Whether to keep your mouth busy while you endlessly walk down the road, take your morning run, drive to work, or like to keep your mouth fresh, chewing gum is claimed to have loads of benefits besides these. You might pop a piece of gum in your mouth without giving it much thought, but the fact is that chewing gum can help you in various surprising ways.
However, as excessiveness of anything is bad, too much gum chewing every day can cause serious problems. It is claimed that excessive gum chewing can lead to migraines in adolescents. Nevertheless, the habit of chewing gum in moderation can result in numerous benefits for us. This article uncovers 10 of the top benefits of chewing gum. So, let us dive in!
1. Chewing Gum Helps Improve Eating Habits
Chewing gum, itself, is not laden with a lot of calories; hence, it is an inexpensive snack that does not give you a lot of energy. While you can certainly want to keep chewing gums at bay for being low in calories and not benefiting you, it is important to note that this very low-calorie snack helps regulate your irregular cravings. The mere act of chewing something continuously is enough for sending signals to your brain that your body is not hungry.
Therefore, if you want to kill the vicious cycle of you stuffing your mouth with loads of unhealthy snacks and later getting hungry again and giving in to the cravings, then pop a piece of gum in your mouth. The scientific investigations claim that chewing gum might help break the binge eating cycle and regulate body weight.
2. Benefits the Brain Functioning
Several surveys and experimental research studies showed promising prospects regarding the positive impacts of chewing gum on the brain. When this topic was pursued, most research studies found out that chewing gum helps improve some aspects of brain functioning, such as alertness. Research results indicated that the test-takers who chewed gum throughout the testing did not do better on memory tasks than those who were not chewing gum. However, detailed analysis revealed how chewing gum helped sharpen the concentration and alertness of the test takers.
3. Helps Release Stress and Nervousness
It is one of the most popular benefits of chewing gum. The beneficial impacts of gum chewing on reducing stress and nervousness have been studied for an extended period. Some professionals claim that people going through stressful times or having nervousness, say before public speaking, can seek help in calming their nerves down with chewing gum. Research also proves that chewing gum helps reduce cortisol, a stress-inducing hormone while alleviating negative mood.
The research further explained how chewing gum positively impacted to increase sharpness and alertness; thus, helping to get rid of irrational fears and apprehensions creating nervousness. Also, the results clearly showed how chewing helped increased cerebral blood flow.
4. Helps Improve Digestion
It is no laxative or pain-relieving, yet chewing gum is said to have benefits for your digestive system. You must have noticed how saliva production increases when you start chewing gum. This enhanced production of saliva in the mouth helps keep the digestive system well and fit. It helps in easy swallowing and breakdown of food with saliva.
Interestingly, research aimed to study how the digestive system, especially bowel movement, quickly came to normal in a postoperative setting. The study involved women participants going under caesarian section delivery. The results of the study indicated that chewing gum is an inexpensive and acceptable method that helped the patients in easy physiological recovery.
5. Helps in Relieving Acid Reflux
It is also determined that chewing gum helps when people are having worse symptoms of acid reflux and heartburn. Hence, if you feel a little uneasy after a spicy meal, pop in chewing gum and let it do the magic. It is said that when you chew the gum, all the saliva produced by the chewing helps stimulate more saliva and less acid in the esophagus.
6. Might Help Prevent Tooth Decay
Believe it or not, chewing gums have significantly made it to the recommendation by The American Dental Association (ADA) regarding keeping your teeth clean. Now, do not mistake it as an alternative to brushing your teeth twice a day every day. However, brushing teeth after every meal is practically impossible. Thus, the ADA recommends chewing sugar-free gum for 20 minutes post-meal.
This activity is recommended as it helps reduce plaque, gingivitis, and cavities. It is also known for enhancing tooth enamel.
7. Helps Relieve Dry Mouth
When you chew gum, your mouth produces ten times more saliva than in a resting state. This is a huge benefit when your mouth is dry, and you cannot find water for a prolonged time. This is also the strategy opted by many athletes and players as chewing gum helps keep their mouths salivated and wet without piling up on too much water during a game or a race.
8. Might Help Relieve Cold Symptoms
Though it is no pill that can alleviate the symptoms or treat the cold symptoms in any way, chewing gum has shown benefits in relieving cold symptoms. The symptoms of cold – mucus and phlegm buildup – are much worse than actually catching a cold. They leave you with little or no strength of going about your day-to-day activities. Chewing gum is observed to help get rid of these nasty conditions.
9. Helps in Overcoming Dependence
You might have noticed how people settle at chewing gum when they are overcoming nicotine dependence. As chewing gum helps reduce cravings and regulate snacking, it also helps keep nicotine stimulants at bay.
10. Helps Getting Rid of Earworms
Have you ever had a song or phrase stuck in your head so bad that every ounce of trying to get it out of your system is futile? Well, that is when the mindless chewing gum act comes in handy. Chewing gum helps distract our thoughts and get rid of the consistent lingering thought, song, or phrase.
In a Nutshell
If you are looking for a cheap and quick snack that also comes with numerous little but significant benefits, go for chewing gums. They are inexpensive and help regulate your bad eating habits, which help reduce weight with a weight-loss diet. Also, popping a chewing gum in your mouth while taking a test has proven to be very helpful in increasing concentration. Having said that, it is also important to note that excessive chewing gum leads to no benefits and increased grave consequences, such as migraines.