Is Your Child Chewing Their Way to Disease? The Hidden Health Dangers of Gum

My daughter loves gum! She would chew it constantly if I let her. Some of you and many people I know are probably rolling your eyes already and saying ‘What’s wrong with her having a little piece of gum!’

Considering I spend a lot of money on organic food and supplements, I wondered what the impact was of all the gum she was chewing.

It couldn’t be that bad right? I mean on Wrigley’s website they say this in their last paragraph…

“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.”

Well, I liked the word ‘wholesome’ - sounds good right? So I looked at the brand she chewed the most the bubble gum - here are the ingredients they list on their site.
Brand Ingredients Nutrition Informatio

Extra Classic
Bubble Gum

Sugarfreen Sorbitol, gum base, glycerol, mannitol, natural and artificial flavors, softeners, maltitol, aspartame, acesulfame K, Red 40 Lake, BHT (to maintain freshness) sucralose, Yellow 6

Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine
FOR EXTRA CLASSIC BUBBLE GUM ONLYn

So what are some of those chemicals?nn*Acesulfame Knthis is a common sugar substitute
Found in: pudding, chewing gum, non-dairy creamers, instant coffee mixes, tea mixes and gelatin desserts. In studies done with animals, Acesulfame K apparently produced lung tumors, breast tumors, and several forms of leukemia and chronic respiratory disease.nn*Aspartame
Found in sugar substitutes and sweeteners in foods and some body products, such as shaving gel and diet sodas.
People who were affected by this chemical, often report dizziness, headaches and even seizures. Long term effects are still unknown.nn*BHA – BHT
Found in canned foods and body products.
This substance is actually banned in other countries because these two preservatives are considered carcinogenic, but they still remain in U.S. manufactured foods that contain oil as they retard rancidity

So…. those ingredients don’t sound so wholesome to me!

What did this doctor have to say about gum chewing?
Why Chewing Gum Is Bad For Your Health

By Dr. Ben Kim on October 10, 2004nn * Health Warnings

If you chew gum on a regular basis, please consider the following:

1. Chewing gum causes unnecessary wear and tear of the cartilage that acts as a shock absorber in your jaw joints. Once damaged, this area can create pain and discomfort for a lifetime.
2. You use eight different facial muscles to chew. Unnecessary chewing can create chronic tightness in two of these muscles, located close to your temples. This can put pressure on the nerves that supply this area of your head, contributing to chronic, intermittent headaches.
3. You have six salivary glands located throughout your mouth that are stimulated to produce and release saliva whenever you chew. Producing a steady stream of saliva for chewing gum is a waste of energy and resources that could otherwise be used for essential metabolic activities.
4. Most chewing gum is sweetened with aspartame. Short and long term use of aspartame has been closely linked with cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders, and birth defects.
5. If your gum isn’t sweetened by aspartame, it is probably sweetened by sugar. Sugar is most likely the single greatest dietary cause of chronic health problems like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and emotional disorders.

The next time you think about chewing gum, please remember the price that your body pays for it.

Well - I suppose all of the companies selling this gum say the ingredients are not harmful - there has to be research that says so.

Then I saw this…
Analysis Shows Nearly 100% of Independent Research Finds
Problems With Aspartame

An analysis of peer reviewed medical literature using MEDLINE and other databases was conducted by Ralph G. Walton, MD, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Northeaste
Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Dr. Walton analyzed 164 studies which were felt to have relevance to human safety questions. Of those studies, 74 studies had aspartame industry-related sponsorship and 90 were funded without any industry money.

Of the 90 non-industry-sponsored studies, 83 (92%) identified one or more problems with aspartame. Of the 7 studies which did not find a problems, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA. Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research.

No conflict of interest there huh?

Now I knew I wouldn’t be buying anymore regular gum. I had to find a substitute -

So, the healthiest chewing gum i could find is Spry at my local health food store. It has less ingredients and there are no chemicals listed above. It is sweetened with Xylitol which is natural as well.
What is Xylitol?

A healthy, natural sweetener

Pure xylitol is a white crystalline substance that looks and tastes like sugar. It is a naturally occurring 5-carbon sugar alcohol found in many fruits and vegetables and produced in small amounts by the human body. For commercial use, it is manufactured from xylan hemicellulose sources such as Birch trees, cane bagasse and corn cobs/stalks. It is the sweetest of the polyols with the same sweetness as sugar (sucrose) but with 40% fewer calories and none of the negative tooth decay or insulin release effects of sugar.

One little piece of gum doesn’t seem like a big deal - but a few a day, packs a week, cases a year - that adds up to too much to ignore!

To Your Health!

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