When dieting, it is common to get cravings and hunger pangs. Even with the best willpower in the world, it can be difficult to control your appetite and resist diet-wrecking foods. Chewing gum, however, may be able to help suppress your appetite and enable you to stay on track with your diet.
Taste
Quite often when hunger strikes, it is actually just a case of your taste buds craving flavor. Chewing flavored sugar-free gum will provide a taste in your mouth without having to consume any calories. Even chewing gum for just a few minutes should make your mouth feel fresh, which can get rid of food cravings and suppress appetite.
Habit
Many people eat not because they're hungry but out of habit. It's very common to find yourself wanting to snack on unhealthy foods at certain times of the day such as mid-afternoon and before bed, particularly if others around you are eating. Instead of following everyone else and eating sugary, salty convenience food, which won't do you any favors, chew a stick or two of gum.
Snacking
Chewing gum manufacturers have stated that chewing gum can help suppress appetite and decrease unnecessary snacking, and a report discussed on ScienceDaily.com concurs with this. Participants in a study were shown to eat 40 fewer calories from snacks in an afternoon when they chewed gum gum compared to when they didn't. This may not seem like a lot, but over a year this could mean eating approximately 14,000 fewer calories.
Staying Alert
Plasmetic.com reports that chewing gum can help suppress appetite by boosting alertness due to the small amount of caffeine that most brands of gum contain. Appetite is often increased if you're bored, tired and fatigued, so by increasing your alertness, it would help control appetite. Other benefits of chewing gum include lowering the risk of tooth decay and diabetes, and increasing blood flow to the brain.
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