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People have been chewing gum for hundreds of years, lengthy after the flavour fades and with none clear nutritional benefit.
The behavior dates again no less than 8,000 years to Scandinavia, the place individuals chewed birchbark pitch to melt it right into a glue for instruments. Different historical cultures, together with the Greeks, Native People and the Maya, additionally chewed tree resins for pleasure or soothing results, National Geographic recently reported.
Within the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, William Wrigley Jr. remodeled chewing gum from a novelty right into a mass client behavior by means of relentless and progressive advertising and marketing. His manufacturers, together with Juicy Fruit and Spearmint, promoted gum as a technique to calm nerves, curb starvation and keep centered.
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“Are you anxious? Chew gum,” an article from 1916 stated, in line with Kerry Segrave’s ebook, “Chewing Gum in America, 1850-1920: The Rise of an Trade.” “Do you lie awake at evening? Chew gum,” it continued. “Are you depressed? Is the world towards you? Chew gum.”
Ads have lengthy framed chewing gum as a instrument for stress aid and psychological sharpness. (Keystone View Firm/FPG/Archive Pictures/Getty Pictures)
Within the Nineteen Forties, a research discovered chewing resulted in decrease pressure however could not say why.Â
“The gum-chewer relaxes and will get extra work finished,” The New York Occasions wrote on the time concerning the research’s outcomes.
Gum grew to become an early form of wellness, and corporations try to revive that concept as we speak as gum gross sales decline, in line with Nationwide Geographic.
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However solely now are scientists lastly starting to know the biology behind these long-standing beliefs.
Chewing gum might briefly have an effect on consideration and stress-related mind exercise, in line with research. (iStock)
A 2025 overview by researchers on the College of Szczecin in Poland analyzed greater than three a long time of brain-imaging studies to look at what occurs contained in the mind when individuals chew gum. Utilizing MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy analysis, the authors discovered that chewing alters mind exercise in areas tied to motion, consideration and stress regulation.
The findings assist make clear why the seemingly pointless process can really feel calming or focusing, even as soon as the flavour has light.
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Chewing gum activated not solely the mind’s motor and sensory networks concerned in chewing, but in addition higher-order areas linked to consideration, alertness and emotional management, the overview discovered. EEG research discovered temporary shifts in brain-wave patterns linked to heightened alertness and what researchers name “relaxed focus.”
People have chewed gum for pleasure for hundreds of years, in line with studies. (iStock)
“If you happen to’re doing a reasonably boring process for a very long time, chewing appears to have the ability to assist with focus,” Crystal Haskell-Ramsay, a professor of organic psychology at Northumbria College, instructed Nationwide Geographic.
The overview additionally helps earlier findings that gum chewing can ease stress, however solely in sure conditions. In laboratory experiments, individuals who chewed gum throughout mildly aggravating duties comparable to public talking or psychological math typically reported decrease anxiousness ranges than those that did not.
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Chewing gum didn’t, nonetheless, constantly cut back anxiousness in high-stress medical conditions, comparable to instantly earlier than surgical procedure, and it supplied no clear profit when individuals confronted unsolvable issues designed to induce frustration.
Some research recommend chewing gum can cut back stress in gentle conditions however not excessive ones. (iStock)
Throughout a number of research, individuals who chewed gum didn’t bear in mind lists of phrases or tales higher than those that did not, the researchers additionally discovered, and any enhance in consideration light quickly after chewing stopped.
Gum might merely feed the will to fidget, consultants suspect.
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“Though these results are sometimes short-lived, the vary of outcomes … underscores chewing gum’s capability to modulate mind perform past easy oral motor management,” the researchers wrote.
“Nevertheless, right now, the neural adjustments related to gum chewing can’t be straight linked to the optimistic behavioral and useful outcomes noticed in research,” they added.
A 2025 overview analyzed a long time of MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy research on gum chewing. (iStock)
Future analysis ought to handle longer-term impacts, isolate taste or stress variables and discover potential therapeutic applications, the scientists stated.
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The findings additionally include caveats past mind science. Though sugar-free gum might assist cut back cavities, Fox Information Digital has previously reported that dentists warn acids, sweeteners and extreme chewing might hurt enamel or set off different uncomfortable side effects.
Fox Information Digital has reached out to the research’s authors for remark.