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.
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.
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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