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Above sketch by courtesy of Pulaski Academy
Sketch below by courtesy of Energy Info.Admin, at eia.doe.gov
“Research from around the world has shown conclusively that chewing sugarfree gum stimulates the production of saliva, which helps to neutralise the plaque acids that cause dental caries.
The use of sugarfree gum is increasingly accepted as an aid to oral hygiene and as part of an anti-caries prevention program.
Many dentists now widely recommend chewing sugarfree gum to their patients”.
Chewing gum can improve memory, say UK psychologists.
They found that people who chewed throughout tests of both long-term and short-term memory produced significantly better scores than people who did not.
But gum-chewing did not boost memory-linked reaction times, used as a measure of attention.
“These results provide the first evidence that chewing gum can improve long-term and working memory,” says Andrew Scholey of the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, UK.
“There are a number of potential explanations – but they are all very speculative.”
One third of the 75 adults tested chewed gum during the 20-minute battery of memory and attention tests.
One third mimicked chewing movements, and the remainder did not chew.
The gum-chewers’ scores were 24 per cent higher than the controls’ on tests of immediate word recall, and 36 per cent higher on tests of delayed word recall.
They were also more accurate on tests of spatial working memory.
“The findings are intriguing, although it is clear that questions remain to be addressed,” says Kim Graham of the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK. “In particular: what is the mechanism by which chewing improves memory?”
There are three main potential explanations, says Scholey.
In March 2000, Japanese researchers showed that brain activity in the hippocampus, an area important for memory, increases while people chew – but it is not clear why.
Recent research has also found that insulin receptors in the hippocampus may be involved in memory.
“Insulin mops up glucose in the bloodstream and chewing causes the release of insulin, because the body is expecting food.
If insulin receptors in the brain are involved in memory, we may have an insulin-mediated mechanism explaining our findings – but that is very, very speculative,” Scholey says.
But there could be a simpler answer.
“One interesting thing we saw in our study was that chewing increased heart rate. Anything that improves delivery of things like oxygen in the brain, such as an increased heart rate, is a potential cognitive enhancer to some degree,” he says.
But a thorough explanation for the findings will have to account for why some aspects of memory improved but others did not, Graham says.
She points out that gum-chewers’ ability to quickly decide whether complex images matched images they had previously been shown was no better than the controls’.
Scholey presented his research at the annual meeting of the British Psychological Society in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK.
14:30 13 March 2002
NewScientist.com news service
Emma Young, Blackpool
The world market for chewing gum is estimated to be 560,000 tons per year, representing approximately US $5 billion. Some 374 billion pieces of chewing gum are sold worldwide every year, representing 187 billion hours of gum-chewing if each piece of gum is chewed for 30 minutes.
Chewing gum can thus be expected to have an influence on oral health.
The labeling of sugar-substituted chewing gum as “safe for teeth” or “tooth-friendly” has been proven beneficial to the informed consumer.
Such claims are allowed for products having been shown in vivo not to depress plaque pH below 5.7, neither during nor for 30 minutes after the consumption.
However, various chewing gum manufacturers have recently begun to make distinct health promotion claims, suggesting, e.g., reparative action or substitution for mechanical hygiene.
The aim of this critical review–covering the effects of the physical properties of chewing gum and those of different ingredients both of conventional and of functional chewing gum–is to provide a set of guidelines for the interpretation of such claims and to assist oral health care professionals in counseling patients.
Who was the first person to chew gum? Where was chewing gum invented?
No one can be absolutely certain who the first gum chewers were, but historians tell us that civilizations around the world were chewing natural gum thousands of years ago.
Before the invention of the electric light bulb, the telephone or even soda pop, people discovered the pleasure and benefits of chewing gum.
In A.D. 50, Ancient Greeks were believed to chew mastiche, tree resin from the Mastic tree.
Researchers also discovered that the Mayans, an Indian civilization that inhabited Central American during the second century, enjoyed chewing chicle. This natural gum comes from the latex of the Sapodilla tree and later became the main ingredient in chewing gum.
The American Indians discovered another natural form of gum-like resin by cutting the bark of spruce trees.
They introduced the custom of chewing spruce gum to the early North American settlers. These savvy New Englanders created the first commercial chewing gum by selling and trading lumps of spruce.
Spruce gum continued to be sold in 19th century America until the 1850s when paraffin wax became the new popular base for chewing gum.
Modern chewing gum products appeared in 1869.
Mexican General, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, conqueror of the Alamo, hired New York inventor Thomas Adams to develop a new form of rubber using chicle.
Chicle is the same gummy substance people in Mexico had been chewing for centuries. Adams was unsuccessful in developing rubber, but he did succeed in producing the first modern chewing gum. He called it Adams New York No. 1.
Gum made with chicle and similar latexes soon became more popular than spruce gum or paraffin gum.
Chicle-base chewing gum was smoother, softer and held its flavor better than any previous type of chewing gum. By the 1900s chewing gum was manufactured in many different shapes and sizes (long pencil-shaped sticks, ball form, flat sticks and blocks) and flavors (peppermint, fruit and spearmint).
Bubble gum was invented in 1928 by Walter Diemer, a cost analyst for the Fleer Company.
Many people had tried for years to develop a gum that could be blown into bubbles, but it was Mr. Diemer, a young man who knew nothing about chemistry, who found the right combination of ingredients and created a gum that was strong enough and elastic enough to stretch when filled with air.
Today, synthetic materials replace natural gum ingredients to create a chewing gum with better quality, texture and taste. There are more than 1,000 varieties of gum manufactured and sold in the United States. You can find:
The gum base is made of man-made latex and divided into two major categories, chewing and bubble gum, with the latter having more elasticity.
In recent years, nonstick gum bases for chewing and bubble gums have been formulated to satisfy the needs of more consumers. The above section 9 has information from NACGM (The National Association of Chewing Gum Manufacturers), and T. Imfeld. T. Imfeld
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Periodontology and Cariology, School of Dentistry, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The table below shows that sugar free gum can be part of a calorie controlled diet.
| Calorie Table for Chewing Gum Please note: all snack food calorie values are approximate |
||
| Chewing Gum | Serving Size | Calories |
| Bubble gum | 1 block | 27 |
| Chewing gum, stick | 1 stick | 10 |
| Bubble Yum | 1 piece | 25 |
| Bubble Yum, sugarfree | 1 piece | 15 |
| Bubblicious | 1 piece | 25 |
| Dentine | 1 piece | 9 |
| Dentine, sugarfree | 1 piece | 5 |
| Freedent | 1 piece | 10 |
| Hubba Bubba | 1 piece | 23 |
| Hubba Bubba, sugarfree | 1 piece | 14 |
| Juicy Fruit | 1 piece | 10 |
| Wrigley’s | 1 piece | 10 |
By courtesy of annecollins.com
Each gum has its own specific formula that makes it unique. The exact combinations of ingredients are carefully guarded company secrets. Common ingredients in chewing gum are: powdered sugar, gum base (a combination of food-grade synthetic and natural ingredients that make gum smooth and chewy,) glucose syrup, softeners, flavoring and coloring. Sugar substitutes replace powdered sugar and glucose syrup in sugarless gum.
Below is a basic step by step process of how chewing gum is made:
By courtesy of NACGM
Tel: 856-439-0500 · Fax: 856-439-0525 · E-mail: nacgm@ahint.com
All gum and its wrappers should always be disposed of in proper trash receptacles, but unfortunately, gum is sometimes accidentally dropped on the carpet or on our clothes. The following are a few suggestions that may help with gum removal:
For washable clothing, try scraping off any excess gum with a dull knife and then rubbing the area with ice until the remaining gum rolls off into a ball.
Another method is to seal the dry garment in a plastic bag and place it in the freezer. After the garment is frozen, remove and gently scrape with a dull knife.
There are also natural solvent extracts from citrus peels which may work. Be sure to test the solvent on an inconspicuous area of your garment first to ensure color fastness, and read all manufacturer’s instructions before use.
You can also try using an extra strength deep-heating rub. Evenly spread the deep-heating rub on the opposite side of the gum residue. Heat the area covered with the rub with a blow dryer for 30 seconds. Immediately after turning off the dryer, the gum residue should easily peel off. Your garment should then be laundered as usual. Be sure to test the rub on an inconspicuous area of your garment first to ensure color fastness.
First, try scraping any excess gum off your carpet with a dull knife and then rubbing the area with ice until the remaining gum rolls off into a ball.
You might try using an extra strength deep-heating rub to remove the gum. First, heat the gum residue on your carpet with a blow dryer for one or two minutes. Then, using four-inch squares of plastic (sandwich bags will work nicely) remove as much gum as possible. You may have to apply more heat if the gum hardens. Continue to use the plastic squares to remove the gum. This part of the process should remove 80% of the gum residue.
Next, spread half a teaspoon of the extra strength deep-heating rub evenly over all the gum residue. Heat with a blow dryer set on high for 30 seconds. After turning off the dryer, immediately use the plastic squares in a circular motion (alternating between clockwise and counter-clock wise movements) to remove the remaining stain. Then apply a mild detergent and water solution with paper towels or a cloth rag, and allow the area to air dry.
It is important that you try a small amount of the deep-heating rub on an inconspicuous area of your carpet first to ensure color fastness. Be sure to keep deep-heating rub out of the reach of children and follow all safety precautions as recommended by the manufacturer.
Natural solvent extracts from citrus peels often work well to remove gum from hair. Be sure to read all manufacturer’s instructions before use. If a citrus peel solvent is not available, mineral oil, cooking oil or peanut butter sometimes work. Add a small amount and kneed the gum with your fingers in order to soften and disperse gum, pull out gradually as gum softens, then rinse with soap and water. These products are helpful, but may leave a residue on the hair and require additional effort to wash hair after gum removal.
Many commercial organizations and municipalities have found chewing gum removal from hard surfaces effective with the use of a power washer. For more information about power washer gum removal e-mail NACGM at nacgm@ahint.com
* These are not guaranteed methods for gum removal.
By courtesy of NACGM
Tel: 856-439-0500 · Fax: 856-439-0525 · nacgm@ahint.com