I love to gnaw on a good piece of bubble gum.  I tend to hold a lot of tension in my jaw, and having something to keep my muscles moving tends to loosen up the chokehold on my grinding teeth.

The danger in chewing gum is that it can easily become addictive.  Wrigley claims the average American consumes 3,000 sticks of gum a year and that half of us chew gum at least once a day.  Some of us are chewing up to 20 pieces of gum a day!

The danger in the rubber meeting your mouth is that you can actually damage your teeth and jaws with overexertion.  If you’ve ever chewed gum and had your jaw pop — you know the dangers are real and verifiable.

Chewing gum can help clean your mouth after a meal and even help those with dry mouth syndrome cope with the discomfort — but do those benefits outweigh the lurking threat to our health?

We know sugar can kill, but who knew the sugarless replacement was just as deadly?  All sugar-free chewing gum has Sorbitol.  If you chew just three pieces of gum a day, you run the risk of IBS, stomach pain and — in extreme cases — colon cancer.

To chew or not to chew?  That is the sticky question.

4 Comments

  1. Once I read of the dangers of chewing gum, I quit 100% — don’t need my stomach acids being activated unnecessarily. Chewing gum is pleasant but not worth the damage it could do.

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      That’s a good point about the stomach acid, Gordon. It’s also really bad for your fillings. Probably a good idea for America to start the weaning process.

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