Chewing gum has been around for a long time – hundreds of years, even, dating back to when ancient peoples chomped on tree resins. But chewing gum hasn’t always been smiled upon. Most schools still don’t allow students to chew gum during school. But can chewing gum actually be good for both your brain and your teeth?
Cleaner teeth
Wish you had a toothbrush on you, but you do have a pack of sugar-free gum? You’re in luck, because chewing gum can actually help between meals, as long as you pick the sugar-free variety. Chewing gum helps your mouth produce more saliva. That’s a good thing, because the saliva does battle against the acid in your mouth produced by plaque bacteria, which forms after we eat. That bacteria can wear down the enamel on our teeth, and that can lead to cavities.
Fresher breath
Sugar-free gum makes your breath nicer, and not just because you might pick a spearmint variety. The saliva your mouth produces when you chew gum can help reduce the effects of dry mouth, which can make breath smell worse.
Chewing Gum can relieve stress
Studies have found that chewing gum while performing tasks can improve various aspects of brain function, including alertness, memory, understanding and decision making.
In one study, people who chewed gum during tests performed 24% better in short-term memory tests and 36% better in long-term memory tests.
Chappies is a brand of bubblegum introduced in South Africa in the late 1940s. Chappies was created by Arthur Ginsburg while working for Chapelat Sweets, a Johannesburg based confectionery manufacturer, as a competitor for the well established Wicks bubblegum.
WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL BUBBLE GUM DAY
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Kids love bubble gum
It’s not just the sweet taste — though sugar-free gum is recommended by dentists — that makes kids love to chew bubble gum, it’s also the bubbles of course. For that matter, bubble gum also lets adults feel like kids when they pop a piece into their mouths and start blowing away.
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It teaches kids about charity
Bubble Gum Day teaches kids the value of charity and of giving to a worthy cause. By requiring a 50 cent donation for the right to chew gum on February 1, kids understand they’re part of a day that is doing some good in the world.
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It’s a reminder about the other days
By allowing kids to chew gum on one school day a year, it reminds them that they can’t on all the other days. For those forgetful kids who might have a tendency to walk in the classroom door with gum in their mouths, memories of Bubble Gum Day just might cause them to deposit that gum in the trash where it belongs.
