Healthy Chewing Gum

Healthy chewing gum is a phrase or label (definition) that is not yet in use. We can see it in the USA, but people in the Czech Republic or in Europe do not know about these chewing gums. But you have options to change it. You will find out that healthy chewing gum exists and you will know exactly what to imagine under this term. Chewing itself is a very healthy process. And if you also choose suitable chewing gum – healthy chewing gum, it will have an amplified effect. What do you mean by “healthy chewing gum”? Let’s go!

Healthy Chewing Gum

Only about 5-10% of people know that there are some healthier variants of chewing gum. That is that the rest of the people (90-95%) do not even know that commonly available chewing gum is unhealthy or that some are even harmful to health. How is that even possible? Easily. They contain substances that can have a negative effect on human health. Ingredients are often labeled as substances with the highest degree of harm 5 (or even lower).

Are you chewing healthy? Check the Ingredients of your Chewing Gums

If you don’t care, don’t bring it up. If you’re interested and don’t really believe what I’m writing here, take a little test that will take you a few minutes. Take your gum wrapper, turn it over to the ingredients and start looking for the individual gum ingredients and verify them. Find out how they’re doing health-wise. This can simply be proof of what I am writing about here.

Inspiration for Change

For that reason, I decided to deal with healthy chewing gum. Point you to it and they will offer answers and maybe even inspire you to change your deep-rooted habits. Habits that can unnecessarily harm you or your children in terms of health. I would also like to address those who do not chew at all or those who chew little.

A new Concept of Healthy Chewing Gum

Although healthy chewing gum is a new concept that has been gradually taking shape all over the world for the last 20-30 years and will probably continue to take shape for some time, it is nothing new that hasn’t been here. It just wasn’t named. It didn’t even have to. Healthy chewing gum has been here since time immemorial. Only the increased demand of customers, the increased price of raw materials and the greater demands of production plants have stirred the cards.

Therefore, in the production of chewing gum, substances that improved their properties or reduced the price of the raw materials used began to be used, which was advantageous for the manufacturer. Often with synthetic substances, they were able not only to improve the properties of the chewing gum, to lower the cost of purchasing chewing gum, to cover the constantly growing demand for chewing gum, but also to ensure a more stable availability of raw materials and increase their profits/turnover. Now let’s move on to the essence of this article – the basic types of healthy chewing gum.

Basic Types of Healthy Chewing Gum

For simplicity, I am listing 2 basic types of healthy chewing gum that I think are good to know:

Sugar-free chewing gum with xylitol (only) with a synthetic gum base without other synthetic substances
Natural chewing gum without sugar with xylitol (only) with a natural gum base without other synthetic substances

And why do I define these basic types of healthy chewing gum? This is so that you can easily identify them and make it easier to find and buy them for yourself and your loved ones.

Sugar-free Chewing Gum with Xylitol

You can only consider these gums as healthy gums. If chewing gum is to be healthy, it should be sugar-free [1]. Sugar is ideally replaced with only sugar alcohol – Xylitol. According to xylitol studies [2], it is clearly proven that xylitol has an anti-plaque effect on the tooth surface and can reduce gingivitis. Keep healthy teeth with chewing gum with Xylitol which reduces the growth level of pathogenic Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sangui at very early stages, which helps as a preventive agent against tooth decay.

Xylitol remineralizes tooth enamel and is able to prevent osteoporosis. Xylitol [3] has a similar sweetness to sugar, but 40% lower energy value. Its main advantage is its low glycemic index (GI). This is a huge advantage for diabetics or those who are prone to sugar and have to watch the glycemic index. Classic refined sugar has a GI of 70, while xylitol has a value of just 7. It can also treat respiratory and middle ear diseases thanks to its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory potential and many other beneficial effects.

Other Artificial Sweeteners NO

No other artificial sweeteners should be included in the chewing gum. For example, because xylitol is the only one that has a proven plaque-reducing effect, unlike sorbitol chewing gum [4]. Sorbitol (E420) and Mannitol (E421) are not considered healthy ingredients – they are not suitable for children.

I would consider the first type of chewing gum to be basic. Chewing them should not harm you or your children. They should also not contain substances harmful to health – mostly of synthetic origin, which, although they improve the properties of chewing gum, are not healthy on the other hand.

Avoid these Ingredients

I recommend avoiding these gum ingredients:

aspartame [E951],
acesulfame K [E950],
titanium dioxide [E171],
antioxidants BHA [E320] and BHT [E321],
dye carminic acid (carmine) [E120] and brilliant blue FCF [E133].

Aspartame was declared a potentially carcinogenic substance for humans by the WHO on July 14, 2023. For that reason too, it is advisable to look for Aspartame Free Chewing Gum.

It’s up to you | Health vs. Comfort

A person has to decide if it is more important to him that the taste or consistency of the gum lasts a long time, or if he wants the gum to be healthy from honest ingredients. You then have to accept that the chewing gum will last a shorter time and that after half an hour the structure of the chewing gum may change or partially disintegrate. On the other hand, with healthy chewing gum, the flavors are more pleasant and, how to say, simply natural. And with the all-natural chewing gum, you feel good even if you throw the gum in the trash or even in the compost.

I don’t even need to write about the health aspects – I have already listed them briefly at the top of the post. About the fact that the chewing gum itself increases the flow of saliva, so that the saliva naturally has a better effect on the teeth and gums or improves the conditions from the mouth to the stomach. They increase concentration, concentration, reduce stress and help with depression. They also reduce the appetite for food, even sweets. It is possible to chew and whenever you have a sweet tooth, take a piece of gum instead of a calorie bomb. And many other indisputable benefits that we are happy to mention in other articles about chewing gum, including links to studies that confirm these facts.

Where to buy healthy chewing gum?

These gums are not currently available commonly in supermarkets or small shops. You have to look for healthy chewing gum mostly on the Internet in online stores or you can buy it in pharmacies or health food stores. I recommend that you first study their composition before purchasing. All manufacturers should state the composition of the chewing gum on their products, and with internet search engines (google, bing, list) it is not difficult to see whether the individual ingredients are OK or not from the point of view of harm to health.