"chewing gum" news and stories

It's Monday morning, and if you have a lot of work to catch up on or a deadline to meet, consider popping a piece of gum.

There's a new study from Australia that found chewing gum not only raises alertness, it also reduces stress and anxiety. Study participants were subjected to a test called DISS (Defined Intensity Stressor Simulation). The gum chewers also had "significant improvement in overall performance on multi-tasking activities."

The study was done in conjunction with Wrigley, and their Wrigley Science Institute. I'm not discounting the study results, but I also think that's something to keep in mind. What do you think about this study?

Jason Kronenwald likes words that begin with the letter "b" - specifically, blondes and bubble gum. Combine your two passions, and what do you get?

Of course! Portraits of iconic blonde women made entirely out of chewed bubble gum. (Why...what were you thinking? Weirdo.) Kroenwald has minions of gum-chewers at his disposal, but says he prefers Trident when it comes to personal chewing. He claims that there are no paints or dyes used, and that "the mixing of color takes place in the mouth during chewing." Hmm...so kinda like Willy Wonka, then?

Here are a bunch, from Marilyn to Britney.

Creative or cheap? You decide.

via [epi-log]

It's hard to get excited about gum. I mean, really, what can be done with it? You can try a different shape or a different flavor or a new ad campaign ("the flavor never stops!"), but in the end it's something you chew for a while, it starts to not taste that great anymore, and then you throw it away. But once in a great while you find some gum that's a little bit different.

Take Orbit's Lemon-Lime. I can't remember if I've ever had this flavor of gum before (maybe Fruit Stripes had this flavor?), but this is quite good. It's actually refreshing, in a lemon-lime drink sort of way, and you can even squeeze out some intense flavor even late in the chewing game. That's all I really look for in my gum-chewing experience, and Orbit succeeds in a big way.

(Hmmm....Nicole reviewed this a couple of years ago and didn't like it. Oh well.)

You remember: she's the chewing gum fanatic in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who broke a world record by chewing one stick of gum for three months straight. And we're guaranteed that Maurizio Savini would be her hero.

Savini's chewing gum sculptures have getting a ton of press lately, probably less for artistic merit and more for pure gawking value. For the record, all of the gum he uses is un-chewed, and according to a bio on nonprofit art foundation Pastificio Cerere's site, Savini chose gum as a medium for its barrage on our senses and because it reminds him of childhood.

Check out more of his sculptures here, and then give us your opinion.

Ah, one of the eternal questions, right up there with "Do you really have to wait an hour after eating before you swim?" and "How many licks does it take to get the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?"

And now the question is answered at the Scientific American Web site. The old wisdom warned that you shouldn't swallow gum because it takes the body seven years to digest it. But the folks at Scientific American have investigated and the answer is ... after the jump!