The hidden therapy of Chewing Gums

Unnoticed and taken for granted are these little gummy wads, what happens in the mind when you unwrap and pop? (we all know what happens in the mouth, sort of) the involuntary chewing, the delight of creating mini bubbles.  you must be wondering what I’m saying, the crusty gum that got stuck under my shoe is getting a spotlight, well we all know for one, those nylon covered things could be evil  after usage if not properly disposed and we’ve all sat on gum before, not a quite pleasant experience if I recall but you’d be surprised to find out that chewing gum plays a very big unnoticed  role in our somewhat culinary lives, you just haven’t seemed to notice it yet but what we most certainly do not notice is the effects of gum chewing.

Let’s start from the obvious, first of all what is chewing gum (whaaaa??) yes I know, sounds silly chewing gum is mainly made of gum base mainly.

 but do you know that chewing gum after a meal replaces brushing and flossing? And also chewing gum is used in surgery, these gums are not just meant to show you’re in a hippy mood.

Growing up in Nigeria, gums have a very major role in society, you dare not chew gum while in the presence of an elder unless you want to attract a beating and also there’s the legendary ‘sticking of chewing gum on your hair’ by the teacher if you’re unlucky to get caught chewing in class, girls have been tagged as wayward for chewing gum, boys have been tagged as disrespectful. Now I’m sure these aren’t the intentions of the chewers in question but the loud smacking of a girl chewing gum in a certain kind of setting could draw disdainful eyes. If you’re Nigerian, you know our culture and how people can get.

Gums have also been said to improve cognitive skills in academics in classes such as mathematics and physics, there has been noted increase via studies carried out*. also a friend of mine said chewing gum is his instant coffee when in the library.

According to the department of preventive dentistry, university of Zurich the world market for chewing gum is expected to be 560,000 tons per year representing approximately five billion us dollars. You know honestly I was a bit dazzled to discover this, that something so insignificant and unnoticed as chewing gums requires billions of dollars for production, both marketing and funds pulled all round. So next time you pick a pack of Cheetos just give it a little praise, you’re a hero my dear about to be compressed wad of synthetic gooiness.  When you hear chewing gums I know what you picture, a bunch of bratty kids with purple hair fiddling with an iPhone mouth grinding slowly with occasional annoying miniature bubble pops, well get ready to be surprised baby boomer but chewing gums have a history, when I say history I mean ancient history, gums have been dated back to the ancient Egyptians, tree resins were chewed, also by the Mayan Indians and early American Indians, the first patent for a chewing gum was issued to a dentist, doctor W.F Semple and the first commercial chewing gum, state of Maine pure spruce gum appeared in 1848 . why all this history? I’m trying to build a subconscious respect for gums, most of my friends weren’t intrigued to find out I was researching about chewing gums like, off all things? even more importantly the main about to discussed effects off the effects of chewing gum are cognitive. Chewing is mainly an involuntary action and we chew a couple of times a day but the difference is the reason for the chewing, there’s chewing for food which is also termed mastication, this is the most common one we encounter almost every day and there’s other times chewing occurs if you count the noisy sleepers who wake up certain times in the night, to chew dreamy candy.

First of all I wonder, what makes one buy gum? Is it just to satisfy our taste buds? I disagree, because the chewing gums here in Nigeria lose their taste after 2 minutes of chewing, and we know that, yet, still we indulge in this habit, this means we do not chew (though I found out from an article that that’s how gums are mostly worldwide, the flavors dissipate rapidly once put in the mouth, I honestly thought it was a Nigerian thing ) gums effects are actually more neurological than physical, yes there are physical aspects if you notice, like reduction of bad breath and also they are applied by oral health care professionals to provide advice to patents, yes that’s pretty much noticeable. I have a female friend who’s naturally quiet she doesn’t talk much but I noticed that she was always chewing gum so I asked her the reason for that and surprisingly, she told me that there’s a myth that people who don’t speak much tend to develop bad breath, I asked her how true this myth was, she laughed and said she didn’t want to find out, but she feels it’s mainly about getting air in the buccal cavity. The neurological benefits of gum chewing can in a way be linked to listening to music as they are mainly cognitive, I would be listing some of these benefits below (these are the discovered ones, or the ones gotten from various acclaimed studies)

1.       Boosts cognitive skills/focus: it’s been acclaimed that chewing gum increases focus in classes such as math and physics (since I’m a terrible math student I don’t thinks that’s applicable to me, nothing, and I mean nothing in this universe can make me touch a math textbook, not even when my faith is boosted by a pair of Clorets).

2.       Helps or speeds up multi-tasking: eeeh, that’s true. (give me time bomb chewing gum and I can do wonders!)

These are all actually true but I wanted to back up the facts So eventually I carried out a survey to find out the effects of chewing gum on society, or the effects noticed by people and reasons and motives to chew gum, they are shown in the questionnaire below. (note number 3 is mainly culturally influenced and number 5 is not sexist in any way, they are just influenced by factors perceived in Nigerian society, the survey was carried out on whatsapp).

Quite a number of people were given the questionnaire and the responses were pretty surprising, the results would be given in infographs for easier understanding, but here are some of the responses. Both male and female were given the questionare but due to certain reasons the results wont be specified.

here's more

Quite a number of people were given the questionnaire and the responses were pretty surprising, the results would be given in infographs for easier understanding, but here are some of the responses. Both male and female were given the questionare but due to certain reasons the results wont be specified.

Here’s an infograph of the detailed structure of the survey, most females notably gave very interesting comments, but here’s just a total analysis of the results I actualized from the survey.

Here’s an infograph of the detailed structure of the survey, most females notably gave very interesting comments, but here’s just a total analysis of the results I actualized from the survey.