about gum chewing, however, I forgot to put it in my blog. It talks about how gum in a way triggers the brain, enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC5JnGC-pQA
I loved your article because it really applied to me. I am always chewing gum no matter the circumstance, and I never thought about the affects that my gum chewing habit was having on my health. It is good to know that by chewing gum, I can improve my test scores and stimulate the brain. Thank you for sharing!!
Here is a link of a video about how gum is made, I found it interesting!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB3st6SQnsk
This article immediately caught my eye. In high school I ALWAYS had mints with me in my backup! Just like gum, mints can help retain memory and get the brain moving. I would use them the whole test and they would always make me feel like my brain was more active. I think teachers should allow students to chew gum or have mints in class. A great study to preform would be taking half a group of kids from different classes, giving them mints to study and take the test with, and the others nothing. It would be interesting to see how kids preformed on the test. I also found a link that shows the benefits of gum! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIKuRlasLlI