Losing weight can be as easy as walking and chewing gum, literally. Several studies suggest that chewing gum produces a number of effects, psychologically and physically, that can assist people in their quest to shed extra-pounds. The benefits of chewing gum have even resulted in brands to market themselves as a dietary supplement.

Chemical properties found in sugarless gum, sorbitol and xylitol, act as nutritive sweeteners that are slowly metabolized when consumed and, in turn, can suppress appetite. One stick of sugar-free gum contains a negligible amount of calories, which spurs a surplus of advantages. Not only is the mouth preoccupied and taste buds satisfied, the desire to indulge in fatty foods is diminished.

Companies and people constantly experiment with bubble gum flavoring, many would say they should stop meddling. I would say the top spot has to go to Ice Cream, who doesn’t like some delicious bubblegum ice cream? Other things, not so much.

Here are some others:

• Bubble gum flavored soda/cola
• Jelly beans
• Peeps / Chicks marshmallows! Love me some peeps, any time of year, so this is a win
• Toothpaste (not really a food but hey)
• Bubble gum flavored cigars - really bring you back to the kid days!
• Sprinkles for cake toppings (or everything if you love them)
• At one point Mcdonalds created bubble gum flavored broccoli (don’t think that could taste good)

What other foods do you think taste good as bubble-gum?

First off, what is a taboo? This is defined as:

“A social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.”

Culture creates taboos from almost anything these days. So what are some of the major issues with chewing gum? A quick search finds people are appalled at gum chewers in private settings. This can be anything from a workplace environment to a funeral. There are certain situations where it is just rude to chew gum, and I would believe a funeral is top of the list. Who wants to listen to someone smacking lips and loud chew noises in a time of grief. I think the same thing goes for a wedding ceremony, it is a private, quiet time.

If you are like many people, candy is a large part of life. Everyone is aware of the health issues involved, but we keep eating it! So what are a few tips and tricks you can use to wean off of candy?

First step: Ease of access

If candy is prevalent around the home or office, it is going to be eaten. No simple way around this, you need to remove the candy and replace it with sugar free gum (or sugar free candy). The best way is to put the gum in easy to find places - right on top of the counter. Have some in the desk drawer of on top of your desk at work. If there is that lady who has a ton of candy on her desk at the office, see if she is willing to swap it out. A good first step might even be sugar free candy (not the chocolate that many people use). Explain to this person that you are trying to improve your health and their candy bowl is a large trigger so would they like to help you out? Most people are not going to say no. Typically they brought it in for other people so their family doesn’t eat it. A little selfish but that’s life.

Treating ourselves to a piece of bubble gum or a candy bar is one of the things we do mindlessly to satisfy our craving for something with a sweet taste. We do this while carrying out our daily activities, anywhere and anytime.

However, the myth surrounding bubble gum and candy bars is that if it’s too sweet, then it’s no good for your health. Surprisingly, this is not truly the case, because they have been found to have so many positive effects on health and general well-being. Being a connoisseur of chewing bubble gum, I can testify to some of the health benefits that can be derived from pleasing my sweet tooth.

Even with a slow down in global sales, gum products are still going strong. Here are the top products for 2017!

The latest in a trend for delicious and healthy is First Orbit White soft chew:

This is one of the first gums trying to be healthy (in that it cleans your teeth) and be easy to chew. They are still hard to find, but slowly rolling out to stores.

This may seem counter-intuitive to talk about things that are alternatives to this blog, but we want to cover all aspects of “treats”. What other things can you use as a reward instead of candy or chewing gum?

Well turns out there are tons of things!

Here are some of my favorites:

• Have a glass of wine!
• Eat an apple or other fruit that you enjoy
• Don’t forget about vegetables - carrots are a great snack and pretty much calorie free
• Dried fruit is also a great snack option that is healthy too
• Do some “retail therapy” and do some window shopping (only buy something if you need it of course)
• Have a nice cup of Coffee
• Can eat some nuts or other salty treats

Many people chew gum to help with their bad breath, but does it actually change anything or just mask it?

We have all had them, the boss or co-worker that has coffee breath and it’s just painful. Constantly offering them gum doesn’t seem to do the trick. But would it help anyways?

The trick lies in your spit, which is what’s responsible for cleaning your mouth out and keeping things tidy. It also has the benefit of washing bacteria away. So if you have a lack of spit, then you have more bacteria. Gums that have a strong scent are able to cover up the odor, but what they do is help you create more saliva. The more saliva you have, the more ability you have to wash away the smell creating bacteria.

Do you see a future in bubble gum, or candy in general? As children, candy and gum is one of our main life fulfillment’s. We constantly strive to find candy. Kids in this day and age seem to want more complex candy (bars, etc) than the simple one piece items. This many be a huge reason the in store candy vending machines are a thing of the past. How many of those have you seen in the last few years?

It is almost impossible to find the exact number, but there are millions. Each company has their own proprietary mix of flavor profiles, and there are many different chemical combinations to achieve flavor. Did you know bubble gum is a flavor of Pepto-Bismol? Mmmm

Typical flavors include:

• Orange
• Lemon
• Strawberry
• Watermelon
• Cinnamon
• Peppermint
• Grape
• Fruit punch

So how do you go about counting the flavors? Well there are over 48 million results in google which is insane.

If you grew up in the past century (1900 - 1999), you probably encountered gum balls at a store or friend who had a gumball machine. Do they still exist? I can’t say I’ve seen one in a store for quite awhile, but you can still buy them. The vending machine businesses have gone to mostly electronic machines, which means they can take credit cards and serve more items. Sadly this doesn’t leave much room for the old standard gum ball machines.

There are over 175 million people in the U.S. alone that chew bubble gum according to a recent study. The top two flavors are spearmint and peppermint, which makes sense. Many people (author included) like the clean feel from minty flavors.

The top spot for 2019 is Dentyne Ice Sugar-Free Gum

This gum rained supreme during 2016 with an estimated 25 million people chewing it up in the U.S. In 2019 it’s still the top chewing gum thus far, with the top sales ranking on Amazon.

First on the list from child-hood is Beechies gum. This stuff has been around for a very long time (at least the 1940’s):

One of the most memorable gums from the past is candy cigarettes. You felt so cool pretending to smoke these (which we all know is horrible but your kids):

We can’t forget about bubble gum cigars! Bring these out for those special events. The 80’s were full of these and they can still be fun, especially if you are not a smoker:

There is a growing trend to get chemicals out of gum and most candies. This is great for any of us that are health conscious. Who knows what the long term effects are of that stuff. So here is a list of “organic” gum’s that look pretty clean:

Chicza Organic Rainforest Gum:

Sounds pretty interesting, they only have a few ingredients:

Here is a quick tip for everyone who has anxiety and needs some relief:

Chew gum when you’re approaching a situation that would make you nervous like public speaking, meeting a new group of people, or bungee jumping. The psychology behind it is that if we are ‘eating’ something,  our brains trip and it reasons ‘I would not be eating if I were danger. So I’m not in danger’. Has helped calm me a few times. Try not to get a giant piece, then you will look weird with your mouth moving madly. Just get a small piece and go from there.

In mankind’s ongoing love/hate affair with bubble gum the issue of cleaning up unwonted expectorated pieces rages on.  One of the previous blog posts dealt with the issue of removing bubble gum up from your carpet.  This particular post will examine some tips and tricks gathered from around the web on how to clean bubble gum off of your clothes.  As a bonus and almost certainly related issue the technique of how to clean up bubble gum from inside of your dryer will be examined as well.

Chewing gum is awesome for helping you overcome difficult situations, but can chewing gun help you quit smoking? The answer is an emphatic yes it can. Struggling with quitting? Find the right gum for you and start chewing to kill those smoking cravings today.

Smoking is a hard addiction to overcome. There is the addiction to nicotine combined with the psychological addiction to the act of smoking. Both need time and effort to overcome. After smoking for years, the old habit of having something near or in your mouth is deeply ingrained in the mind. Some people resort to junk food to fill these cravings while others try to go cold turkey. Without the stress release, tempers can flare up when trying to quit smoking. Smoker’s rage is real.

How can anyone resist the appeal of a bright globe filled with gumballs? Gumball vending machines are so fun and so successful at pulling people in that they have enjoyed an enduring popularity for over a century.

Vending machines that dispensed gum were first produced around 1871, but those machines were made for sticks of gum. The first machine made specifically to sell round balls of gum was introduced in 1907. The early machines already had the traditional form that we still recognize today: a glass globe above a metal base. The base was originally cast iron, often painted the familiar bright red, and designed to accept the one penny cost of a ball of gum.

There is a new sector of gum in town, its from Trident. It has a few flavors mashed together so you can get different distinct tastes when your chewing it. They last the typical range of gum depending on how quick you chew, around 5-10 minutes per piece. They are very flavorful and worth checking out.

It comes in the following flavors:

What exactly makes up the classic flavor known as bubble gum?  It is certainly a made up flavor as there is no naturally occurring substance from which to reference.  A fairytale combination of chemicals creates the classic taste everyone associates with bubble gum.

So-called bubblegum flavor is a mixture of esters such as ethyl butyrate or ethyl acetate, essential oils such as wintergreen or orange, and flavoring chemicals such as ethyl maltol, maltol, benzaldehyde (cherry), and vanillin (vanilla). Most blends are proprietary and, thus, secret. No one chemical corresponds to bubblegum flavor.

What is the worlds best bubble gum flavor?  Is there such a thing as the worlds best bubble gum flavor?  There are so many factors to weigh in on this decision.  Can a single human being even be conscious-ably tasked with such an endeavor.  Man has walked on the moon so man can discern which bubble gum flavor is the greatest of them all… or can he?  This blog has decided to undertake the great challenge of deciding for the rest of the world which bubble gum will be crowned king of them.

The short answer is there are 187 flavors of gum. This is calculated by the different chemical compounds that can be used in consumer bubble gum. Many scholars have painstakingly spent their careers and intellectual capital attempting to find a response to this question.  This author is no different then those brave bubble gum flavor researching scientists.  The search for the truth behind this question began online.

After years of filtering through bubble gum article after bubble gum related article only a little progress has been made.  The tricky aspect of researching this topic is that nothing except the limits of imagination can hold the boundaries of bubble gum flavor.  The vast array of cultures which have embraced the chewing tradition are numerous and varied.  Some remote corner of the world may have dung beetle flavored gum and not have notified the rest of us.  The point is that researching this topic was difficult and you should be thankful for these findings.