A 1932 journey from the Netherlands to Poland with his brother Michael to check out a recipe for soft fruit caramels inspired Pierre van Melle to create a peppermint-flavored caramel that would come to be know as Mentos. In 2006, the company branched out from its popular line of mints into the chewing-gum market, Mentos explains on its website. There are only a handful of calories in the different varieties of Mentos gum, and almost no nutritional value.
Gum
Gum is said to date back to the ancient Greeks, who chewed on a substance made from resin, according to the Chewing Gum Facts website, which credits an unusual duo with introducing modern chewing gum. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a Mexican general known to history buffs for his role at the Alamo, introduced American businessman Thomas Adams to chicle, an elastic ingredient derived from trees, in the mid-1800s. Adams wanted to use chicle to make a cheaper car tire. The experiment failed, but Adams found another use for chicle and created his line of Adams New York Chewing Gum.
Ingredients
All gums, including Mentos gum, are made from the same basic ingredients. To form the gum base, the latex sap --- the chicle --- of sapodilla or other sap trees has mostly given way to the use of rubber, according to the Chewing Gum Facts website. Chemists developed synthetic rubber in the mid-20th century; this is sometimes mixed with natural rubber to create the gum base. The other key ingredients are softeners, often made from glycerin or vegetable oil, to retain moisture; sweeteners, ranging from sugar to sorbitol; and flavors, both natural ones such as peppermint and artificial varieties created by food scientists.
Calories
The number of calories in the various flavors of Mentos gum is very low. Regular flavors of Mentos gum, such as Pure Fresh Wintergreen and Tropical contain 5 calories per piece. Sugar-free flavors such as Fresh Mint (with green tea extract) and Juice Burst contain 4 calories per piece, the MyFitnessPal website reports.
Nutrition
Mentos gum contains little in the way of nutrition. According to MyFitnessPal, both the regular and sugar-free varieties contain 2 grams of carbohydrates. The tiny amounts of sweeteners, fiber and protein are each listed as 0 g, although there is a small fraction of each in a piece of Mentos gum.
Considerations
It is theoretically possible to use Mentos or other gum as a weight-loss tool --- but it isn't realistic. The Ask Men website notes a study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" in which college students were asked to chew gum at the rate of 100 chews per minute. The fast and furious gum-chewing elevated the test subjects' metabolic rate by 20 percent. It you could chew gum that fast all day, you could lose 11 pounds in a year. However, your stomach and intestines might become exhausted and stomach burns, ulcers and perhaps some cancers might develop in your digestive system. And your teeth might be worn to the nubs.
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