Contents
- Benefits, harms, and fun facts about chewing gum
- 1. If you swallow the gum, then everything inside will stick together, and the person may die
- 2. Chewing gum can be used to clean teeth
- 3. Constant chewing of gum is harmful to the body
- 4. Chewing gum changes the pH in the mouth
- 5. Chewing gum with sugar is harmful
- 6. Use chewing gum only after meals.
- 7. Chewing gum enriches the enamel surface with microelements
- 8. Artificial sweeteners, phenylamine, which are found in sugar-free gum, are even more harmful.
- 9. Chewing gum with mint and menthol flavors can increase heartburn
- 10. The gum should only be stored in the refrigerator.
- 11. Chewing gum improves memory and reduces stress
Benefits, harms, and fun facts about chewing gum
There are many myths and even horror stories around chewing gum. Denis Kozlov, head physician of the Monopoly smile laboratory, and Nadezhda Lobacheva, head of corporate relations at Wrigley in Russia, helped us to deal with them.
1. If you swallow the gum, then everything inside will stick together, and the person may die
Not true. If you swallow the gum, then nothing will happen, the blockage will not happen. It will be digested and released. But try not to swallow, this is still not a food product.
2. Chewing gum can be used to clean teeth
Yes. But not all the time. Chewing gum is an additional tool for the prevention of oral diseases. Chewing gum is good when you don’t have a brush and paste on hand, because you need to brush your teeth after every meal. For what? When we eat, food remains in the mouth, which together with bacteria (they are always in the oral cavity) form a plaque. That is, food debris is a substrate for the nutrition and reproduction of bacterial forms. And chewing gum, due to its viscous shape, pulls food debris onto itself, cleaning the teeth.
3. Constant chewing of gum is harmful to the body
However, if you chew it constantly or more than 30 minutes after eating, the chewing muscles are overworked. During this time, useful elements from the gum have already used up. Excessive salivation in this case provokes excessive secretion of gastric juice, which can lead to stomach diseases if it is empty.
4. Chewing gum changes the pH in the mouth
Truth. During meals, many foods begin to disintegrate already in the mouth, and an acidic environment is most often formed. In it, bacteria multiply faster, and the surface of the teeth begins to deteriorate. Enamel demineralization occurs when calcium and phosphorus leave and the initial carious process begins to form. When we chew gum, we stabilize the pH (acid-base balance) of the mouth, making it neutral.
5. Chewing gum with sugar is harmful
Truth. If the chewing gum contains glucose (sugar), then this can lead to acidification of the environment in the oral cavity and increase the development of caries. By itself, food intake gives an acidic reaction, and then sugar begins to break down immediately in the mouth.
6. Use chewing gum only after meals.
Not only. After a meal, of course, you need it if you don’t have a brush and pasta on hand. Because any food intake creates an acidic environment in the mouth, which affects the enamel of the teeth and leads to destruction. Chewing gum also has a beneficial effect on smokers. Firstly, under the influence of temperature, the structure of which the enamel is composed begins to deteriorate. Secondly, tobacco smoke contains tobacco tar inside it, which is fixed on the surface of the teeth, creating a viscous structure. Remnants of food, microorganisms get into it, plaque increases. Chewing gum helps remove it. Likewise with tea and coffee – essential oils contain pigment that is deposited on the surface of the teeth. And if it is immediately eliminated, then it will not have a chance to penetrate into deeper layers and turn into a plaque, which is difficult to remove even with specialized methods.
7. Chewing gum enriches the enamel surface with microelements
Not certainly in that way. Chewing gum will not enrich the enamel surface. But when we chew it, more saliva is produced. It contains calcium and phosphorus, sometimes fluoride particles get in, which enrich the enamel, restoring it. That is, the more saliva, the more the teeth are washed and the better they are enriched with microelements.
8. Artificial sweeteners, phenylamine, which are found in sugar-free gum, are even more harmful.
Not true. In the oral cavity, the destruction of these substances does not occur, in contrast to glucose – direct sugar. If you chew gum after meals several times a day for 3-5 minutes, then no complex effect of these substances on the body occurs. The amounts in the chewing gum are too small.
9. Chewing gum with mint and menthol flavors can increase heartburn
No, the taste of chewing gum does not affect the human body in any way. Many doctors even recommend chewing gum for people suffering from heartburn. As you know, heartburn occurs as a result of the release of acidic gastric contents into the esophagus. The chewing gum stimulates the secretion of saliva, which contains bicarbonate, which can neutralize acid. Studies on this issue, conducted on patients with ulcers, have shown that even for them, the use of chewing gum is harmless.
10. The gum should only be stored in the refrigerator.
No. It should be stored in a dry, clean, well ventilated area free of foreign odor and pest infestation. Do not expose to direct sunlight. The optimum storage temperature for sugar-free chewing gum is from 0 ºС to +25 ºС; with sugar – at a temperature of 18 ºС (plus or minus 3 degrees).
11. Chewing gum improves memory and reduces stress
Not certainly in that way. This is unlikely to affect cognitive abilities, but it does to reduce anxiety. Any mechanical process reduces anxiety and distracts from worries.