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 * ||  || You are what you chew — that's what the crowded gum aisle seems to suggest. Spicy cinnamon sticks, spearmint pellets with whitening sparkles, explode-in-your-mouth strawberry-lime pillows: There's a flavour and form to suit every personality.

Soon, gums may offer more than just tongue-tingling tastes and tooth-brightening properties. Scientists are probing for evidence that habitual chewing can make us healthier and more alert, not to mention thinner and better at remembering names. Companies are experimenting with added ingredients that, they hope, will give gums power to suppress appetite, cure headaches, fight cancer, ward off cavities, you name it.

The research is still in the early stages, but gums containing green tea, phytoestrogens and calcium are already available in Europe and Asia. In the United States, where, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average American chews 1.8 pounds of gum a year, gums with added health-boosting ingredients are seen by food trend watchers as an obvious next step in the expansion of the category of candy, beverages and snacks containing herbs, minerals and other supplements.

Scientists are also looking at gum as a good alternative to pills, patches and syrups for getting prescription medicines into our bodies.

"Gum is a very, very good delivery system that has not been fully explored," says Christine Wu, professor of periodontics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry.

Still, gum experts say that many questions remain with using gum to deliver drugs or nutrients. Gum can contain as many as 70 ingredients, they note, and variations allow for thousands of possible gum base formulations. Interactions among ingredients can change their effectiveness — and scientists haven't yet figured out how much of a drug or nutrient a stick of gum can hold or whether any given substance will be released or absorbed by the body when chewed.

"Nobody has spent millions of dollars to figure it out," says Gary Kamimori, a research physiologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. "It's chewing gum we're talking about."

Shortcut to the system

One reason for gum's potential is that our cheeks are remarkably good at soaking things up. In a study published in 2006 in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Danish scientists found that people absorbed nearly three times as much of an antihistamine called loratadine when they chewed it as a gum instead of taking it as a tablet. About 40% of the medicine entered the bloodstream straight through the lining of the mouth — whereas pills have to work their way through the digestive system.

Kamimori and colleagues at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have reported similar results with a caffeine-laced gum named Stay Alert, which was developed for the Army by a company called Marketright Inc. Each stick of the cinnamon-flavored product contains 100 milligrams of the stimulant, about as much as a 6-ounce cup of coffee. Though the caffeine in a cappuccino can take an hour to fully take effect, the caffeine in Stay Alert hits in just a few minutes, Kamimori says. That's about five times quicker than caffeine in capsule form, he adds.

"It's like pouring coffee directly into your bloodstream," he says.

Kamimori's studies have shown that chewing two sticks of Stay Alert for five minutes every two hours during night shifts allows soldiers to remain alert for up to 72 hours, even during overnight drives through the desert. The gum is easy to transport, he says, and stable in cold and heat. A glass of water for swallowing is unnecessary, and gum is far less likely than liquid coffee to send chewers running to the restroom. Those would be welcome features for emergency medical technicians, truck drivers and other night-shift workers.

Marketright won't say if it plans to publicly release Stay Alert. Other caffeinated gums already exist on the market, but they may not have been rigorously tested for their caffeine content or effectiveness, Kamimori says.

A variety of companies are starting to put their money where our mouths are. Last year, Wrigley Co. formed the Wrigley Science Institute to fund studies in labs around the world. Although it may someday add functional gums to its list of research topics, for now, the institute focuses on the benefits of regular gum for oral and overall health.

"What we're learning so far," says Gil Leveille, executive director of the Wrigley institute, "is that the benefits derive from chewing gum — not any particular flavor or form."

Many studies show that chewing gum after meals fights cavities by stimulating the production of saliva, which neutralizes the acid produced by bacteria in our teeth. A 2004 study led by Wu and funded by Wrigley found that chewing the company's Big Red gum cut bad-breath bacteria in the mouth by more than half immediately after it was chewed. (The same would probably be true for other cinnamon-flavored gums, Wu says.)

And an ingredient called xylitol has been shown to add an extra dose of cavity-fighting power. The benefits of that may extend beyond the mouth: A growing body of research suggests that good oral health decreases the risk of heart disease, premature birth and diabetes.

Last February, in a study published in the journal Archives of Surgery, California researchers found that, among 34 people who received colon surgery, those who chewed gum during recovery were able to leave the hospital sooner. Abdominal surgery can stop or slow the workings of the intestines, and people can't usually eat right away. Chewing gum instead may, like chewing food, stimulate the release of gut-healing hormones.

There are mental benefits too, Wrigley's Leveille says. He cites a Chinese study of nine people that found chewing gum boosted blood flow to the brain by as much as 40%. And a Britain-based study on 75 people, published in the journal Appetite in 2002, found that chewers did better in a word memory test.

From a list of 15 words, gum chewers recalled eight or nine words right away and seven words 25 minutes later. Nonchewers and people who pretended to chew remembered six or seven words at first and five words later. Although the scientists don't know the reason, they hypothesize that the act of chewing increases a person's heart rate and delivers more oxygen to the brain.

Weight loss is another hot area of research. People have long claimed that chewing gum helps them avoid snacking, Leveille says, but data are scarce — and conflicting. For example, in a 2006 study published in Appetite, University of Liverpool researcher Dr. Marion Hetherington found that among 60 people, those who chewed gum snacked on 36 fewer calories three hours after a meal and reported craving fewer sweets.

But a soon-to-be-published paper by Purdue University nutritionist Richard Mattes found no such link. In his trial, 47 people chewed gum either when they were hungry, two hours after lunch, or not at all. At the end of the day, all groups had eaten about the same number of calories. "I think this topic is best characterized as understudied," Mattes says.

Could one maybe add something to gum to damp the appetite? Some small brands offer gums with chromium, touted as an appetite suppressant, and British scientists recently received funding to research a hormone called pancreatic polypeptide in injection and gum form. However, even though the body produces the hormone in response to food, there is no scientific evidence to back either one as a weight loss aid, says Gayl Canfield, a registered dietitian at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Aventura, Fla.

Gum, she adds, will never be a magic bullet for thinness.

Even if chewing some gum is good, too much chewing can be harmful. The repetitive stress can worsen pain in people with jaw, or temporomandibular, joint problems, says Dr. Eric Shapira, a spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry. And that's not the only potential problem. Tooth-whitening gum in large doses can irritate the gums, Shapira says. Vitamin C gums can create an acidic environment that wears away tooth enamel. And a kid who chews too much vitamin gum risks iron poisoning.

In the past, the market for so-called functional gum has been finicky. Kelly McGrail, senior director of corporate communications at Wrigley, notes that gums containing nicotine and aspirin have been successful, but an antacid gum released by Wrigley in 2002 quickly exited the scene. The herbal SoBe gums briefly produced by South Beach Beverage Co. met the same fate.

As research continues, however, more consumer and medical products continue to enter the market. Wrigley is marketing a breath-freshening gum with zinc and copper salts, which they say bond with sulphur compounds that contribute to bad breath. Army scientists are working on an antimicrobial gum containing protein fragments that would fight cavities, gum disease and plaque just like toothpaste does.

There are gums with green tea extracts in Asia and potentially bone-strengthening calcium gums in Europe. And there are gums that walk on the wilder side: Bust-Up gum, produced by the Japanese company B2Up, claims to boost breast size with phytoestrogens extracted from the Pueraria mirifica plant. And a company in Mexico sells Sex Gum, Love Gum and Extasy Gum — all laced with a purported herbal aphrodisiac called damiana.

The German company BASF, meanwhile, is producing gum with Lactobacillus — the same bacteria found in yogurt — for fighting tooth decay.

And University of Helsinki researchers have created a gum containing an amino acid called cysteine that may help prevent cancers of the mouth, esophagus and stomach, especially in smokers. When they indulge in their habits, smokers, as well as drinkers, produce acetaldehyde, a chemical that's believed to be linked to digestive tract cancers. The Finnish group's studies show that chewing a cysteine-enriched gum while smoking removes most of the acetaldehyde in saliva.

The possibilities for gum are endless, says USC's Roger Clemens, a spokesman for the Institute of Food Technologists. "It is," he says, "the delivery vehicle of the future." || ||  ||

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[|Liquorice grows up] December 10 2007 [|Chocolate in Beta Testing] December 6 2007 [|Getting Paid to Chew Gum Can Be Sweet, but Also Sour] December 2 2007 [|News briefs: Healthy cocoa and confectionery game] ||  ||   || As with any food item in the stores, each time you look at the gum section, there seems to be a new gum. Many of these new chewing gums are not sugar-free yet they still have aspartame (phe) added to them. It seems to be added to the regular chewing gums that claim "Longer Lasting Flavor". Following is a listing of gums that do and do no As a community [|college] instructor I am on my feet teaching for hours at a time. And since I am often talking with people all day, it is important to me that my breath stays fresh throughout the day, even when I am unable to escape for a moment to brush my teeth in the middle of the day. Dentyne Ice Sugarless Gum by Cadbury Adams is the method I use to keep my breath fresh and my mouth [|clean] throughout the day. While it has long been known that sugarless gum is beneficial for one's oral hygiene, I have found that the Dentyne Ice is perhaps the best sugarless gum on the market, both in terms of its long-lasting flavor and its ability to freshen breath and keep my mouth [|clean] and moist.
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 * [[image:http://www.cmaconline.ca/graphx/gnrl_img/pixel.gif width="3"]]http://www.michigan-pku.org/which_chewing_gum_is_safe.htm || January 3 2008
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 * [[image:http://www.cmaconline.ca/graphx/bottomimg/bottom_img_r3_c1.gif width="760" height="6"]] ||  ||
 *  WinterFresh ||  "Ouch" Bubble Gum  ||
 *  Double Mint ||  Double Bubble  ||
 *  Freedent-all flavors ||  Wrigley's Long Lasting Big Red  ||
 *  Wrigley's Long Lasting WinterFresh ||  Wrigley'g Long Lasting Spearmint  ||
 *  Wrigley's Long Lasting Juicy Fruit ||  Trident Sugarless Cinnamon  ||
 *  Wrigley's Long Lasting DoubleMint ||  CareFree Whitens Teeth Spearmint  ||
 *  Wrigley's Orbit- all flavors ||  CareFree Whitens Teeth Big Bubble  ||
 *  Wrigley's Extra- all flavors ||  Dentyne Cinnamon  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Wrigley's Eclipse- all flavors || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> CinnaBurst  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Juicy Fruit Bubble Tape || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> MintaBurst  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Bubble Tape-Grape and Sour Blue Raspberry, Sour Apple, and Bubble Gum || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Bubblicious- Strawberry Splash and Watermelon Wave  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Stick Free-all flavors || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Bazooka  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Ice Breakers- all flavors || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Crush Bubble Jug Bubble Gum  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> CareFree Koolerz-all flavors || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Sidewalk Chalk Bubble Gum  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Trident Sugar Free-Bubble Gum, Fresh Mint Spearmint and Original flavor || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Razzles Bubble Gum  ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Trident White-all flavors || <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> ||
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Arial, Helvetica"> Ice Breakers Unleashed- all flavors ||

As I mentioned above, I am a community [|college] instructor, and it is important to me that my breath be fresh when I am teaching. Very frequently I will chew a piece or two of Dentyne Ice just before a lengthy three-hour lecture course in order to ensure that my breath is as fresh as possible during my lecture. Aside from not wanting to gross out my front-row students, I have found that having fresh breath is crucial to my overall self-image and self-esteem. This has the effect of causing me to be more confident during my teaching than if I did not chew the gum beforehand. While this is, of course, only one factor amongst many in how well my teaching goes, it is an important factor to me and I find that Dentyne Ice is the [|perfect] solution to my need for fresh breath.

Dentyne Ice is available in several flavors, so most anyone should be able to find a flavor that is suited to his/her individual tastes. The current flavors of Dentyne Ice include "Peppermint", "Arctic Chill", "Spearmint", "Shiver Mint", "Vanilla Chill", "Cool Frost", and "Wild Winter". Of these flavors I find myself gravitating towards the traditional spearmint and peppermint flavors, although I have tried each of the above flavors and have been satisfied with each of them. Each flavor does an adequate [|job] of freshening breath via long-lasting flavor.

t contain phe. This list is accurate as of 3/15/03. I recommend you always check the package each time before purchasing the gum to make sure the

Gum base puts the "chew" in chewing gum, binding all the ingredients together and creating a smooth, soft texture.

Historically, gum base was derived from various natural resins, including sorva and jelutong. Some of these ingredients, however, have become scarce in recent years, and new, synthetic gum base materials have been developed. These new materials allow for longer-lasting flavor, improve the texture, and reduce tackiness.

The Wrigley Company still uses a number of all-natural rosins, or softeners, in the base. Rosin, which comes from pine trees grown in the southern U.S., enhances the texture of the gum base.

 The finest grades of pure, powdered cane and beet sugar sweeten Wrigley's gum. Corn syrup also helps sweeten the gum and keeps it fresh and flexible.

In sugarfree gum, aspartame, mannitol, and sorbitol replace sugar and corn syrup. Aspartame is a highly concentrated sweetener with a taste virtually indistinguishable from sugar. It is formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine, two common amino acids found naturally in many foods. Sorbitol and mannitol are also found in some fruits, although most of the raw material used today comes from corn.

 Glycerin and other vegetable oil products help to blend the ingredients and keep the gum soft and flexible by retaining the proper amount of moisture.

 The most popular flavors for chewing gum in the U.S. are obtained from mint plants. The basic flavor for Wrigley's Spearmint gum is extracted from fresh garden spearmint plants grown on farms in the United States. The main flavoring for Doublemint comes from an extract of peppermint, also an American farm product.

Mint plants must be carefully cultivated for delicate, lasting flavor. After the plants are harvested, they go through a distillation process, which extracts the pure mint oils used in the gum.

Flavorings for the other Wrigley brands are derived from a variety of fruit and spice essences. Wrigley chemists and lab technicians work hard to perfect formulations and ensure the pleasant, long-lasting flavor of Wrigley's chewing gum.

All ingredients are extensively tested by Wrigley to make sure they are completely safe and wholesome. In addition, since chewing gum is classified as a food product, it must meet the strict standards of the United States Food and Drug Administration.More gum facts