"How Many Calories Do You Burn Chewing Gum?"
Horace Fletcher, proclaimed one of his obituaries in 1919,
taught the world to chew. Also known as the "Great Masticator,"
Fletcher was a health reformer who popularized the idea
of chewing each mouthful more than 32 times--one for every tooth.
It wasn't put to the test, though, until nearly a century later.
People were told to eat pasta until they were comfortably full,
but were randomized to either "chew each mouthful 10 times,"
or "chew each mouthful 35 times" before swallowing.
The subjects were told it was a study about the effects of chewing on mood,
but that was just a ruse.
What the researchers really wanted to know
is whether prolonged chewing reduced food intake.
And those who chewed more felt full earlier than those who chewed less,
such that they ended up eating about a third of a cup less pasta overall.
If chewing in some way suppresses your appetite,
what about chewing gum as a weight loss strategy?
An article entitled "Benefits of Chewing Gum" suggested as much,
but it was written by the executive director
of The Wrigley Science Institute. Let's see what the science says.
Big Gum likes to point to this letter published
in The New England Journal of Medicine back in 1999.
Mayo Clinic researchers claimed gum chewing could burn 11 calories an hour.
Critics pointed to the fact that they didn't really test typical gum chewing,
instead chewing the equivalent of four sticks of gum at a "very rapid cadence."
Specifically, they were instructed to chew
at a frequency of precisely 100 Hertz (hz) for 12 minutes.
That seemed to burn 2.2 calories, hence potentially 11 calories an hour.
One might have had more confidence in the Mayo scientists' conclusion
had they not lacked a fundamental understanding of basic units.
A hundred Hz would mean 100 chews per second,
which would be a very rapid cadence indeed.
If the 11 calories an hour is true, though, that might mean you could
burn more calories actively chewing gum sitting in a chair
than you would not chewing gum, upright at a standing desk.
But chewing one small piece of gum at your own pace
may only burn about three calories an hour,
which would approximate the calorie content of sugar-free gum itself.
But, look, chewing off the calories
of a piece of sugar-sweetened gum might take all day. OK, but what
about the purported appetite- suppressing effect of all that chewing?
The results from studies on the effects of gum chewing on hunger
are all over the place. Some studies show decreased appetite,
some showed no effect, and one even showed significantly increased hunger
after gum chewing among women.
The more important question, though, is:
are there any changes in subsequent calorie intake?
Again, the findings are mixed. One study even found that
while gum chewing didn't much impact M&M consumption,
it did appear to decrease the consumption of healthy snacks.
Ah, but they used mint gum, and the healthy snacks
included mandarin orange slices.
So this may have just been an orange- juice-after-tooth-brushing effect.
It can take an hour before the residual taste effect
of mint toothpaste dissipates. This is bad if it cuts your fruit intake,
but what about harnessing this power against Pringles?
An international group of researchers had people eat Pringles potato chips
for 12 minutes, interrupting them every three minutes
to swish with a menthol mouthwash.
Compared to those in the control groups- swishing with water or nothing at all-
the minty mouthwash group cut their consumption 29%.
The researchers conclude if a consumer finds themselves snacking
on too many chips, one potential strategy could be intervening
by having a peppermint tea, menthol flavored chewing gum,
or brushing their teeth to slow down or stop snacking.
What really matters, though, is weight loss.
Even if some tweak like gum chewing can affect the consumption of a single snack,
your body could just compensate by eating more later in the day.
The only way to know for sure if gum chewing can be used a weight loss hack
is to put it to the test, which we'll cover next.