Some people think chewing gum can be beneficial because it
burns calories.
This is hardly effective.
Chewing gum is a kind of exercise, but it doesn’t expend much energy. Chewing gum uses a few calories, but you have to chew for an hour to burn 11 calories. If you chewed for 12 hours every day for an entire month, you would lose only one pound of fat — even if you use sugarless gum. Some of the sugary gums can add 20 calories per stick, overriding those calories used by chewing.
A real benefit from chewing gum is evidenced after intestinal surgery. The
Archives of Surgery showed chewing gum helps normal bowel function return more
quickly after surgery. It’s thought that chewing mimics eating, which promotes
the wavelike muscle contractions in the intestines needed to move food along.
There are other benefits. To quote the U.C. Berkeley letter: “Gum chewing
boosts saliva flow, which clears food debris, neutralizes acid produced by
mouth bacteria, and remineralizes tooth enamel to some extent, all of which
help prevent tooth decay.”
Feedback