Perhaps your elementary school teacher should have allowed gum chewing after all. If you're a health nut, your purse or backpack should be stocked with sugar-free chewing gum. Chewing sugar-free gum can combat and out of control appetite, strengthen teeth, help you focus at work, and relax you in stressful situations.
Dental Cavities
Dental cavities is a source of preventable pain, disability and financial cost. To reduce your risk of dental cavities practice adequate oral hygiene and keep regular appointments with your dentist. Additionally, chewing on sugar-free gum can keep cavities at bay, reports A.R. Jadad of the University of Copenhagen. Chewing gum stimulates the flow of saliva, helping to mineralize teeth. Popping a stick of chewing gum into your mouth after meals is especially important as the extra saliva helps neutralize the acid caused by food-eating bacteria in the mouth. In research published in the May 2008 "Evidence-Based Dentistry" Jadad adds that choosing gum with the sugar substitute xylitol is especially effective at combating tooth decay.
Appetite
Dieting can be a challenge if your rumbling stomach has you reaching for the closest sugar snack in sight. According to Glasgow Caledonian University's MM Hetherington, chewing on gum can help curb your out of control appetite. In research published in the May 2007 issue of "Appetite" volunteers that chewed a stick of gum before a buffet ate significantly less than those that went straight for the food. Hetherington notes that gum chewers also reported lower appetites than the group that didn't chew gum.
Anxiety
Reach for a stick of gum next time you have to give a presentation or ask the boss for a raise. A.B. Scholey of the Brain Sciences Institute gave chewing gum to a group of volunteers during a stressful situation. In research presented at the International Congress of Behavioral Medicine Scholey noted that gum chewing reduced feelings of anxiety more than 15 percent.
Memory
Chewing gum before your next dinner party can help you remember your guest's names, states Baker. In a paper found in the October 2004 issue of "Appetite" Baker notes that gum chewers performed better on a pair of word recall tests than non gum chewers.
References
- "Evidence-Based Dentistry": Consistent evidence to support the use of xylitol- and sorbitol-containing chewing gum to prevent dental caries
- "Appetite": Short-term effects of chewing gum on snack intake and appetite
- 10th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine: An investigation into the effects of gum chewing on mood and cortisol levels during psychological stress
- "Appetite": Chewing gum can produce context-dependent effects upon memory
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