During my playing career, I was definitely a pack a day guy. I might go through 10-15 during every nine inning game. Cigarettes? No. Chewing gum.
I wasn’t alone. Look around the league and you’ll see endless examples of dudes chomping while manning their respective positions. It’s just habit for us. For me, it actually goes back even farther. I was thumbing through an old yearbook the other day while cleaning out my storage room and came across a girl who signed my yearbook (sigh) busting my chops for snapping and popping my gum at my desk. It wasn’t allowed in class, but perhaps I was crazy like a fox.
There’s no question that chewing gum is a lot better for you than some of the other traditional vices like chewing tobacco. It certainly offers some benefits. From wired.com
Gum is an effective booster of mental performance, conferring all sorts of benefits without any side effects. The latest investigation of gum chewing comes from a team of psychologists at St. Lawrence University. The experiment went like this: 159 students were given a battery of demanding cognitive tasks, such as repeating random numbers backward and solving difficult logic puzzles. Half of the subjects chewed gum (sugar-free and sugar-added) while the other half were given nothing… Those randomly assigned to the gum-chewing condition significantly outperformed those in the control condition on five out of six tests.
That was me. Up to the plate I roll, chewing like a horse. You think I became a .268 career hitter through sheer pitch recognition? Not a chance. I believe wholeheartedly that chewing gum improved my concentration. That “without any negative side effects” bit though? Not so much.
We know that gum generally has either loads of sugar (say it with me: fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar makes you fat) or, if you get the sugar-free kind, artificial sweeteners. Don’t think that those sweeteners aren’t getting into your system. From Mensjournal.com:
Even though you don’t swallow gum as you do food, you still ingest whatever ingredients come with the wad. “While chewing a piece of gum, you swallow your saliva several times,” Shelke says. “That saliva is a solution of all of the soluble ingredients in the gum.
There are those who trumpet the dental benefits of xylitol and swear by sweeteners like stevia as alternatives to aspartame, sorbitol and countless others. However, these additives may be impacting your waistline more than you would like. From USNews:
In a world without artificial sweeteners, a taste of something sweet preps the brain and the gut for digestion of incoming calories. When the calories don’t show, as happens with artificial sweeteners, those metabolic responses don’t fire the way they should. Insulin doesn’t increase; hormones that increase the feeling of fullness and satisfaction aren’t triggered; and the brain doesn’t get a feeling of reward from the dopamine that sugars release. After a while, Swithers said, it’s like the mouth keeps crying wolf, and the brain and gut stop listening. As a result, when real sugar and real calories come along, the body doesn’t respond to them as strongly as it normally might. Calories don’t end up making you feel as full as they should. They aren’t as rewarding. So you don’t get the signals that might stop you from eating when you should.
You know me. I get something in my head and I end up going mad scientist on y’all. I still adore chewing gum, and I couldn’t stop thinking that there had to be a way to get the mental benefits from chewing gum without putting a lot of artificial stuff into my body. I’m going to try out this recipe and see how it goes.
You’ll want to start with some natural beeswax.
- Place 6 oz of beeswax into a double boiler (or a bowl set on top of a pot filled with about an inch of water) and turn the stove to medium high.
- Melt the wax until it is soft and mostly liquid.
- Add your flavorings. Try peppermint, cinnamon, lemon, or licorice. 5 drops of extract should be enough. Alternatively, you can use fresh, finely chopped herbs (rosemary, mint).
- Pour the wax into small molds (candy molds or ice cube trays work well)
- Refrigerate until hardened, then remove and chew.
I’m going to try this with zero sweeteners, artificial or otherwise, and will likely use fresh peppermint or spearmint for flavor and nutrition. From Harvard Health Publications:
Peppermint is also an age-old herbal medicine that has been used to treat a wide range of abdominal woes, from flatulence to stomach cancer to gallbladder disease. But does it really work? Peppermint has fared a bit better than many herbal medicines in clinical trials. Several studies have shown that peppermint oil seems to be fairly effective at relieving irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a collection of symptoms that includes abdominal cramping and pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.
I’ll get the mental and dental benefits of gum, no sugar or artificial sweeteners, and some helpful benefits for my digestive system. I don’t need sweet, I just need to chew. Boom. You with me?
I know I’m in the minority, but while chewing gum I always felt like a cow chomping grass. Good for the cow, but weird for me.
Like.
Aspartame can get addictive. Love chewing gum , constantly remind myself that overdose is no good in any form . Great post.
Thanks for chiming in, Kenny.
Kap you haven’t steered me wrong yet. I love to try new new foods and recipes (which is kinda the norm when you eat clean isn’t it)……….so he’ll yeah I’m in! I’m gonna make a batch in a few days and I’ll let you know how I did. Happy Memorial Day and be well!
Has anyone made this yet? Just curious how it turned out.
I did it. It turned out awesome! I am actually chewing right now. I added peppermint, thyme, and rosemary extracts, and also xylito because they are all known for anti-tartar properties.
Just this morning I was wanting to chew something – I never chew gum because of the reasons you stated – and here it is – a recipe to try – 10 years ago an occupational therapist told me chewing is very “organizing’ for the nervous system – which I think many of us experience – she would often prescribe it for young, restless students. But who wants to get their kid hooked on artificial sweetners ? I am going to try this – Along with the oil pulling with coconut oil – because who doesn’t
want teeth like Susan Altman 🙂 – Thank you –
THANK YOU for this awesome post and recipe. I want to get away from all the artificial ingredients that may be detrimental to our health.
u r a dingus
kenny u r stupid
U r rude
My son has a chewing habit and actually seems to prefer chewing his crayons to gum, so I wanted to try making wax chews for him instead (those crayons have lots of extra chemicals that I would prefer him not to ingest every day). Thank you tor posting this recipe!
Hey Gabe, love your blog…
(I found it through this thread ‘cos i’m a serious chewer)
I tried your recipe but it fell apart really fast. Did anyone else find this?
However, i’ve discovered that you can buy pure Chicle online now!
http://www.gleegum.com/gum-base-pound.htm
The website is for gum making kits, but you can just buy the raw chicle base, already portioned, at $16 a pound.
has anyone tried beeswax gum?
Tried this recipe and 5 drops of extract isn’t nearly enough flavoring. I will re-melt the wax and add more. Be aware that most beeswax will smell/taste smoky, because the beekeepers use smoke to control the bees in the hives. This will affect the flavor of the gum and will probably require additional flavoring to overcome.
Xylitol is not an artificial sweetener as it occurs naturally in birch wood. The corn version is artificial (has to be synthesized) but it occurs in birch in its natural form. It’s also considerably less sweet than most sweeteners so you can use it for its oral care benefits without triggering a reward stimuli. If you are really worried about it, just take gum after eating meals.
I recently made this recipe and after 2 chews, literally, the gum fell apart in my mouth. Did anyone have success with this recipe???
I went to the craft store for beeswax and found a “coconut and beeswax blend wax” block. I was hesitant to buy it. Will this work just as well, or is the beeswax by itself better?
Thank you! This recipe helped me because I am against plastic and stuff like that, and I just happened to have some beeswax from last project!
This is great. I’m a chocolatier so I’m around a lot of sugar. Having gum with peppermint and no sugar sounds so satisfying. Thank you.