BusinessWeek reports that studies sponsored by the world's largest chewing gum maker Wrigley show that chewing gum "activates certain chemicals in the brain that help improve short- and long-term memory, and even helps reduce stress."The studies are small, involving less than 100 people and Wrigley has not promoted the results because the studies "had not been peer-reviewed." Pubmed returns 15 articles to the query "chewing gum, memory." One study claims that "recent reports suggest that enhancement of memory performance while chewing gum is a fairly robust phenomenon." Appetite, 2004 Oct.
So, is gum a health food now (if it is food at all)?
References:
Wrigley Chews Over Some Surprising News. Pallavi Gogoi. BusinessWeek.com
Chewing gum improves memory. NewScientist.com
20 Ways to Get and Stay Happy. Time, 2007.
Gum: The New Health Food? WSJ Health Blog, 2007.
Children chewing xylitol gum were 25% less likely to develop acute ear infections. NYTimes, 2011.
Image source: Chewing gum from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia