A "Bad" Habit That’s Good

Get smart about chewing gum with Dr. Roizen & Dr. Oz.

By Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD
From Reader's Digest
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Q: I chew a pack of gum a day to prevent bad breath and keep me from snacking. Is this unhealthy?

A: Here’s the rap sheet on gum: It may cause pressure headaches or jaw pain, create gas (at either end, unfortunately), sound annoying to people around you and terrorize the bottoms of shoes. But as long as you’re chomping on the sugarless kind, it’s a perfectly fine habit. Why? The sticky stuff often contains xylitol, a sugar substitute that may clear your mouth of bacteria to help prevent tooth decay (especially good for kids), and chewing it even burns a few calories—though we don’t recommend subbing a few sticks of Trident for your gym membership. During times of stress, unleashing pent-up emotions in a low-calorie stick of cinnamon can foster healthy coping and, more importantly, keep you from cramming more dangerous foods into your mouth. After all, if you’re going to have a pack-a-day habit, this is certainly the kind to have.
From Reader's Digest - November 2007
 
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yeah they use aspartame and there have been cases of people who chew more than a pack of gum a day getting bad side effects from the aspartame. Plus chewing gum is a disgusting habbit.

By timmy o truth, on 08/03/2009
The information in this article is no longer true. In.2007 Trident and some other gums did contain Xylitol. In 2008 most gums available in retail stores use Aspartame instead. The only way to learn this is to read the tiny print in the list of ingredients. (Even sugar-sweetened gums have added Aspartame.) A few use sucralose. Many people are "intolerant" of both. They make us sick. The gum producers have no clear explanation for this change from a healthy sweetener to one which makes people sick

By nalla85, on 12/06/2008

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