Can You Stop Chewing Like That?

There is no doubt that chewing a piece of gum is soothing. To chomp away at something feels therapeutic, and as a matter of fact – this has been scientifically proven to be true.

When we consider stress, it’s often associated with several other factors, some of which include our ability to stay alert and focused, as well as feelings of anxiety. Several studies have researched this phenomenon of chewing gum and reducing stress but in this this study , scientists found that chewing gum not only lowered stress, but it reduced anxiety, and improved alertness.

Although the thought of reducing stress may be sufficient alone to convince you to start chewing gum, chewing gum has a wide variety of other positive influences such as:

• Strengthened muscles of mastication (our chewing muscles), especially in people over 65 years of age who deal with impaired mastication.
  

• May enhance memory , understanding, and decision making while chewing the gum.
  

• Improved oral health in the case of sugar-free gum . Xylitol decreases the presence of bad bacteria in your mouth, while maintaining the presence of healthy bacteria, promoting a strong oral microbiome.
  

• Strengthened jaw bones by providing sufficient stimulus to improve bone density. Exercising our mastication muscles increase the bone density of the facial skeleton, positively influencing the bones that aid our respiratory system (our hard palate), along with chiseling a strong jawline as an added benefit.

So now you might be asking “well which gum is the best to chew?”, and the answer to that is complicated. There are tons of chewing gums to choose from out there – from Hubba Bubba to PUR we move through the plethora of options available to us.

Gums today are loaded with unnecessary added junk. In some of the most artificial gum brands you can expect to find aspartame, sugar, corn syrup, and the ever-more popular “gum base”. Now, I want to prepare you for this next part, and it’s not pretty. Here is a list of “ingredients” that can be found in an FDA-approved “gum base”:

• Synthetic petroleum wax

• Rubber

• Paraffin

• Polyethylene

• Sodium sulfate

Now if reading that list doesn’t make you want to go throw out that gum you’ve had sitting in your car for a decade, I don’t know what will. Sadly, even the “natural” gum companies you know and love often use “gum base” – and yes, that means PUR gum as well.

Companies will often choose a strong leading marketing factor, and in the case of PUR gum it’s the fact that they are sugar-free and contain xylitol, in hopes that the public doesn’t stop to read the rest of their ingredients.

So now what? Lucky for you I’ve rounded up some great gum companies that are truly natural.

1. Best Chewing Gum to Improve Mastication: Greco Gum Extracting resinous sap from the Mastic Trees (Pistacia lentiscus) in Greece, this company is a strong advocate for knowing exactly where your gum comes from. And the best part – the only ingredient in the product is this resinous sap turned into gum. This gum is sure to strengthen those jaw muscles and reduce stress all at once.
   

2. Best Generic Chewing Gum: GLEE Gum GLEE Gum comes in packaging that is recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable, and contains a gum base where they outline exactly what that includes (Chicle, Calcium Carbonate, Candelilla Wax, Dehydrated Citrus Peels) along with xylitol for added oral health benefits and sweetening effects.
   

3. Best Probiotic-Containing Chewing Gum: CulturedCare Probiotic Gum With 500 million active CFU, this probiotic gum is a powerhouse at delivering good bacteria to your mouth while you chew. Although the formula contains gum base, reaching out to the company they described that the gum is made by direct compression of the dry, powdered ingredients into a round gum tablet without the use of excipients or binders – making this brand the better option out of the available probiotic gums on the market.

Of course, it is important to remember that as with anything, too much is not always a good thing. Although chewing gum can provide important and beneficial health effects, in some people it may induce temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome or induce headache in those at greater risk.

Happy Chewing,

Kaitlyn Aguiar, B.A.Sc Kin, FIS, CFRP @onestepfromwell