Whether you are chewing gum out of boredom, or to mask the fact you forgot to brush your teeth, gum is a convenience to many. It’s easily portable, only a few calories, and many popular gum brands are sugar free. It all sounds great, but on the rare occasion I chew gum I wonder if it is possible that it could actually be bad for you (I especially wonder this when my jaw starts to hurt from all the chewing). After all it is just a small stick of… well what is it exactly? According to How Stuff Works, before WWII gum was made out of a Chicle, which was a latex sap that comes from a sapodilla tree, and mixed with flavorings. In other words this substance was just a form of rubber. Nowadays scientists have learned how to make artificial gum bases (which are essentially a synthetic rubber) that mimic Chicle, and add either artificial or natural sugars and sweeteners to make it taste good.
Now knowing what gum is made out of still raises a lot of questions, but the most prevalent one is still; is it bad to chew gum? (especially in excess) An article found on ABC News says there are in fact “gross” side effects caused by chewing gum. For instance, chewing gum before a meal will cause you to eat more junk food and skip the fruit. This is due to the fact that the minty flavor of most gums causes fruits to taste bitter, and it is suggested that it is a safer bet to drink tea before dinner over gum to alleviate calorie intake. Chewing gum is also linked to gastrointestinal problems, specifically Irritable Bowel Syndrome, as excess air can be swallowed and is a contributing factor to abdominal pain and bloating. The artificial sweeteners in most gums can even have a laxative effect on otherwise healthy people! Gum chewing can also trigger Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) which includes jaw pain associated with the chewing muscles and joints that connect your lower jaw to your skull.
According to another article from Thank your Body, while eating gum with sugar is not recommended, sugar free gum is almost just as bad (if not worse), because it is sweetened with artificial sweeteners. As an example, Aspartame (an artificial sweetener used in most sugar free gums), has been linked to brain tumors, birth defects, and cancer. There are also many other fake ingredients in gum, which travel through our blood stream faster and in higher concentration because they absorb straight through the walls of the mouth. Therefore these ingredients do not undergo the normal filtration process of digestion. This source also mentions gum can cause headaches. According to Dr. Ben Kim, eight different facial muscles are involved in chewing. Thus unnecessary gum chewing can cause chronic tightness in two of these muscles located close to your temples. Chewing can put pressure on the nerves that supply this area of your head, which leads to chronic headaches.
The above chart emphasizes that now Americans have chosen to choose mostly sugar-free gum over gums made with sugar (sugarless being the healthiest option).
While there are downsides with chewing gum (as with anything), there are also some benefits. Mouth Healthy says that clinical studies have shown chewing sugarless gum for less than twenty minutes following a meal can help prevent tooth decay. Gum increases flow of saliva which washes away food and neutralizes acids produced by bacteria in the mouth. This provides disease fighting substances throughout the mouth (it also can strengthen tooth enamel). There is also evidence that chewing gum is good for the brain! This was concluded from Japanese research, published in the journal Brain and Cognition, which explained that the greater performance is caused by the chewing- which increases arousal and leads to temporary improvements in blood flow to the brain. Volunteers’ brains were scanned while carrying out tasks while chewing gum and not chewing gum. They found an increase in alertness and that the brain regions most active in chewing were those involved with movement and attention. Therefore, it is conclusive that gum chewing can lead to improvements in cognitive performance, although the article does state at the end gum could interfere with short-term memory (which is supported here).
Seeing there are both pros and cons to chewing gum, it doesn’t seem there is enough crucial evidence to suggest it is in everyones best interest to swear it off. Rather it may be wise to ensure you are not chewing gum in excess, rather than eliminating it altogether. Also, because there has been a lot of research on gum chewing as a whole, we can consider meta-analyses. Which of course means that each study and point given in these articles could be in fact suffering from the file drawer problem (which is why I drew inferences from both sides of the argument). That being said, chew away on sugarless gum but as with anything keep it moderate.
I also wrote a very similar blog about the positives and negatives of chewing gum. I found it interesting that it could be so beneficial to humans since it prevented tooth decay and helped memory, but it can also be detrimental since it made us avoid fruits and could cause illness. Even though I am not a frequent gum chewer, I can understand why some people chew it a lot. It helps relieve stress for some people, it helps keep them awake, or it is just fun to chew and blow bubbles. I think that if you limit yourself to the amount of gum you chew over a period of time, it will not harm you as much as it will benefit you. Here is my blog:
http://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/11/29/should-i-chew-gum/
I really like and find this topic to be very interesting. You posed many of the health pros and cons of gum chewing but I had written a blog about gum chewing in my first blog and found that their were educational benefits https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/02/a-positive-outlook-on-gum-chewing/. For the first 15-20 minutes post chewing gum more oxygen is flowing to the brain enabling one to have better memory skills and are better able to focus. Your topic on gum chewing and health benefits raises the question whether or not the positives out weigh the negative. More experimental studies would have to be conducted in order to find out this specific information.
This post was very good because it showed both sides of the argument and presented the readers with a balanced suggested solution. I found a similar article that might interest you found at https://www.scienceworld.ca/ever-wonder-about-bubble-gum. In this article, the author actually talks about the chemical processes going on when you chew gum and when you blow a bubble in bubble gum. In your post, it important that you evaluated all of the information that you read, and concluded a practical practice that an informed reader should follow.
When I read this article, I reevaluated my gum chewing tendencies. Should I stop chewing gum due to the studies that say there are bad things that come along with doing so? The cons that come along with gum chewing are relatively small. I can personally say that I have never experienced any kind of jaw or muscle pain when chewing gum for prolonged periods of time. I also have never experienced the intestinal pain that was described in your post. But what I experience while chewing gum is purely anecdotal evidence. So I think whether or not you should continue to chew gum boils down to what risks you’re willing to live with. If the hazards of the side effects described in this post are too severe for you to want to live with, then you should probably stop chewing gum. But if the hazards of the side effects seem small to you, then there should be nothing stopping you from chewing gum. Especially since a simple cost-benefit analysis would reveal that the cost of chewing gum (usually a little under $2.00) is not too much to dish out of your wallet. There were also benefits to chewing gum. So it has a little bit to do with what point of view you decide to side with. This blog post really opened up people’s minds and got them thinking about the repercussions of something as simple as chewing gum. And, because of that, I’d like to say good job on this post!